I'm researching the feasibility of developing an Instant App that users can launch from clicking a URL, NFC tag QR code. All backed by App Links, of course.
Instant Apps have been around for 5 years but are they actually supported? I've found some companies that have Instant Apps:
BuzzFeed
Vimeo
HotPads
RedBull TV
Expectation:
I'd expect to be able to tap any Vimeo URL anywhere and it would open the company's Instant App. I also expect the same behavior from a URL that gets resolved from a QR code or NFC tag. That's what the Google I/O videos suggest, anyway.
Reality:
On a Pixel 3 running Android 11, the ONLY way I can get an Instant App to open is by clicking the “Try Now” button in Google Play. The two IA-related system settings don't seem to change anything.
After launching the IA app from Google Play first, links from those companies always open the Instant App as expected. That's fine, but defeats the purpose if I need to go to Google Play anyway.
More context: I am in the US, and I'm signed into the Google Play store. I've turned on every IA setting I've found as well.
Question:
Is there any way to simply share a link and go to the Instant App directly?
After a day of research and trying different things, I finally got Instant Apps to work for me. Clicking a link, scanning a QR code or tapping an NFC tag all work without having to go to Google Play first.
The problem I had was that I was signed into all my Android test devices using a Google Workspace account (i.e. not a #gmail.com email address). Once I switched to a Gmail account, Instant Apps worked seamlessly. Give that a shot if you're running into the same issue. This requirement is not documented.
Related
I find the Google Approach for Instant Apps terrible from user perspective (and from developer view as well, btw)
The Instant app, if I understood properly, was to improve the user experience enabling the use of Apps without installation (like a fire and forget)
Deep linking is a step further to get this kind of experience attached to an URL you own. Great!
But... every user has to enable deep links on their Google play account as by default this is turned off. And the user experience improvement turned to be a failure.
Except if I missed something.
So here is my question, is there any way to have instant app deep link working on any recent phone without having to explain users: go to your Google Play settings, Click on General etc...
I've red for example that instant apps works anyway for Google Play Branded links
Thanks
Last time I've heard about running android app without installing it.
Like "demo app" or something like that.
What doest it mean?
Generally you have to go to Google Play in order to install the app and run it.
It isn't via a browser, because you can supposedly use the android app functions
Instant Apps are the next step in app evolution, a universal Android solution that brings the speed and power of a native app with the ease and immediacy of a web app. They look and operate just like one of the apps that are installed on your phone, but you don’t need to download anything.
Android Instant Apps allow you to use native Android apps in a form that doesn’t even require installing. Which means the users get to experience interactive and smooth interfaces with the tap of a finger.
Note: Android Instant Apps only work on Android devices running on Android 5.0 (API level 21) or higher.
For further info about instant apps you can refer to following link
https://developer.android.com/topic/instant-apps/overview.html#apps-features
An instant app is a portion of your app that will be executed in response to an Url. This was introduced by Google year.
Google play store will download the code necessary to execute the task it is supposed to and it will dispose of the code after the user is done.
You would create an Instant apps if you mean to provide specific feature of your app that does not require the user to download the full app. Ex: watch a video on vimeo by clicking a link on social media
This apps are built using the same process you would use to develop a regular android app but instead of developing all of the features in the same module you divide the features in different modules.
This modules should be very small and have a size limit of 4MB.
Instant apps are currently limited to a few countries, so if you are thinking of developing one and putting in production check the link below for this information and others documents on how to get started.
https://developer.android.com/topic/instant-apps/overview.html
It's Instant App.
Here you have Google documentation
I have developed an instant app & published it into the play store, also has a website associated with the Instant App. tested the app link with the testing tool from here.
The app is opened after clicking the link from other apps (gmail, hangouts), But clicking on my website from a google search is opening as a webpage instead of instant apps. Is there anything I have to do in order to redirect a web page to the app from google search.
I had published my instant app in play store. when i click the link from gmail it opens as instant app in some devices (Samsung s6 note ,moto g4 plus)
On some devices its not opening as instant app but buzzfeed.com/tasty opens as instant app. (one plus 3 & one plus 5).
my digital asset link is https://abdcoop.mybuzztm.com/.well-known/assetlinks.json
Anyone able to suggest what i am missing?
