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Currently, Safari shows a banner like this for websites that can be opened in external apps.

Orion does not support this. This feature makes it easy to open websites in their dedicated apps, leading to a more fluent user experience. Apps such as GitHub, Reddit, and Yelp have this feature.

One common example for me is to find an interesting-looking GitHub repository in a browser, then tap that banner to see it in the GitHub mobile app.

Sites that support this ("Universal Links") have a file called apple-app-site-association at the root level, at https://DOMAIN.NAME/.well-known/apple-app-site-association. For example, reddit's is https://www.reddit.com/.well-known/apple-app-site-association

It seems like these aren't directly queried by the browser. Instead, apple's CDN queries them. I'm not entirely sure how Safari grabs the universal link info, but i know that one way is via the https://app-site-association.cdn-apple.com/a/v1/DOMAIN.NAME endpoint. Reddit's is https://app-site-association.cdn-apple.com/a/v1/reddit.com

The text in there looks like JSON, and follows this format: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/bundleresources/applinks#Overview

Safari likely caches these files to avoid unnecessary GET requests.

  • Vlad replied to this.

    Vlad
    I was able to get the banner on Safari on iOS18.1.1 when viewing https://www.github.com
    Initial banner (the Github app is not installed on my phone)

    Tapping Get starts the installation process without taking me to the app store.

    Once the installation finishes, the Open button appears and it can be tapped to open the app.

        Vlad

        This is an image from bartleby on discord, showing Arc's mobile browser supporting the feature

            17 days later

            VA Video Connect is an application like Zoom specifically for VA appointments. You can either use it on the web page or open it in an installed app. Safari offers to open; see screenshot. It would help if Orion Mobile did the same. Currently, I have to copy the link from my text messages and open Safari to get in.

            (Yes, the VA app is terrible; you can not directly join an appointment. You must use the link and open it from the browser popup.)

            I would be happy to share a link with the devs privately, but I won't post here as I
            am not sure about the privacy of the link.

              i remember seeing similar ask for github, can you find it so we can merge?

                Merged 3 posts from Open VA Video Connect App.
                  2 months later
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