App Store links in email
Email looks like the safe channel until you notice that mobile clients also ship their own browsers.
6 August 2026 ยท PAD team
Which clients open their own browser
| Client | Opens links in |
|---|---|
| Apple Mail | default browser, usually Safari |
| Gmail app on iOS | its own in-app browser by default |
| Outlook mobile | its own in-app browser |
| Superhuman, Spark and others | varies, often in-app |
So the Gmail app on an iPhone has the same problem as Instagram: a store link tapped there can end on a blank page.
Link wrapping
Email platforms rewrite links for click tracking, which adds a redirect. That is fine in itself, but it can drop query parameters, taking campaign tokens with them. Check what actually arrives at the store rather than what you put in the template.
The onboarding sequence problem
A welcome series that ends with "download our app" is a high-intent moment, and it is usually built once and left alone for years. If the link inside it fails on Gmail for iOS, the loss compounds silently across every cohort.
What to do
- Use a routing address, not a raw store URL, in every template
- Tag it per email so you can see which message drives installs
- Test by sending yourself the campaign and tapping from the Gmail app on an iPhone
- Verify the tracking wrapper preserves your parameters through to the store
One address in your templates that survives every mail client and keeps its parameters.