Firebase-android-sdk: 157238998: Dynamic link not working with facebook

[tabebqena]

Facebook (the most popular social app.) uses special head meta tag to convert page to dynamic link.
Without this tag it opens the link in the 'inAppBrowser'.
Is there is way go integrate firebase dynamic links with facebook.

<meta property="fb:app_id" content="your_fb_app_id" />

<meta property="al:android:package" content="com.your.package" />
<meta property="al:android:app_name" content="YourAwesomeApp" />
<meta property="al:android:url" content="somescheme://XYZ" /> <!-- identifiable by your app, your app must handle this data scheme inside your manifest's intent-filter tag --!>
<meta property="al:web:should_fallback" content="true" />
<meta property="al:web:url" content="http://www.yourwebsite.com/" />

[google-oss-bot]

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[manu89ft]

From 5 days our links are broken in Facebook and Instagram Webview...
For example https://dyn.bantoa.com/rniX

Here you will find two screencasts: https://we.tl/t-IvB5aYtKfv

[samtstern]

Sorry about the slow response, will look into this!

[manu89ft]

@samedson thank you so much!
For us this problem is blocking. Do you have any idea how long it takes to fix the bug?
Otherwise we think of migrating to branch or to adjust.

[samtstern]

@manu89ft sorry I really don't know how long it will take.

[LuizTokuhara]

Same problem here too

[AhmedSaber0]

any updates ?

[catleader]

now I can't even post dynamic links on Facebook or share via Facebook Messenger app, anyone?

[DanGDroid]

commented on this status
https://github.com/firebase/firebase-android-sdk/issues/915#issuecomment-546951346

[goneale]

We've been received customer reports that our dynamic links had stopped working on Facebook (opens in a blank white screen). Surprisingly, this is only occurring for us on iOS, Android is launching the dynamic link fine. I would have thought it was a FB app issue, or recent changes to dynamic link processing on Google (.link).
My issue relating to iOS isn't really relevant here, so I am going to move on... :) Are links working ok on Android now for you guys too?

I will CC the iOS bug report too. https://github.com/firebase/quickstart-ios/issues/798

[Sunillabs108]

On Android, through facebook App, if i open a shared dynamic link, It is not working,
In OnSuccess listener Callback, (PendingDynamicLinkData pendingDynamicLinkData)
pendingDynamicLinkData is coming as Null, So not able to retrieve deep link in the App.
Kindly suggest or fix this issue,

WorkAround: I could make it work by changing the Facebook privacy settings for enabling to open the link externally. then i could get the desired results.
But this is not the correct way , As we can not force user to change the privacy settings of facebook.

[amgros]

any updates. our firebase links in Facebook / insta are NOT working anymore...why??
they work fine everywhere else
please fix..... but for short term..

what privacy settings on Facebook can be changed to allow our links to start working iagain??

[nightbear1009]

hi
is there any update about this issue? our traffic comes from facebook
this make us re-consider about using firebase dynamic link

[tabebqena]

as a temporary workaround, I suggest to use this answer and s this

[joshwolff1]

Same here

[joshwolff1]

I posted an answer that "sort of" fixes this here: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/41217810/firebase-dynamic-links-is-not-launching-my-app-in-specific-situation/59417981#59417981

Basically, remove the efr=1 parameter, which is what a developer suggested here: https://github.com/firebase/quickstart-ios/issues/798

[gpribi]

Same here!
Found that when the activity handler is called from Facebook, the intent.getData() brings the right URL, but there's an "extra" missing called "com.google.firebase.dynamiclinks.DYNAMIC_LINK_DATA"

It's a byte[296] object with an unknown information, present when I use the link without Facebook.

[karapetyan]

Same here!

[KunalKathrotia]

Is there any update? dynamic links are not redirecting to the app when opening in facebook. works just fine everywhere else. what's the problem with facebook? tiktok links from facebook redirects and opens the app instantly, but unfortunately don't know which deep linking platform they are using.

[mikehardy]

@gpribi @karapetyan @KunalKathrotia have you tried the efr=1 workaround from @joshwolff1 just above in https://github.com/firebase/firebase-android-sdk/issues/916#issuecomment-567716516

[KunalKathrotia]

@mikehardy Yes it's already in place, so i don't think that workaround works.
.setNavigationInfoParameters(new DynamicLink.NavigationInfoParameters.Builder().setForcedRedirectEnabled(true).build())

[joshwolff1]

It confirmed does work for me.

