How can I programmatically determine if a URL is a Universal Link or just a regular web URL?

Question

On iOS, how can I programmatically determine if a URL is a Universal Link or just a regular web URL?

Let's say you are about to launch the URL http://www.yelp.com from your own iOS app. (http://www.yelp.com is a fully registered universal link.)

Case one) the user doesn't have the app installed -> You want to show them the website in an IN-APP webview.

Case two) the user does have the app installed -> You want to launch out of your app and deep link directly to the the yelp app by using [[UIApplication sharedApplication] openURL:URL]; instead of presenting a webview in app.

Here is the problem: All you get to work with is the string url: "http://www.yelp.com" Your goal is to launch out to the yelp app if installed but present an in-app webview if yelp is not installed.

Note 1: This question is only about universal links. Please do not give answers which use URL Schemes.

Note 2: This question is not about specifically launching the yelp app. The solution should work for any url to determine if it is a universal link of an installed app.

Can you do this?

Use canOpenURL method to check if URL’s scheme can be handled by the system, if it can't (yelp app not installed), then display webview screen. — nsinvocation, Jan 10 '17 at 22:22
In what case will canOpenURL return false for the given url `http://www.yelp.com` ? (There is no scheme being discussed in this question, btw) — Andrew Paul Simmons, Jan 10 '17 at 22:24

score 12 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 17 '17 at 19:24

Detect if a link is universal using UIApplicationOpenURLOptionUniversalLinksOnly

Following is the solution:

[[UIApplication sharedApplication] openURL:url
                                       options:@{UIApplicationOpenURLOptionUniversalLinksOnly: @YES}
                             completionHandler:^(BOOL success){
                                 if(!success) {
                                     // present in app web view, the app is not installed 
                                 }
                             }];

This won't work if called by the app which is also the destination for the universal link. — damirstuhec, Nov 30 '21 at 12:52

Salih · Answer 2 · 2019-02-05T11:18:50.637

I resolved this issue with my Swift 4 class below. It also uses embedded Safari Browser if possible. You can follow a similar method in your case too.

import UIKit
import SafariServices

class OpenLink {
    static func inAnyNativeWay(url: URL, dontPreferEmbeddedBrowser: Bool = false) { // OPEN AS UNIVERSAL LINK IF EXISTS else : EMBEDDED or EXTERNAL
        if #available(iOS 10.0, *) {
            // Try to open with owner universal link app
            UIApplication.shared.open(url, options: [UIApplication.OpenExternalURLOptionsKey.universalLinksOnly : true]) { (success) in
                if !success {
                    if dontPreferEmbeddedBrowser {
                        withRegularWay(url: url)
                    } else {
                        inAnyNativeBrowser(url: url)
                    }
                }
            }
        } else {
            if dontPreferEmbeddedBrowser {
                withRegularWay(url: url)
            } else {
                inAnyNativeBrowser(url: url)
            }
        }
    }
    private static func isItOkayToOpenUrlInSafariController(url: URL) -> Bool {
        return url.host != nil && (url.scheme == "http" || url.scheme == "https") //url.host!.contains("twitter.com") == false
    }
    static func inAnyNativeBrowser(url: URL) { // EMBEDDED or EXTERNAL BROWSER
        if isItOkayToOpenUrlInSafariController(url: url) {
            inEmbeddedSafariController(url: url)
        } else {
            withRegularWay(url: url)
        }
    }
    static func inEmbeddedSafariController(url: URL) { // EMBEDDED BROWSER ONLY
        let vc = SFSafariViewController(url: url, entersReaderIfAvailable: false)
        if #available(iOS 11.0, *) {
            vc.dismissButtonStyle = SFSafariViewController.DismissButtonStyle.close
        }
        mainViewControllerReference.present(vc, animated: true)
    }
    static func withRegularWay(url: URL) { // EXTERNAL BROWSER ONLY
        if #available(iOS 10.0, *) {
            UIApplication.shared.open(url, options: [UIApplication.OpenExternalURLOptionsKey(rawValue: "no"):"options"]) { (good) in
                if !good {
                    Logger.log(text: "There is no application on your device to open this link.")
                }
            }
        } else {
            UIApplication.shared.openURL(url)
        }
    }
}

How can I programmatically determine if a URL is a Universal Link or just a regular web URL?

2 Answers2