It is not necessary to use the App Indexing API. As long as you set up App Links, that's enough. Unfortunately, it can take several weeks for the change to show up in Google search results. We do consider that a problem and are working on a way to speed it up.
I've run a hello world instant app on an emulator following this Google's tutorial.
Everything worked well, I got the dialog asking for permission to enable instant apps and clicked 'I'm in'. After that, I could also see that instant apps were enabled in Settings > Google > Instant Apps.
But when I open my browser, run a search and click on links from websites that already have published instant apps, such as BuzzFeed, NY Times Crossword and Wish, they just open the regular web page.
I found out those apps watching Google IO 16 and 17 presentations about instant apps. I even tried the link https://www.buzzfeed.com/tasty, featured on this keynote, to no avail.
I suspect that's due to the fact that the current supported emulator doesn't come with Play Store built-in.
I'm also in a country(Brazil) where Instant apps are not supported yet according to this list. But I'm not sure if that impacts on the emulator.
Does anyone know if those are indeed the reasons why I can't check out instant apps already published on Play Store?
Since Brazil is not currently in a list of Android Instant Apps supported countries, this feature is turned off on the real devices, but emulators can still be used for Instant Apps development and testing.
Production level applications, like BuzzFeed, can be launched through Instant Apps only in countries from this list: https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/7381861#production. In all other countries, Instant App URLs like https://www.buzzfeed.com/tasty will proceed to the website, regardless if you’re using a real device or an emulator.
There are possibly two reasons. I recommend following the guide here to set up your emulator. Once you've confirmed that instant apps is enabled successfully via adb shell pm list packages | grep "com.google.android.instantapps.supervisor" and it is enabled in Settings->Google->Instant Apps, then try sending the link as an email to the emulator.
I've found that clicking links within the browser will often times keep you in the browser. But opening the link from Gmail always works for me. I've just checked that it works with Vimeo not too long ago - https://vimeo.com/190063150.
I believe you can't have instant apps for any arbitrary link due to DAL verification. It should be the link of the domain that you own.
https://developer.android.com/topic/instant-apps/getting-started/index.html#app_links
For instant apps, you must set the android:autoVerify attribute to true in all elements. This attribute tells Google to verify your app link with a Digital Assets Links (DAL) file that is hosted on your website and prevents apps from linking to domains that they do not own.
https://developer.android.com/topic/instant-apps/prepare.html#app-links
We are adding Android Auto and iOS CarPlay support to the existing Android/iOS versions of an app. We are able to successfully test the Auto application using the Android Media Browser simulator as directed by the Android developer documentation.
We also have a stereo head unit that supports both Auto and CarPlay. We are able to use the CarPlay app successfully on the head unit, and we are able to use published Auto apps on the head unit. However, we can't see our development app on the actual device.
The Auto documentation is still a little bit thin, but I'm gathering based on some wording I've seen that Auto apps get some special flag (or similar) added by Google Play when they pass review:
Before making the app available to Android Auto users, Google Play
submits your app for review against the Auto App Quality criteria and
notifies you of the result. If your app is approved, Google Play makes
that app available to Android Auto users.
Based on this, is at all possible to run Auto apps on hardware before they've already been published and approved through Google Play?
This seems like a frustrating chicken-and-egg problem. We'd like to have the confidence that things look good on actual hardware and on target devices before publishing.
It is now possible to test your Android Auto apps on Auto-enabled head units. The procedure is to upload your app to the Play Store in an alpha channel, which you can then install to your device and test in a car. You will even receive feedback from the Auto review team for your app. [Wayne Piekarski]
Follow this
You can also install the Desktop Head Unit (DHU) to test it in software before submitting it to the Play Store. I used this method to make sure most of the quality issues were resolved with my app before submitting it. The DHU does not require the apk to be signed by Google.
Also, submitting it through the store usually takes several hours before you can test. The DHU is, obviously, immediate feedback.
Here's the link: https://developer.android.com/training/auto/testing/index.html
The short answer is no, you can not. It is due to the driver safety review. It will not be able to run on the real device until the app is approved.
But I think, you can contact Google and they can do something about it, if you really need to test it in your car.