[joshwolff1]

Here is a video of it working: https://youtu.be/KLAH39BTwmw

Here is the link I used: https://spontit.page.link/?link=https%3A//spontit.com/action/emilyslist/1577502216%3Fsc%3Dfb%26scuser%3Djosh-wolff&ibi=jw1.Spontit&isi=1448318683&efr=1

Here is the link with the debug parameter so that you can inspect it: https://spontit.page.link/?link=https%3A//spontit.com/action/emilyslist/1577502216%3Fsc%3Dfb%26scuser%3Djosh-wolff&ibi=jw1.Spontit&isi=1448318683&efr=1&d=1

iOS 13.3, Facebook Version 251.0

[joshwolff1]

One important note about the video I just took was that it did not open the preview page! I do not know why it did not show it. It has shown it in the past when I opened the link in the Facebook app. Either way, the App Store opened as expected.

[KunalKathrotia]

@joshwolff1 did you manually add efr=1 parameter in the original link before making it dynamic using firebase sdk?

[joshwolff1]

I manually constructed all of the links I have used. I have not attempted using the SDK.

[KunalKathrotia]

But we don't want to expose what the link really contains like that so we are using sdk to generate the dynamic link which will build short link .buildShortDynamicLink(ShortDynamicLink.Suffix.SHORT) and as far as the efr=1 is concerned we are already doing that as in above comment using that piece of code, in that setForcedRedirectEnabled(true) already sets efr=1 but it doesn't fix this issue

[joshwolff1]

Not familiar with the SDK, but can you manually construct it and then make it shorter? I know that you can do that from the console.

[KunalKathrotia]

we are generating the short links within our apps(android and ios apps) using firebase sdk before sharing on any other platforms

[joshwolff1]

By "manual" I mean programmatically without the SDK (not literally manually).

If you can do that, then can you shorten it using the Firebase SDK? That's what I mean. I bet you can do that because you can do that from the console.

[KunalKathrotia]

i know what do you mean by manually, by following this i can generate a dynamic link, but what difference does it make because ultimately what i will be doing by generating that manually is same as generating the link using the sdk.
just fyi this is how we generate the dynamic link

FirebaseDynamicLinks.getInstance().createDynamicLink()
                .setLink(Uri.parse(link))
                .setDomainUriPrefix("<suffix here>")
                .setAndroidParameters(new DynamicLink.AndroidParameters.Builder().setFallbackUrl(Uri.parse(link)).build())
                .setIosParameters(new DynamicLink.IosParameters.Builder("<package name>")
                        .setFallbackUrl(Uri.parse(link))
                        .setAppStoreId("<id>")
                        .setMinimumVersion("<version>")
                        .setCustomScheme("<custom scheme>").build())
                .setNavigationInfoParameters(new DynamicLink.NavigationInfoParameters.Builder().setForcedRedirectEnabled(true).build())
                .setSocialMetaTagParameters(new DynamicLink.SocialMetaTagParameters.Builder()
                        .setTitle("<my title>")
                        .setImageUrl(<image url>).build())
                .buildShortDynamicLink(ShortDynamicLink.Suffix.SHORT)
                .addOnCompleteListener((HomeActivity)mContext, new OnCompleteListener<ShortDynamicLink>() {
                    @Override
                    public void onComplete(@NonNull Task<ShortDynamicLink> task) {
                        if (task.isSuccessful()) {
                            // Short link created
                            Uri shortLink = task.getResult().getShortLink();
                        } else {
                            // Error
                            // ...
                        }
                    }
                });

[joshwolff1]

To answer what difference does it make: I did not code the Firebase SDK. So I have no idea how it works or what could cause your issue. It does seem like there could be a bug. It could be in any part of the code. By manually constructing the link, you are removing the possibility that the bug is in the dynamic link creation part of the code (provided that it still does not work). It's just a way to debug.

Try manually constructing, then using the console, and seeing if that works.

You have to try a lot of things and then something might work.

[KunalKathrotia]

Ok @joshwolff1 i'll also try that than.

[nightbear1009]

The efr works fine on ios but not work on android please help us

[joshwolff1]

The efr works fine on ios but not work on android please help us

I have not tried this on Android.

[KunalKathrotia]

The manually constructing dynamic link workaround is not working on android, but working on ios. So dynamically(using firebase sdks)/manually generated links shared on facebook when pressed it should redirect to app store/play store Or apps, which is not happening right now.

[KunalKathrotia]

The firebase dynamic links are not opening the app or app store based on the app's availability when clicked from skype too.

[rsevil]

Hi, I recently had to integrate dynamic links to one of my clients apps, and I got lots of trouble because of deeplinks not working on facebook+android_app.

