Can Google App Indexing work with special characters in the url? (acutes áéó..)

Question

I'm trying to implement google app indexing into my apps. It works perfectly with almost all my sections but it fails with a section of my app which name is: Sección con acentos áéó

I add this into my html web for testing the deep linking:

<a href="android-app://com.example.launcher/http/section/Sección con acentos áéó">Sección con acentos áéó</a>

When I press the link on the html, my app is being successfully opened but the intent filter is not being called correctly because I can't receive the data body with "Sección con acentos áéó"

I tryed using a URL Encoded link with Secci%C3%B3n%20con%20acentos%20%C3%A1%C3%A9%C3%B3 but same problem

Google App Indexing deep linking has limitations with special characters?

Answer 1

Google App Indexing deep linking has limitations with special characters?

No, it doesn't have any limitation with special characters.

I tried with both your URL and also with the URL generated by the official Test Your App Indexing Implementation page:

android-app://com.example.launcher/http/section/Sección con acentos áéó
android-app://com.example.launcher/http/section/Secci%C3%B3n%20con%20acentos%20%C3%A1%C3%A9%C3%B3
intent://section/Secci%C3%B3n con acentos %C3%A1%C3%A9%C3%B3#Intent;scheme=http;package=com.example.launcher;end

Every URL successfully opens the app and the data contained in the intent is:

http://section/Secci%C3%B3n%20con%20acentos%20%C3%A1%C3%A9%C3%B3  

Once received the intent you need to use URLDecoder.decode to decode the URL:

@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

    Intent intent = getIntent();
    if (intent != null) {
        Uri data = intent.getData();
        if (data != null) {
            String uri = data.toString();
            Log.d(TAG, "URI: " + uri);

            String decodedUri = null;

            try {
                decodedUri = URLDecoder.decode(uri, "UTF-8");
            } catch (UnsupportedEncodingException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            }

            Log.d(TAG, "DECODED URI: " + decodedUri);
        }
    }
}

This is the obtained result:

com.example.launcher D/MainActivity: URI: http://section/Secci%C3%B3n%20con%20acentos%20%C3%A1%C3%A9%C3%B3
com.example.launcher D/MainActivity: DECODED URI: http://section/Sección con acentos áéó