Message in a bottle

Ever wondered as to why people leave messages in a bottle and submit it to the multitudes of the sea?

The answer (according to me at least) is the element of surprise. Not only does it convey what is written on the paper itself, but the fact that the information was received ‘unexpectedly’ and ‘upfront’ adds to joy.

Such is the joy of receiving the correct information in a deferred fashion — when you least expect it.

Coming to the point. Imagine you download an app, and the landing page is exactly what you had desired. You buy a book on your favorite website and when you download their app, the app opens up with your book as the landing page. Won’t it be marvelous? The mechanism that enables it is known as “deferred deep-linking” (wiki).

Okay, so how does it work?

You can try using this scheme(to be sent to the user):

intent://details?id=X&url=Y&referrer=Z#Intent;scheme=market;action=android.intent.action.VIEW;package=com.android.vending;end";

X: Package name of the App

Y: Deep link scheme which should be defined in the App’s manifest. (Please refer this) Here, they have used this URL as an example: “http://www.example.com/gizmos" , therefore Y should be replaced by this URL.

Z: Can be any data which you want to pass to the App via Google Play. Please take note that any data which you pass should not be ‘&’ separated because the original parameters are itself ‘&’ separated.

From what I experimented, this URL is understood by the browser and it redirects you to the App based on the package name and the deep-link scheme. Else it takes you to the Google Play.

PS: The Google Play makes a broadcast to the app. So make sure you receive the broadcast in a receiver.

Have a good day y’all and keep sending the surprises!