How to get facebook app link if app wasn't installed

Question

How can I get the app link data if my app wasn\'t installed when the user tapped a deep link in the facebook app? There is surprisingly little documentation from facebook on thi

Answer 1

For developers: The following steps worked for me, 1. Uninstall the app 2. Send deep link form FB 3. click on the deeplink, to takes you to play store (don't install app) 4. Now debug the app 5. you'll find applinkData value in onDeferredAppLinkDataFetched event.

Answer 2

I work at branch.io, which does all this stuff for you for free and works outside of Facebook as well, and we figured out a way to pass App Links through the install. I'll share how we built it.

First, you'll need to collect the Google Advertising ID, so make sure that you drop in Google Play Services to your project. To do so, just add this to your gradle file:

compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services:7.5.0'

Now, it will require you to make an network request every time the app opens to check if the user originated from Facebook, but it's not too complicated. On app open, POST to the following endpoint with your Facebook App ID, App Access Token and the Google Advertising ID.

https://graph.facebook.com/<APP ID>/activities?access_token=<APPACCESSTOKEN>&event=DEFERRED_APP_LINK&advertiser_id=<GAID>&advertiser_tracking_enabled=1&application_tracking_enabled=1

GAID: You can retrieve the Google Advertising ID with this method:

String gaid = AdvertisingIdClient.getAdvertisingIdInfo(this).getId();

App access token: To get your access token, just make a GET call to the following endpoint:

https://graph.facebook.com/oauth/access_token?client_id=<APPID>&client_secret=<APPSECRET>&grant_type=client_credentials

Then, when you create your Facebook stuff (ads, invites, etc), just drop in your deep link. This example shows a Branch link pasted in:

If you don't want to deal with this, we have a native library with a callback executed on app session start, which will return all of your deep link params.

Answer 3

As a FB team responses on https://developers.facebook.com/bugs/393947180805373:

It works when you are installing app from the new real ad (not test tool) at the first time.

Explanation:

Developer:

Flow At the first try. ( Not installed, using device 1 )

1. Clicked the button the ad.
2. Begin redirected to Google Play.
3. installed my app on device 1.
4. launched my app first time. >> result : I could see applinkdata.

-

5. deleted my app on device 1 ( same device that i used in 1st test. )
6. Clicked the button again the ad.
7. Begin redirected to Google Play.
8. installed my app on device 1.
9. launched my app first time. >> result : I could not see applinkdata, i got null value. ( wonder why ? )

FB Team:

due to some technical constrains in our side the deferred deep link will fails when you send the ad to your own device using the ad preview tool

...

The behavior on device 1 is expected behavior. The app fetches the applink data from the server. When the server gets the request, it marks the ad-applink data as having been fetched. Subsequent requests do not return it. (Otherwise, every time you opened the app thereafter, it would load the applink, which would be a bad experience. The link should only be followed once.). Only if you create a new ad and click on it will the data get fetched again.

I hope it will help.

Best regards,

Jack

Answer 4

Looks like FB has fixed this issue now.

edit: Follow this for setting up deferred deep-linking: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/app-ads/deep-linking#deferred-deep-linking

This link for testing: https://developers.facebook.com/tools/app-ads-helper/

Go to App Ads Helper -> Select your App -> Test Deep Link -> Enter deep-link URL -> Check Send Deferred -> Send to Android.

Note: 1. You need to have FB app installed on your device and logged in to the same developer account for this to work. 2. Need to uninstall and reinstall the app after sending a deferred deep-link. Uninstall can be done before sending the link as well.

Answer 5

As of Dec 2, 2014 facebook deferred app links are broken on Android. I can get my app links to work when the app is already installed, but when the app is NOT already installed the app link is never sent to the app after it's installed.

I'm in touch with facebook, I'll post any updates here.