I will gladly pay 2$ for this. Thank you so much!
Introducing Opener
11–17 of 17 posts
Re: Introducing Opener
#12This is one of those things that Android got right early on, URLs can have 'open handlers' no matter whether they appear - in an email, on the web or a link to google maps that opens the Maps app from another app. Not only can an Android app register that it handles links for a given domain or scheme, but multiple apps can be available, if say, you've written a better imgur or flickr viewer. But the UX to say "always…
apple doesnt want you replacing apple maps with google maps, or safari with chrome.
Re: Introducing Opener
#13I will gladly pay 2$ for this. Thank you so much!
No, thank you!!
Re: Introducing Opener
#14This is one of those things that Android got right early on, URLs can have 'open handlers' no matter whether they appear - in an email, on the web or a link to google maps that opens the Maps app from another app. Not only can an Android app register that it handles links for a given domain or scheme, but multiple apps can be available, if say, you've written a better imgur or flickr viewer. But the UX to say "always…
Totally agreed, Android does a way better job of this. Opener is a stopgap on iOS, but it would be way better if Apple had a first party fix. Rumor has it there's one coming soon.
Re: Introducing Opener
#15> Why don’t links just open in apps? I am not familiar with iOS but in Android they do, since day one, how is iOS different in that regard?
On iOS a URL scheme needs to be setup usually. (e.g. itms:// links open the iTunes store app). I don't think there's a right way to do this really. Half the time I'm frustrated a link didn't open in the app and the other half I'm frustrated it didn't just open in the browser.
You're correct, iOS apps can only handle schemes but now whole URLs. On Android, the system can intercept any URL and pass it to the app (http://instagram.com/blahblahblah goes to the Instagram app, for example), which means web URLs can open in apps instead. On iOS, you must use a dedicated scheme, which means links from the web don't play nice with apps.
Opener attempts to fix this by mapping web links to app-specific links.
Re: Introducing Opener
#16How does it compare with http://applinks.org/ ?
App Links is an "open" solution from Facebook that's poorly adopted by developers. Opener is a solution intended directly for end users that doesn't rely on developer to adopt some standard. Developers usually won't adopt something like App Links, but end users still want to open links in apps. I wrote Opener to fill the gap :)