AppsFlyer deeplinking doesn't work on Chrome iOS

[EncodedLua (Juniper)]

This seems to be a regressed issue, originally reported here

Currently the AppsFlyer deeplinking is broken on the iOS version of Google Chrome. When pasting this link (http://ro.blox.com/Ebh5?af_dp=roblox%3A%2F%2FplaceId%3D1818%26launchData%3Da&af_web_dp=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.roblox.com%2Fgames%2Fstart%3FplaceId%3D1818%26launchData%3Da) into a Google Chrome for iOS tab, it prompts a modal (figure 1) asking if you’d like to open an external app. It also has a popover with Roblox’s App Store listing showing (figure 2) before you can interact with the modal. Tapping open on figure 2 does not forward the associated place ID or launch data from the deeplink directive, and instead opens the homepage of Roblox. This is not an issue on Safari or Firefox for iOS.

If Roblox is able to somehow work with AppsFlyer or Google to get this resolved it will be vital for bringing in new traffic from deeplink invites.

EDIT: I’ve spent the last 30 minutes try to repro the behavior on PC and realized that the AppsFlyer link just does not work on any platform if you don’t have launchData supplied. Try removing the “a” in the launchData URI param from the URI above to see the undesired behavior. The original issue is still present.

Figure 1:

Figure 2:

Expected behavior

I expect the specified place ID to launch when opening Roblox and for the launch data to be forwarded. This does not happen. You can see that the deeplinking is working properly on PC.

[thirdtakeonit]

Thanks for the report! We’ll follow up when we have an update for you.

[FourPointFourly]

Hi, thanks for the report. One note about the repro steps is that copy-pasting a link into a browser search bar isn’t expected to work for opening the Roblox app directly. This is an explicit restriction by Apple, which they say is to respect the signaled intention from the user to load the link in the browser. To test opening a given deeplink, we suggest using a messaging system, email or the Notes app to make sure the URL is treated as a link and then pressing it.

Can you verify whether pressing a link, rather than pasting it into the search bar, opens Roblox correctly?

For the launchData parameter, there’s a known issue on the www.roblox.com/games/start Desktop page where not providing launchData results in a link that contains “&launchData=” at the end, making it malformed. I’ll follow up with the owning team to see if there’s an ETA on a fix for that.