Behaviour and rules of deep linking in Bolt
Written by Danielle Bueno
Updated at November 1st, 2023
Expected behaviour of deep links
Deep links can work
- internally, i.e., in articles, link cards, and other places within the app.
- from external sources, e.g., in an email or newsletter, when the app is backgrounded (i.e., in the task manager) and killed (i.e., completely removed in task manager).
- via push, i.e., notifications or in-app messages
| Type of deep link | Example path | Do they work | |||
| Internally | From external source | Via push | |||
| https://your-app-domain.com | |||||
| Content | N/A | /yyyy/mm/dd/article/content.html | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Tab | /t/ | /t/tab | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Timeline | /t/ | /t/timelines_tab/timeline | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Storefront | /t/ | /t/storefront | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Filter group | /t/ | /t/storefront/filter_group | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Settings item | /t/ | /t/settings_tab/settings_item | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Dynamic timeline | /d/ | /d/dynamic_timeline | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Edition TOC | /d/ | /d/id-edition | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Command | /c/ | /c/command | Yes | No* | No* |
* We advise that command deep links, i.e., any links whose path starts with a /c/, should not be used outside of the app.
Alias domains
If configured correctly, they should work like normal deep links.
Redirect links
If you tap on a link from an external source that redirects to the Bolt app, the link will open in a browser app first and then the redirect should open the Bolt app in the appropriate place.
Email newsletters
A popular use case for this is links in a newsletter email by mailing services. Almost all mailing services (E.g. Mailchimp, Salesforce Marketing Cloud) rewrite any links in the email to enable clickthrough tracking.
Tapping on the (rewritten) link in the email will open the browser app first before opening the Bolt app on the correct article.