Deep link: sending a tap to a screen, not a homepage

A deep link is a URL that opens one specific screen inside an application — a product, a chat, a profile — instead of the application's home screen or a website.

Three kinds, and only one that behaves

A custom scheme (myapp://product/42) is the oldest form. If the app is installed it opens; if it is not, the browser fails, usually with nothing useful on screen. That silence is why custom schemes are a poor choice for anything you publish to strangers.

Universal Links on iOS and App Links on Android are ordinary https:// URLs that the operating system claims on the app's behalf, verified through a file the domain serves. Installed, the tap opens the app; not installed, the same URL loads the web page. One URL, no dead end.

A deferred deep link survives an install: the visitor lands in a store, installs, opens the app and is taken to the original screen. That needs an attribution SDK inside your app, which a shortener cannot provide.

What gc.mw stores

Device rules on a link hold a separate destination for iOS, Android and desktop, and they are validated with the same rule as any other destination: http or https only. A custom scheme is refused at the schema. In practice this pushes you toward the form that works — put the universal link or App Link in the rule, or the store listing if you would rather send everyone to install.

Device family is decided from the user agent on the redirect path, without a parsing library: iPhone, iPad and iPod are iOS, Android is Android, everything else is desktop. Targeting rules are a Business feature.

Example

gc.mw/appx with iOS pointed at your Universal Link, Android at its App Link, and the default left as your marketing page. One printed QR on a conference banner, three sensible outcomes, and the analytics separate iOS from Android automatically because device is recorded on every click.

Before you print anything, trace the hops with the redirect checker — store links in particular redirect several times.