What is deep linking?

What is deep linking? It's using a link to send someone to one set place inside an app, like a profile, a video or a chat, instead of the app's home screen or a website. If the app isn't installed, a well-made deep link opens the matching web page instead. You don't need an app of your own to use them: the big apps' ordinary links already work this way.

That last part surprises people. When you share instagram.com/yourname, you're already sharing a deep link. Tapped from Messages or the phone's browser on a phone with Instagram, it opens the app on your profile. The trouble usually isn't the link. It's where the link gets tapped, which is where linkboo comes in, further down.

what is a deeplink and how does it work?

Deep link, deeplink and deep-link all mean the same thing. Here's what happens when someone taps one on a phone:

1. The app's website vouches for the app. It publishes a small file that names its app. "Only you can store this file on your server," Apple says, and that's what stops another app from claiming your links (Apple: Allowing apps and websites to link to your content).
2. The phone remembers. When the app is installed, the phone checks that file.
3. The tap. When someone taps a matching link, the phone sends it "directly to your app without routing through the person's default web browser or your website", in Apple's words. If the app isn't installed, the link opens "in their default web browser" instead.

Android works the same way. Google calls these app links, and with them, people who don't have the app "go to your website instead — no 404s, no errors" (Android Developers: About App Links). Apple calls them universal links. The technical differences, and an older kind that uses the app's own scheme name instead of https, are in app link vs deep link vs universal link.

A real one: Telegram's FAQ says opening a t.me/username link on a phone starts the Telegram app and opens a chat with that person (Telegram FAQ).

deep link vs regular link

The line between them is blurrier than the table makes it look. Many deep links today are regular https links. The same address is a web page on a laptop and an app screen on a phone that has the app. Nothing in the link changes; the phone decides.

the three types of deep linking

The names below come from the companies that sell deep-linking tools, not from Apple or Google, but you'll see them everywhere.

• Direct deep links (also called basic or default). "The simplest type, a direct deep link, will open your app if it's already installed," as Adjust puts it (Adjust: What is deep linking?).
• Deferred deep links. Someone without the app is sent to the app store, and "when that user installs and opens up the app, they can still be sent to the in-app location where you initially wanted them to land" (Adjust, same page).
• Contextual deep links. These carry information along with the person, such as "where they were referred from, who referred them, or which promotion code they want to apply" (Branch: Contextual deep linking).

Apple's and Google's own links do the first type. The other two need more on top, often a vendor's kit built into the app.

real-world deep linking examples

• A Telegram chat. t.me/username opens a chat in the Telegram app (Telegram FAQ).
• An Instagram DM. ig.me/m/username sends someone to a new or existing message thread with that account. Meta notes these links "are currently not supported on Instagram Web" (Meta for Developers: ig.me links).
• A Facebook or Messenger profile. Your Facebook username sets both facebook.com/username and m.me/username (Facebook Help Center: Find or change your username).
• A YouTube channel. A channel's handle URL looks like youtube.com/@name, and YouTube says older channel URLs now redirect to it (YouTube Help: Understand your channel's URLs).
• Apple's own apps. iPhones send "well-known http-based URLs to specific apps such as Maps, YouTube, and Music" (Apple: Defining a custom URL scheme).
• A QR code. The iPhone camera reads QR codes "for websites, apps, coupons, tickets, and more" and shows a link to tap (Apple iPhone User Guide: Scan a QR code).

The address to use for each of the ten big social apps, profiles, posts and messages included, is in links that open Instagram, TikTok and 8 more apps.

do I need my own app to use deep links?

No, unless the link should open an app you own. If you're a creator, a shop or a coach, the apps you send people to have already done the work. Their ordinary web addresses are the deep links. You'd only need your own setup if the destination were your own app, and then you'd follow the universal link and app link guide.

What you can't control is where your link gets tapped. Inside apps like Instagram and TikTok, a link opens in the app's own browser, not the phone's. That app decides whether a deep link may leave it. TikTok's help says it "no longer supports links that open or log you into other social media apps" from profiles (TikTok Support: Adding a website link to your profile). And inside that browser, fans aren't signed in to the sites they use, so checkouts and sign-ups stall. Why you're logged out after tapping a link in Instagram explains why.

This is where linkboo fits. It's web pages only: there's no app to build and nothing to install. linkboo calls the fix "deeplinking". On Pro, linkboo's deeplinking gets fans out of the app's browser and into their own. In some apps their browser opens by itself; in others they press and hold one button. Your linkboo page opens there, where they're already signed in to the sites they use, their saved cards fill in, and Apple Pay or Google Pay are there where the checkout offers them. From there they tap the link they wanted. A Free page opened inside an app stays in that app's browser.

claim your link →

where deep links stop working

• No app, no web page. Older deep links that use the app's own scheme name have no website behind them, so with no app installed the tap goes nowhere.
• Typed, not tapped. On an iPhone, typing an address into the browser's address bar "will never open the app" (Apple TN3155: Debugging universal links).
• An old choice. If someone long-presses a link and picks the browser, that becomes their default for that site until they long-press and pick the app.
• Inside another app. As above, the app hosting the browser decides.

the future of deep linking in 2026

• Firebase Dynamic Links is gone. Google shut it down on 25 August 2025, and its links now return a 404. Google points app makers to app links and universal links, and to third-party providers for the rest (Firebase: Dynamic Links deprecation FAQ).
• Android is stricter about web links. Since Android 12, a web link opens an app only if the app is approved for that site; otherwise it opens in the default browser (Android 12 behavior changes).
• Android 15 adds Dynamic App Links, which let an app's maker change which links open the app from their server, without an app update (Android Developers: App Links).
• Apps are guarding their browsers. TikTok limits how people browse "external link chains" inside its in-app browser and may suggest opening the page in the phone's own browser instead (TikTok Support, same page).

For creators, that last trend matters most. The links themselves are fine; the app they're tapped in is the problem. Why Instagram and TikTok links lose sales follows that through to what it costs.

related reading

• app link vs deep link vs universal link, for the technical detail
• the Instagram in-app browser and why links break there