One of the best kept secrets in mobile marketing is that all of the popular social media apps use well-defined URL address “schemes” for key pages inside the mobile apps. These app URL schemes are typically defined for enabling app-to-app communication. But they are also used by savvy marketers to transform ordinary mobile web and email links into powerful app deep links and QR codes. Why does that matter? Studies show that most mobile users who click mobile links on their device have those apps installed. Deep linking directly into those apps means removing all the web login friction from your mobile marketing experience, which we all appreciate as mobile consumers!
Here is our list of the 10 most popular social apps with free deep link scheme and QR code support for mobile marketers. You can use these app URL schemes to instantly create streamlined mobile experiences that accelerate growth of followers, views, sales, engagement, and more. Nice! If your brand has a presence on these sites or apps, consider building your own free deep linking tools, or using platform alternatives that let you easily link iOS and Android consumers into these app pages for an optimized experience. (Each scheme below links to the URLgenius platform’s free deep link generator index where you can find more schemes for the apps below, and thousands more.)
- Store: com.amazon.mobile.shopping.web://amazon.com/[id]
- Product: com.amazon.mobile.shopping.web://amazon.com/dp/[id]
- Category: com.amazon.mobile.shopping.web://amazon.com/gp/[id]
- Page: fb://page/?id=[id]
- Group: fb://group/?id=[id]
- Event: fb://event/?id=[id]
- Marketplace: fb://marketplace_product_details?id=[id]
- Channel: vnd.youtube://user/[id]
- Video: vnd.youtube://www.youtube.com/watch?v=[id]
- Profile: instagram://user?username=[id]
- Hashtag: instagram://tag?[id]
- Profile: snssdk1233://user/profile/[id]
- Video: snssdk1233://vm.tiktok.com/video/[id]
- Music: snssdk1233://music/[id]
- Profile: snapchat://add/[id]
- Lens: snapchat://unlock/?type=SNAPCODE&uuid=[id]
- Profile: twitter://user?screen_name=[id]
- Query: twitter://search?query=[id]
- Share: twitter://post?[id]
- Hashtag: twitter://hashtag/[id]
- Profile: pinterest://user/[id]
- Pin: pinterest://pin/[id]
- Channel: fb-messenger-public://user-thread/[id]
- Profile: linkedin://company/[id]
December 11, 2012
At the very least the linkedin:// scheme does not work anymore!
December 11, 2012
Thanks for the comment Michael. LinkedIn’s URL scheme has always been a bit frustrating and finicky … and varies by platform. In our tests, the LinkedIn URL Scheme does work (currently) on iPhone 4/5 and iOS6 in general, but not on Android, sadly. The good news is that for iOS users, LinkedIn has enabled deep-links to connect users directly to your LinkedIn profile, say via a QR code, using the following protocol: linkedin://profile/{id} where id = your personal ID not a company ID. This is promising news and I’m glad LinkedIn decided to use a similar convention as Facebook for allowing deep mobile links. Thanks again!
February 1, 2013
This is the first time I see Pinterest url scheme that is not “pintint12″.
I tried it and it does open the App. But what are the parameters it uses? How do I point to a specific board or user?
Didn’t find any information on google.
February 1, 2013
Thanks for the comment Yariv. Glad you find it useful! Pinterest has one of the more intuitive and better designed URL schemes around. Basically you can append the mobile web page URL pathway to the pinterest:// url scheme and the deep link just works (in most cases).
To deep link a specific pin, the URL scheme to use is pinterest://pin/{id]/ For example, pinterest://pin/148759593912957064/ links to a pin on my board.
To deep link to a user, it’s pinterest://user/{handle}/ For example, pinterest://user/bsklais deep links to my profile.
Pinterest does not seem to support deep-linking into a user board. You’ll see that trying pinterest://user/{board-name} or even just pinterest://{board-name} generate app errors.
Good luck!
February 22, 2013
Can you share how you created the shortened URL for Facebook’s App URL Scheme?
I want to create a link where I can direct users from an Android application to our Facebook page.
Thanks.
September 3, 2014
Where did you find documentation on Groupons url scheme? I cant find ANYTHING about it on google or in the groupon api docs
June 16, 2016
Thanks for your question! Here are the steps:
!) Create a URLgenius account here: https://app.urlgeni.us/signup
2) Login and then cut and paste the Yelp URL into the URLgenius box
3) Select “Compose”
You will then be provided with a URLgenius link to that Yelp profile which includes the reviews.
Here’s an Yelp URL example: http://www.yelp.com/biz/everyman-espresso-new-york
Here’s the updated URLgeni.us link: http://urlgeni.us/yelp/everyman-espresso-new-york
Try the URLgenius link from your mobile device and it will open the Yelp app to that profile page which contains the reviews.
November 22, 2016
In my case, the links appear with an “unsafe” before the link and doesn’t work 🙁
Anybody help?
November 22, 2016
Hi João,
Send us an email at info@urlgeni.us and included your profile link in the email and we’ll take look.
Thanks!
January 22, 2018
The product is very very good. Very good work . I use it for a youtube videos . But i wanted one link that if the users doesnt have the youtube app on the mobile he automatically open the video on the browser ? Is that possible? Thankyou so much again!!
January 24, 2018
Hi Bahri – yes that’s exactly right. If the user does not have the YouTube mobile app installed on their device URLgenius will immediately be routed to the YouTube mobile website. See this blog post ont he topic. https://app.urlgeni.us/blog/youtube-deep-linking If you still have questions email us at: info@urlgeni.us Thanks for using URLgenius!
October 2, 2020
A widely known CPG company is promoting its green product initiatives through an integrated, Omni-channel mass marketing campaign that features a branded video. More than 50% of the clicks have been from mobile devices. Mobile users who have apps installed for YouTube and Vimeo are being sent to the mobile websites for these applications and are being asked to log in. Abandon rates are high, and the campaign is seeing low overall video completion rates. Campaign links that can detect and open the apps for YouTube and Vimeo would significantly increase views and brand engagement.
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