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iosiphonehreflaunch

Can you launch **any** phone app from a web link?

Im making a phone automation system with a web interface. As part of this I am looking to replace all remote controls (tv media center etc) with my phone.

I have a Roku media player that has a remote control iOS app, what I am trying to do is to launch the Roku native phone app from my web interface.

I know it is possible to launch apps via href such as this:

<a href="fb://profile">Launches native FB app</a>

But I have tried both these which fail

<a href="roku://">Fails to launch native 'Roku' app</a>

<a href="ROKU://">Fails to launch native 'ROKU' app</a>

So I have two main questions:

  1. Is it possible to launch any app from a web link, or does the app developer need to enable that function in some way?

Answer - Yes the app developer will need to set a url schemer

  1. Is there a way to determine the URL you would need to launch an app IE the Facebook app can be launched by fb:// but can you determine that anywhere?

Answer - There is a link to multiple URL schemers for popular apps below but my understanding is that the app developer would need to release them

Thanks

JS Fiddle just in case - https://jsfiddle.net/0znc12bs/

Update - as a point of reference I am not developing an app this is a web service trying to connect to apps I didn't author.

Update2 - I have been in touch with Roku support and their remote app currently doesn't support deep linking.

Solution

  • To open the app from the web url the app developer need to set the id (deep linking) setting and URL Schemas in the app

    For the famous app you can find the deep linking url from the net,from that you can make your list to open the app
    else you can find on it's site if they have written that

    List of sites which can provides some list of url schemas which you can use to open app from the web :https://stackoverflow.com/a/11155918/4557505