As I couldn't move to branch.io because of princing reasons, I had to work it out on a different way so I read this issue on stackoverflow: https://stackoverflow.com/a/41592330. (more or less it says to put a proxy link between the client and the dynamic link itself where you should put the necessary facebook applinks metadata, and a redirect to the dynamic link itself for other types of clients)

I tried it with a hardcoded link and it worked very well (it opened the app instantly), so then I found out that I only needed to send via query string the link ID and another info to build some other metadata like og:title, og:description and og:image for the link preview to work well.

I ended with a very simple nodejs+express setup where I receive the dynamic link ID and return a HTML with all the meta-tags required by facebook applinks (android + iOS) and a redirect script (window.location = ) for other clients to be used.

The best part is that now on facebook the app opens directly without the preview page in both platforms and the link works on all browsers via the script redirect.

Here is the gist: https://gist.github.com/rsevil/377690cef7bde5fe6825e3d248af035d

[mikehardy]

fascinating. Nicely done. Seems like this sort of thing could be a firebase function even? Anything you do in node/express essentially can be a firebase function, then everyone here (firebase users) can stay serverless

[rsevil]

Yes @mikehaney24 that could be done without problem, I didn't knew about firebase functions, but as I read the documentation I think it works that way too.

I didn't think about using serverless because I didn't had another custom domain to use and I used a site that was already being served under nodejs.

Anyways, this solution is more like a patch to what firebase dynamic links is lacking in functionality, and this should be working out of the box without a problem.

[mikehaney24]

@mikehardy was probably the intended mention

[FakhruddinAbdi]

@rsevil could you please elaborate on your solution.
I have the same problem, I tried your solution but no luck.
If you can give a sample link from your implementation or if you can check this link and let me know what i missed

[FakhruddinAbdi]

Another question is why you need dynamic link then?
You are returning an HTML page, you can do it inside the original page which is linked in the dynamic link already.

[rsevil]

Hi @FakhruddinAbdi, I kept using dynamic links (redirecting to them) because it keeps me from handling all the logic needed of opening the store and all that sort of things.

One thing that I noted on the link you posted is that you were pointing to a custom scheme of your own, like if inside the "al:android:url" meta property you're trying to redirect to the deeplink. Instead there I'm using the url from a dynamic link that firebase is giving me, for example: dummydomain.page.link/aocjasocajc.

In the gist I have put everything I got and did to make it work.

Hope that it helps

[Aung-Myint-Thein]

I did some investigation and this is what I found out so far.

TLDR: Firebase Dynamic Link SDK might be having an issue. Facebook In-App Mobile Browser for Android is definitely having issue in redirecting in my experience.

Scenario 1. Long link - Android working, iOS partially broken.

I create a dynamic link manually. So, it is a long link such as "https://myanlearn.page.link/?link=https://www.myanlearn.com/course/607138951&apn=com.myanlearn_for_students&isi=1441239224&ibi=com.myanlearn.myanlearnforstudents". Posted the link on my Facebook Feed. When I open it in Android, my app is opened immediately and deep link is working as intended. When I open in iOS, the app is opened but deep link is not working. Surprisingly, no preview page is loaded in both iOS & Android.

Scenario 2. Short link - Android (FB Mobile Browser) not working, iOS working.

Then i create a dynamic link through REST API and got a link such as "https://myanlearn.page.link/vVp9eoQHnMSBLWxA6". Posted the link on my Facebook Feed. When I opened it in Android, Facebook's Mobile Browser tried to open my link and it opens "Play Store" page (if no fall back link androidFallbackLink is provided) OR opens fall back web link (if androidFallbackLink is provided). When I open in iOS, the preview page is loaded. Then my app is opened and deep link is working as intended. I tested the short link in all the other apps in Android and they are all working fine. So, I guess the way FB Mobile Browser is handling the link is broken somehow OR Firebase's detecting + directing is broken somehow in FB Mobile Browser.

Tested iOS: iPhone 6, iPhone 11
Android: OnePlus 2 (Android 6.0), Mi F1 Pocco (Android 9.0)

Hope this helps to find the issue and hopefully the fix...

[Aung-Myint-Thein]

After more investigation, I found out that the issue is in Firebase SDK to generate dynamic link short links. If there are socialMetaTagInfo data, the link is going to be broken and Facebook Mobile Browser will open web page. However, if there is no data for socialMetaTagInfo section, the link will work as intended.

However, make sure your SHA256 fingerprints are in Firebase Console. You can get both your dev fingerprint and Google Play Store's key in Play Store > Release Management > App Signing and put them in Firebase > Project Setting > Android Apps > SHA Fingerprints.

