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App Links is an open protocol developed by Facebook for cross-app and cross-platform linking. An App Link URL carries metadata that tells the receiving device how to open a specific piece of content inside an app, with a web fallback for when the app is not installed.
  • Inbound — your app is the destination. Another app or a web page launches your app via a URL, and your app must read the link data and navigate to the right screen.
  • Outbound — your app sends the user somewhere else. You resolve a URL to an AppLink object and then navigate to the best available target (native app → browser fallback).

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Deferred deep linking

Deferred deep linking captures the user’s intent before your app is installed. When a user taps a link but doesn’t have the app installed, Facebook records the URL. On first launch after install, you can call AppLinkUtility.fetchDeferredAppLink(_:) to retrieve the original destination URL and route the user directly to the right content. 
import FacebookCore

AppLinkUtility.fetchDeferredAppLink { url, error in
    guard let url = url else { return }
    // Route the user to the content specified by `url`
    UIApplication.shared.open(url)
}
fetchDeferredAppLink(_:) only fires on the very first launch after install. Subsequent calls return immediately with nil.
MechanismHow it works
Custom URL schemeYour app registers a URL scheme (e.g. myapp://). iOS opens your app when a URL with that scheme is tapped.
Universal LinksApple-signed association between a domain and your app. iOS opens your app directly for matching https:// URLs without showing a disambiguation sheet.
The Facebook SDK handles both. Forward both application(_:open:options:) and application(_:continue:userActivity:) to ApplicationDelegate.shared.

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Integration with ApplicationDelegate

You must forward URL-related callbacks to ApplicationDelegate.shared for App Links (and other SDK features such as Login) to work correctly. See Handling deep links for the full implementation.

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Next steps

Handling deep links

Implement the required ApplicationDelegate hooks and route incoming App Links.

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