How to test Universal Links before releasing app?

Question

Kazuaki.FT OP

Created Mar ’16

Replies 4

Boosts 0

Views 19k

Participants 4

We have an under-development app which we uploaded to TestFlight for testing.

And recently we tried to implement Universal Links and wanna test whether it works on devices.

So we download app from TestFlight and opened web link in safari browser.

What we got is that after retreiving the apple-app-site-association file we put under server root,

instead of launching test app, app store was launched and "content not available" showed up.

Does that mean before releasing our app to App Store, we have no ways to test Universal Links function?

If anyone could give us information on this, it would be a great help.

BTW, we have gone throught programming guide below,

https://developer.apple.com/library/prerelease/ios/documentation/General/Conceptual/AppSearch/UniversalLinks.html

but no related details could be found.

Answered by Kazuaki.FT in 124415022

Finally, we found out how to test universal links with TestFlight.

The problem is that the action should be a TAP, yet what we did is entering url directly in safari browser.

So the correct instructions should be:

1. Embed link in any webpage

2. Access this page from Safari Browser

3. Tap the link

And that's all. The app should be launched directly if installed.

Boost

Answer 1

KMT OP

Mar ’16

Have you scanned the threads linked below in 'more like this', yet?

0

Answer 2

Kazuaki.FT OP

Mar ’16

Accepted Answer

Finally, we found out how to test universal links with TestFlight.

The problem is that the action should be a TAP, yet what we did is entering url directly in safari browser.

So the correct instructions should be:

1. Embed link in any webpage

2. Access this page from Safari Browser

3. Tap the link

And that's all. The app should be launched directly if installed.

0

Answer 3

ozgurs OP

Jul ’21

Should App be uploaded to TestFlight to test the association? I'm working on a new app, created the app on AppStore to get appId but didn't upload any build yet. I can't make it work with Xcode builds deployed to my iPhone. This setting is checked Settings>Developer>Associated Domains and developer mode is used. File validation gives this result: Link to Application | Action required Could not extract required information for application links. Learn how to implement the recommended Universal Links. | Error cannot fetch app site association

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Answer 4

aryamansharda OP

Jun ’24

Hey Kazuaki,

I built this free tool to help developers test their AASA file more easily. It was actually recently featured by iOS Dev Weekly.

Here's an example: https://getuniversal.link/yelp.com

You just enter your domain name on the site and it'll grab the AASA file from your domain and Apple's CDN so you can compare behavior across both. Plus, it gives you an easy dashboard for creating test links and verifying behavior. Hope this helps!

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