README

Redirect users to your mobile app using deep links, with safe fallbacks to Play Store / App Store or a web URL. Includes endpoints for Android Digital Asset Links and Apple App Site Association.

Requirements

PHP >= 8.0
Laravel 9.x / 10.x / 11.x / 12.x

Install

composer require mr-swapan/applinks

The service provider is auto-discovered by Laravel.

Publish config & migrations

php artisan vendor:publish --tag=applinks-config
php artisan vendor:publish --tag=applinks-migrations
php artisan migrate

Configuration

This package reads configuration from config/applinks.php (and the corresponding .env variables).

Core

APPLINKS_PREFIX (default: applinks/*)
APPLINKS_WEB (default: true)
APPLINKS_WEB_URL (default: empty; falls back to your app URL)
APPLINKS_DOMAIN (optional; reserved for your associated domain value)

Android

APPLINKS_ANDROID (default: true)
ANDROID_PACKAGE (example: com.example.app)
ANDROID_SHA256_CERT_FINGERPRINT (your app signing SHA-256 fingerprint)
ANDROID_PLAYSTORE_URL (example: market://details?id=com.example.app)

iOS

APPLINKS_IOS (default: true)
IOS_TEAM_ID (your Apple Team ID)
IOS_PACKAGE (your app bundle id)
IOS_APP_CUSTOM_LINK (example: com.example.app://applinks)
IOS_APPSTORE_URL (your App Store URL)

What routes does it add?

Routes are loaded from routes/web.php:

/.well-known/assetlinks.json and /assetlinks.json
/.well-known/apple-app-site-association and /apple-app-site-association
/applinks/{any?} (main redirect endpoint)
/applinks_save_device_info (internal helper)
/get_app_link_parameters (returns latest captured query params)
/js_editor (simple JS eval page; do not expose publicly)

Creating an applinks URL

The package registers a singleton named applinks (class: MrSwapan\Applinks\Services\ApplinksService).

Example (controller, job, etc.):

$url = app('applinks')->create([
    'campaign' => 'summer',
    'user_id' => 123,
], webUrl: 'https://example.com/fallback');

This generates a URL like:

https://your-domain.test/applinks?campaign=summer&user_id=123&web_url=https%3A%2F%2Fexample.com%2Ffallback

When a user opens that link:

Android: redirects to ANDROID_PLAYSTORE_URL and appends &referrer=<id> (where <id> is stored in applinks_data)
iOS: tries to open IOS_APP_CUSTOM_LINK with the same query params; after ~30 seconds it falls back to IOS_APPSTORE_URL
Other devices: redirects to web_url query param, or APPLINKS_WEB_URL, or your app URL

App association files

Android (Digital Asset Links)

Open /.well-known/assetlinks.json on your domain and verify it returns your:

ANDROID_PACKAGE
ANDROID_SHA256_CERT_FINGERPRINT

Android app configuration (required)

Add an intent-filter for App Links (Android 6.0+).

In your AndroidManifest.xml (inside the Activity you want to open):

<activity android:name=".MainActivity">
    <intent-filter android:autoVerify="true">
        <action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW" />
        <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
        <category android:name="android.intent.category.BROWSABLE" />

        <!-- Use your real domain -->
        <data
            android:scheme="https"
            android:host="your-domain.com"
            android:pathPrefix="/applinks" />
    </intent-filter>
</activity>

Notes:

android:autoVerify="true" asks Android to verify the domain ownership using /.well-known/assetlinks.json.
android:pathPrefix="/applinks" should match your redirect path (default is /applinks/...).

Get your signing certificate SHA-256 fingerprint and set it as ANDROID_SHA256_CERT_FINGERPRINT.

Common ways to obtain the SHA-256:

From Play Console (App Integrity / App signing)
From your keystore using keytool (debug or release keystore)

Ensure HTTPS is used for your domain and that /.well-known/assetlinks.json is reachable publicly.
Handle incoming links in your app.

When the app is opened by an App Link, it receives the URL via the Activity intent data. Parse the query string to get the parameters you attached (e.g. campaign, user_id, etc.).

iOS (Apple App Site Association)

Open /.well-known/apple-app-site-association and verify it returns:

IOS_TEAM_ID.IOS_PACKAGE
an applinks component pointing to your APPLINKS_PREFIX

iOS app configuration (required)

Enable Associated Domains capability in Xcode.

In your app target:

Signing & Capabilities → + Capability → Associated Domains

Add your applinks domain entry:

Add an entry like:

applinks:your-domain.com

Ensure apple-app-site-association is served correctly.

This package provides:

/.well-known/apple-app-site-association
/apple-app-site-association

Notes:

The response must be served over HTTPS.
Apple expects no redirects for the /.well-known/... path.

Handle Universal Links in the app.

Implement handling for the incoming universal link URL and parse the query parameters you attached.

iOS fallback behavior in this package

If the request is detected as iOS, this package returns a small HTML page that:

Attempts to open IOS_APP_CUSTOM_LINK with the same query string
After ~30 seconds falls back to IOS_APPSTORE_URL

Set these values:

IOS_APP_CUSTOM_LINK (your app’s custom URL scheme link, example: com.example.app://applinks)
IOS_APPSTORE_URL (your App Store page URL)

License

MIT

mr-swapan / applinks

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