A practical checklist for deep linking
The advice here is unglamorous, which is probably why it gets skipped. Run through this the next time deep linking comes up.
You do not control the device, the network, or the operating system version, and the design has to accept that. The version that survives contact with a real deadline is the simple one.
The checklist
- Every shareable screen should have a URL
- Broken links from email and ads waste real spend
- Test the case where the app is not installed
- Someone is named as the owner
- There is a date to review it again
What it costs to ignore
Every shareable screen should have a URL. The teams that handle this well are rarely the ones with the biggest budgets. The teams that stay on top of it are the ones who put it on a calendar rather than a wish list.
How to tell if yours is fine
The version of the app your customers are running is rarely the one you just shipped. Three things worth confirming about deep linking before you move on:
- Someone can say what the current setup is without going to look
- Broken links from email and ads waste real spend — and you know whether that is true here
- There is a way to tell whether the last change to this helped
Worth checking on your own setup before it becomes someone else's problem to fix.