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I have the Bluesky app installed but I'm not logged in. So the website link is also being treated as an app deep link. It opens the app instead of just opening

by geuis 2y ago

I have the Bluesky app installed but I'm not logged in. So the website link is also being treated as an app deep link. It opens the app instead of just opening the website. I don't have a lot of familiarity with app deep links, but my understanding is that originally deep links required a special non-domain to be registered that was separate from a normal web url. Somewhere that's changed over the years and now regular web links like this default to opening in apps if the user has them installed.

jeffbee 2y ago
I use Bluesky all the time and I have never installed the app on any platform. I suggest getting rid of it, if you're such a fan of the web.
ludwik 2y ago
But that's not OP deep linking to an app - it's just a normal website URL. It's you having your user agent configured to launch an app for this particular domain. Nothing that OP can do about that.
lynndotpy 2y ago
Is your device running iOS or iPadOS? This is default and non-configurable behavior. Even github.com will open in the GitHub app if you have it installed. I understand the confusion (and frustration), but this is just a normal URL. The .app is just an ordinary TLD (but one of the newer ones.)
mr_mitm 2y ago
There is no such thing as a deep link. If you don't like how your client device handles links, re-configure it or, if that's not possible, use a different device. The problem here is on your end.
HelloImSteven 2y ago
On Apple devices at least, this is a feature of Universal Links, which are generally more secure than deeplinks for various reasons [1]. Not sure you can disable it completely, but in some cases you can override it by long-pressing the link and choosing to open it in the browser. [1] https://developer.apple.com/documentation/xcode/defining-a-custom-url-scheme-for-your-app https://developer.apple.com/documentation/xcode/defining-a-c...
Gigachad 2y ago
Remove the app then? Having an app installed but logged out is such a rare case, and one that’s easily solved.
lucb1e 2y ago
> my understanding is that originally deep links required a special non-domain to be registered that was separate from a normal web url. You might be thinking of protocol handlers, like oacon:// to open something in software installed to handle that (in this case, launching openarena to connect directly from a dpmaster mirror with such application links included). I don't think they were called deep links back then, just different protocols, like http in http://example.org http://example.org is a protocol that your browser is configured to handle and ftp:// used to be as well These are still in relatively common use today, but on mobile devices it has become the norm to hijack specific domain names or even a path (e.g. F-Droid will try to handle repositories on third-party domains for you by trying to hook¹ any URL that contains */fdroid/repo/* -- so far, this has always been useful to me, but I can see the flip side). This link hijacking is often a pain for me as anyone linking to any Google product will make my phone try to open some Play Services component, which is largely not functional. I can't get rid of the system component (e.g. replace it with microG) without installing a custom ROM, which I can't do without getting rid of half the device's special features (no point having this phone then), but I also don't want it pinging back to the mothership so... a pain it shall be As for your problem, reset the app's settings and it'll re-prompt you the next time you click one of these links in which app these links should open. It should do that any time there is (newly) more than one app that can handle any given URL ¹ https://github.com/f-droid/fdroidclient/blob/be028d71c2a25b974cb8d1fe38cc35d1dff24b8a/app/src/main/AndroidManifest.xml#L194-L226 https://github.com/f-droid/fdroidclient/blob/be028d71c2a25b9...
dunham 2y ago
On iOS the app can ask to take over certain https urls. The web site also needs to have a special file to grant this access. Bluesky is choosing to do this to you. I used this for a login / reset flow about a decade ago, so it's been around for a while. There also is the ability to register for a URL "scheme" (the bit that replaces "https"), which I believe is what you're thinking of and it does predate the https thing, but both have been around for a while. I'm guessing companies have just gotten more aggressive about using the https one. Edit: and yes it is annoying, I've uninstalled the GitHub app because of this.

by geuis 2y ago

jeffbee 2y ago

I use Bluesky all the time and I have never installed the app on any platform. I suggest getting rid of it, if you're such a fan of the web.

ludwik 2y ago

But that's not OP deep linking to an app - it's just a normal website URL. It's you having your user agent configured to launch an app for this particular domain. Nothing that OP can do about that.

lynndotpy 2y ago

Is your device running iOS or iPadOS? This is default and non-configurable behavior. Even github.com will open in the GitHub app if you have it installed. I understand the confusion (and frustration), but this is just a normal URL. The .app is just an ordinary TLD (but one of the newer ones.)

mr_mitm 2y ago

There is no such thing as a deep link. If you don't like how your client device handles links, re-configure it or, if that's not possible, use a different device. The problem here is on your end.

HelloImSteven 2y ago

On Apple devices at least, this is a feature of Universal Links, which are generally more secure than deeplinks for various reasons [1]. Not sure you can disable it completely, but in some cases you can override it by long-pressing the link and choosing to open it in the browser. [1] https://developer.apple.com/documentation/xcode/defining-a-custom-url-scheme-for-your-app https://developer.apple.com/documentation/xcode/defining-a-c...

Gigachad 2y ago

Remove the app then? Having an app installed but logged out is such a rare case, and one that’s easily solved.

lucb1e 2y ago

> my understanding is that originally deep links required a special non-domain to be registered that was separate from a normal web url. You might be thinking of protocol handlers, like oacon:// to open something in software installed to handle that (in this case, launching openarena to connect directly from a dpmaster mirror with such application links included). I don't think they were called deep links back then, just different protocols, like http in http://example.org http://example.org is a protocol that your browser is configured to handle and ftp:// used to be as well These are still in relatively common use today, but on mobile devices it has become the norm to hijack specific domain names or even a path (e.g. F-Droid will try to handle repositories on third-party domains for you by trying to hook¹ any URL that contains */fdroid/repo/* -- so far, this has always been useful to me, but I can see the flip side). This link hijacking is often a pain for me as anyone linking to any Google product will make my phone try to open some Play Services component, which is largely not functional. I can't get rid of the system component (e.g. replace it with microG) without installing a custom ROM, which I can't do without getting rid of half the device's special features (no point having this phone then), but I also don't want it pinging back to the mothership so... a pain it shall be As for your problem, reset the app's settings and it'll re-prompt you the next time you click one of these links in which app these links should open. It should do that any time there is (newly) more than one app that can handle any given URL ¹ https://github.com/f-droid/fdroidclient/blob/be028d71c2a25b974cb8d1fe38cc35d1dff24b8a/app/src/main/AndroidManifest.xml#L194-L226 https://github.com/f-droid/fdroidclient/blob/be028d71c2a25b9...

dunham 2y ago

On iOS the app can ask to take over certain https urls. The web site also needs to have a special file to grant this access. Bluesky is choosing to do this to you. I used this for a login / reset flow about a decade ago, so it's been around for a while. There also is the ability to register for a URL "scheme" (the bit that replaces "https"), which I believe is what you're thinking of and it does predate the https thing, but both have been around for a while. I'm guessing companies have just gotten more aggressive about using the https one. Edit: and yes it is annoying, I've uninstalled the GitHub app because of this.