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Email deep links

Make the click-tracked links in your emails open your app: point your email provider's tracking domain at DL2App, which keeps the provider's tracking working.

Email providers rewrite every link in an email to go through their click-tracking domain, such as email.yourapp.com/ls/click?…. That domain belongs to the provider, so the phone opens a browser instead of your app. An email link domain fixes this: the tracking domain points at DL2App, which passes every request on to the provider and tells the phone which addresses may open the app.

How it works

  • App installed: a tap on a tracked click opens the app. The SDK asks the provider where the link leads, which also counts the click, and hands your code that page as a path, with destination_url in the data. If the email links to one of your DL2App links, the app receives that link instead, with its path and data.
  • No app, or a desktop: the request goes to the provider as before and redirects to the web page.
  • Everything else on the domain, such as open pixels and unsubscribe pages, is passed to the provider and never opens the app.

Set it up

  1. Set the tracking domain up in your email provider first, as usual, and wait until the provider shows it as verified.
  2. In DL2App, open Domains, then Email links. Pick the provider and enter the tracking domain. Check the tracking host and click paths against a tracked link from one of your own emails.
  3. Change the domain’s CNAME record to the address the page shows. A certificate is issued automatically.
  4. Add the domain to your app: applinks:email.yourapp.com in Associated Domains on iOS, an intent filter with a path pattern for each click path on Android, and the SDK’s linkDomains. Release the update.
  5. Send a test email to a phone with the app and tap a link.

Provider presets

ProviderTracking hostClick paths
SendGrid (also Braze on SendGrid)sendgrid.net/ls/click*, /uni/ls/click*, /wf/click*, /uni/wf/click*
Mailgunmailgun.org/c/*
SparkPost (also Braze on SparkPost)spgo.io/f/*
Customer.ioe.customeriomail.com/e/c/*
Iterablelinks.iterable.com/a/*

These are typical values. Providers vary by account and region, so compare them with a real tracked link. For any other provider, enter the host your tracking domain’s CNAME pointed at and the path of a tracked click.

Limits

  • An email link domain counts as one of the plan’s custom domains.
  • Clicks are counted by your email provider. They are DL2App clicks only when the email links to a DL2App link.
  • Until users have the app update that adds the domain, email links open the browser as before.