Nine wrong beliefs about store links

Each of these is repeated confidently in forums and each one costs somebody installs.

6 August 2026 · PAD team

1. A short link fixes it

It resolves inside the same browser and meets the same redirect. One extra hop, same blank page.

2. My tracker handles it

OneLink, Branch and Adjust measure the tap. The final navigation still happens in the WebView. Accurate numbers about people who never arrived.

3. It works, I tested it

You tested in Safari, where Apple's redirect resolves normally. The only valid test is tapping from inside the app.

4. It's an Apple bug

Apple's redirect works as designed. So does Meta's browser. The failure lives between two deliberate decisions.

5. It affects everyone equally

Instagram needs a manual fallback on a fraction of a percent of taps. Facebook needs it far more often. Android barely at all.

6. Android has the same problem

Rarely. Android browsers can hand off through intent:// with a fallback. iOS has no equivalent, which is the whole reason this exists.

7. A 301 redirect solves it

The status code is irrelevant. What matters is which browser holds the connection when Apple's scheme redirect arrives.

8. Only bio links are affected

Every traffic, engagement and conversion campaign routes through the same browser, and so does every web-to-app funnel.

9. Users will open it in Safari themselves

Some do. Measured on our own traffic, roughly half of the people who reach the manual button use it, and the button only appears after everything automatic has failed.

The pattern

Every one of these assumes the problem is about the link. It is about the container the link runs in, and that changes which fixes can work at all.