Hope this helps!

[Aung-Myint-Thein]

Actually, I found out that

without social meta tag, iOS won't work but Android will work. (eg: https://myanlearn.page.link/Cg29UhebgBRimiT48) This link will open my app in iOS without preview page (not sure why it skipped) but won't deep link into the content. Android is working fine.

with social meta tag, iOS will work but Android won't work. (eg: https://myanlearn.page.link/UF3RFFrALVGgPGYt6) Preview page is shown in iOS and deep linked into the content. Android won't open the app.

[sochychoeun]

Hi @samtstern my app also has this issue, any status update?

[sanketsohaliya]

Actually, I found out that

without social meta tag, iOS won't work but Android will work. (eg: https://myanlearn.page.link/Cg29UhebgBRimiT48) This link will open my app in iOS without preview page (not sure why it skipped) but won't deep link into the content. Android is working fine.

with social meta tag, iOS will work but Android won't work. (eg: https://myanlearn.page.link/UF3RFFrALVGgPGYt6) Preview page is shown in iOS and deep linked into the content. Android won't open the app.

For me short dynamic links on android on facebook do not work with or without social meta tags! It simply leads to the app on the play store but does not open the app even if it is installed!

I have also encountered another issue where dynamic links from other app on android only work if you have chrome browser open otherwise It simply leads to the app on the play store but does not open the app even if it is installed!

On android deep linking only works if browser is already open! Though I have tested your link and it is working fine.

My conclusion is that besides social meta tags issue, there is also some other configuration issue which might be causing this! I am not sure...

[armanhadifatah]

I have the same problem with dynamic link on facebook but it works fine on messenger,
and on Viber it does not show my image it shows firebase logo.

can anyone help ?
because i really need that my dynamic links to be opened from facebook but what i get it redirect user to firebase url and then ask user to open play store after that when clicking on play store icon it open the app.

[heshaShawky]

I'm using flutter and this issue still, Facebook opens the play store instead of the app and it's installed and working on WhatsApp fine, but most of the app marketing depends on Facebook so this is a huge deal.

I'm talking about the Android version.

[aanalmehta]

I am also facing the same issue for Facebook and Skype.
Platform: Android

[superturboryan]

I was able to get it to work for iOS by adding the appropriate metadata to our website's main page's header (used as the dynamic link URL set in Dynamic Links editor) as referenced here https://developers.facebook.com/docs/applinks/metadata-reference/

[heshaShawky]

I was able to get it to work for iOS by adding the appropriate metadata to our website's main page's header (used as the dynamic link URL set in Dynamic Links editor) as referenced here https://developers.facebook.com/docs/applinks/metadata-reference/

What about android? it redirects me to google play instead of the URL ( website ) so using metadata not helpful

[heshaShawky]

I did some investigation and this is what I found out so far.

TLDR: Firebase Dynamic Link SDK might be having an issue. Facebook In-App Mobile Browser for Android is definitely having issue in redirecting in my experience.

Scenario 1. Long link - Android working, iOS partially broken.

I create a dynamic link manually. So, it is a long link such as "https://myanlearn.page.link/?link=https://www.myanlearn.com/course/607138951&apn=com.myanlearn_for_students&isi=1441239224&ibi=com.myanlearn.myanlearnforstudents". Posted the link on my Facebook Feed. When I open it in Android, my app is opened immediately and deep link is working as intended. When I open in iOS, the app is opened but deep link is not working. Surprisingly, no preview page is loaded in both iOS & Android.

Scenario 2. Short link - Android (FB Mobile Browser) not working, iOS working.

Then i create a dynamic link through REST API and got a link such as "https://myanlearn.page.link/vVp9eoQHnMSBLWxA6". Posted the link on my Facebook Feed. When I opened it in Android, Facebook's Mobile Browser tried to open my link and it opens "Play Store" page (if no fall back link androidFallbackLink is provided) OR opens fall back web link (if androidFallbackLink is provided). When I open in iOS, the preview page is loaded. Then my app is opened and deep link is working as intended. I tested the short link in all the other apps in Android and they are all working fine. So, I guess the way FB Mobile Browser is handling the link is broken somehow OR Firebase's detecting + directing is broken somehow in FB Mobile Browser.

Tested iOS: iPhone 6, iPhone 11
Android: OnePlus 2 (Android 6.0), Mi F1 Pocco (Android 9.0)

Hope this helps to find the issue and hopefully the fix...

I tested all of those scenarios and nothing works with me ( using flutter ) on an android device.

