Android App Links not working

Android's version of universal links fails for the same structural reason as Apple's, with one important advantage: there is a documented fallback.

6 August 2026 by PAD team

How verification works

Android checks a file on your domain to confirm your app may handle its URLs. If verification fails, the link opens in the browser and no error is shown to anyone:

https://yourdomain.com/.well-known/assetlinks.json

The file lists your package name and the SHA-256 fingerprints of the signing certificates. The most common mistake is listing only the upload key while Play App Signing re-signs the app with a different one, so the fingerprint on real devices never matches.

Checking it

Google runs a verification endpoint you can query directly, and on a device you can inspect the state through adb:

adb shell pm get-app-links com.example.app

A status of verified means it works. Anything else means Android will keep opening the browser regardless of what your manifest says.

The advantage Android has

Where iOS leaves you stuck inside an in-app browser, Android exposes intent://, which names a target package and carries a fallback for the case where it is missing:

intent://details?id=com.example.app#Intent;scheme=market;
package=com.android.vending;
S.browser_fallback_url=https%3A%2F%2Fplay.google.com%2Fstore%2Fapps%2Fdetails%3Fid%3Dcom.example.app;
end

This is why the blank page problem is overwhelmingly an iPhone problem in practice. In our own traffic, the overwhelming majority of taps arriving from social apps came from iOS, with Android a rounding error.

What still catches people

• autoVerify="true" missing from the intent filter in the manifest
• The file served from a redirecting host, which fails verification
• Multiple signing certificates in play, with only one listed
• Verification cached from a previous failed attempt, cleared by reinstalling