1. General Information

Deferred deep linking allows you to direct users to specific content in your app with different behaviours: 

• If the link is opened on a smartphone or tablet on which your app is not yet installed, it first leads to the App Store or Play Store so that the app can be downloaded. After the app is launched, the content the deferred deep link refers to is accessed.
  
  
• If the link is opened on a device on which your app is already installed, the deferred deep link will immediately lead to the linked content.
  
  
• If the link is opened with a desktop browser, it leads to a web page like the one in the example below, which contains the app icon, the app name and the links to the Google Play Store and Apple App Store. 

The instructions in this article describe how to set up deferred deep Linking in Purple Manager in section A. 

In section B. we describe how to create a deferred deep link.

• A. Setup in Purple Manager
• B. Creating a deferred deep link

2. Requirements

• Deferred deep links can be used with Purple Apps from template version 7.1. If your already published release app was built with an older version, e.g. 6.1, an app update and resubmission of the app is required.
  
  
• An action URL from the following list depending on the desired action of the deferred deep link.

3. Instructions

A. Setup in Purple Manager

1. Open the overview of your app in Purple DS Manager. Please check here whether your app was created with a build template version 7.1 or higher.
   
   
   
   
   

2. In the upper menu bar, select Basic settings and scroll down to the entry associated domain prefix. Click on the information icon (i) to display the info box.
   
   
   
   
   

3. To create your own domain prefix, select a unique prefix (freely definable) that describes your application, in this example it is devtest. The prefix should consist of 5 to 20 lower case letters and numbers. Enter the prefix in the Associated Domain Prefix field.
   
   
   
   

4. Scroll down the page and open the iOS Basic Settings. Under Deferred Deep Linking, activate the Enable Associated Domains checkbox.
   
   
   
   

5. Click Save at the bottom right of the page.
   
   

   
   
   

B. Creating a deferred deep link

1. To link to a specific content or page in your app, you need a corresponding action URL. You can find a list of possible action URLs in this article. In addition you'll need the associated domain prefix you set for your app.
   
   
2. Copy the desired action URL. In the next step, this must be coded as a Base64 URL. (In the following example we use purple://app/info/open - this link opens the app information page).
   
   
3. In your browser, open the page https://simplycalc.com/base64url-encode.php. Paste the Action URL you copied earlier to the Data box. Then copy the created link from the Result box.
   
   
   
   
4. Now create the Deferred Deep Link by using the following structure:
   
   https://<domain_prefix>.purple.to/?deeplink=<base64_URL>
   
   In our case, the <domain prefix> created (in section A. 3.) is devtest.
   The <base64_URL> we generated earlier is:
   cHVycGxlOi8vYXBwL2luZm8vb3Blbg==
   
   Combining these elements creates a deferred deep link that looks like this:
   
   https://devtest.purple.to/?deeplink=cHVycGxlOi8vYXBwL2luZm8vb3Blbg==
   
   
   
5. You can now use the deferred deep link e.g. in your marketing newsletter or an advertising banner, and the user will be directed to the desired content of your app.