[Abhinav2807]

I did some investigation and this is what I found out so far.

TLDR: Firebase Dynamic Link SDK might be having an issue. Facebook In-App Mobile Browser for Android is definitely having issue in redirecting in my experience.

Scenario 1. Long link - Android working, iOS partially broken.

I create a dynamic link manually. So, it is a long link such as "https://myanlearn.page.link/?link=https://www.myanlearn.com/course/607138951&apn=com.myanlearn_for_students&isi=1441239224&ibi=com.myanlearn.myanlearnforstudents". Posted the link on my Facebook Feed. When I open it in Android, my app is opened immediately and deep link is working as intended. When I open in iOS, the app is opened but deep link is not working. Surprisingly, no preview page is loaded in both iOS & Android.

Scenario 2. Short link - Android (FB Mobile Browser) not working, iOS working.

Then i create a dynamic link through REST API and got a link such as "https://myanlearn.page.link/vVp9eoQHnMSBLWxA6". Posted the link on my Facebook Feed. When I opened it in Android, Facebook's Mobile Browser tried to open my link and it opens "Play Store" page (if no fall back link androidFallbackLink is provided) OR opens fall back web link (if androidFallbackLink is provided). When I open in iOS, the preview page is loaded. Then my app is opened and deep link is working as intended. I tested the short link in all the other apps in Android and they are all working fine. So, I guess the way FB Mobile Browser is handling the link is broken somehow OR Firebase's detecting + directing is broken somehow in FB Mobile Browser.

Tested iOS: iPhone 6, iPhone 11
Android: OnePlus 2 (Android 6.0), Mi F1 Pocco (Android 9.0)

Hope this helps to find the issue and hopefully the fix...

I tried everything mentioned above , but nothing seems to work for me . If someone has a solution please help .

[hiendc170196]

I did some investigation and this is what I found out so far.

TLDR: Firebase Dynamic Link SDK might be having an issue. Facebook In-App Mobile Browser for Android is definitely having issue in redirecting in my experience.

Scenario 1. Long link - Android working, iOS partially broken.

I create a dynamic link manually. So, it is a long link such as "https://myanlearn.page.link/?link=https://www.myanlearn.com/course/607138951&apn=com.myanlearn_for_students&isi=1441239224&ibi=com.myanlearn.myanlearnforstudents". Posted the link on my Facebook Feed. When I open it in Android, my app is opened immediately and deep link is working as intended. When I open in iOS, the app is opened but deep link is not working. Surprisingly, no preview page is loaded in both iOS & Android.

Scenario 2. Short link - Android (FB Mobile Browser) not working, iOS working.

Then i create a dynamic link through REST API and got a link such as "https://myanlearn.page.link/vVp9eoQHnMSBLWxA6". Posted the link on my Facebook Feed. When I opened it in Android, Facebook's Mobile Browser tried to open my link and it opens "Play Store" page (if no fall back link androidFallbackLink is provided) OR opens fall back web link (if androidFallbackLink is provided). When I open in iOS, the preview page is loaded. Then my app is opened and deep link is working as intended. I tested the short link in all the other apps in Android and they are all working fine. So, I guess the way FB Mobile Browser is handling the link is broken somehow OR Firebase's detecting + directing is broken somehow in FB Mobile Browser.

Tested iOS: iPhone 6, iPhone 11
Android: OnePlus 2 (Android 6.0), Mi F1 Pocco (Android 9.0)

Hope this helps to find the issue and hopefully the fix...

How you configure the link in scenario 1 to open in facebook's feed without set "Open external link" in Setting? I tried configure my own dynamic link manually on Firebase Console but when I click it in Facebook's Feed ,it redirected to Play Store instead of my app (I tested on Android and don't open external link on Facebook). May you explain your own way? I would appreciate it

[hiendc170196]

Now I facing two issues:
1.When I paste the link in progress bar on Chrome, it redirect to Play Store even thought I have already installed app
2.When I click my own link on Facebook's Feed,it didn't redirect to correct screen that I want to move
From my standpoint,it probably the Firebase's issue because I try another social networks such as Instagram, Skype, Messenger,Zalo it all work

[Significantinfotech2020]

Now I facing two issues:
1.When I paste the link in progress bar on Chrome, it redirect to Play Store even thought I have already installed app
2.When I click my own link on Facebook's Feed,it didn't redirect to correct screen that I want to move
From my standpoint,it probably the Firebase's issue because I try another social networks such as Instagram, Skype, Messenger,Zalo it all work

I am facing same issue no. 2. If any one got solution, then please suggest us.