Does branch.io links work on facebook?

Question

Links created using branch.io when shared on Facebook; they do not open App or Default browser rather they are opened in facebook's webview.

Is there any custom setting that we need to do; so link gets opened on App if available or in default browser when app does not exists.

Answer 1

The default behavior of any link Facebook is to open the link in the Facebook webview. Unfortunately, there is no way to change this behavior.

Although, as a workaround, you can use Branch Deepviews to open your app from Facebook. The behavior would be as follows:

1. Share the Branch link for your app on Facebook
2. Click on the Branch link from the Facebook App
3. This will open the Branch Deepview in the Facebook's webview with an Get/Open in App button
4. Clicking on the button should redirect you straight to your app.

You can activate Deepviews for:

1. The entire app: By visiting the Deepview page on the Branch dashboard here and enabling a particular Deepview.

2. For a Branch quick link: By setting the iOS/Android redirect to Deepviews as shown below:

3. For any other Branch link: By adding the $ios_deepview and $android_deepview parameters to the links.

For more information, refer to Branch's documentation on expected link behavior here and on Deepviews here.

Answer 2

Recently I faced similar issue, It doesn't work for facebook by default. We have to handle it.

I handled it to navigate inside the app on deeplink data, all I had to do was set parameters in branch link property $deeplink_path.

We will get this data as part of url and need to parse and get data inside Appdelegate's openURL methods. Add navigation logic inside OpenUrl methods.