Reddit Welcomes Michael Seibel to Board of Directors

Re:Reddit Welcomes Michael Seibel to Board of Directors by Benjammer on Wednesday June 10, 2020 @09:10PM (#23484198)

Deep links are only hard because the base concept is semantic organization of your content, so you can deep link to one thing in an organized way. If your app isn't structured to present content like this, if it has many deep workflows or ordered stages of screens/states, then yeah it's gonna be hard to deep link into page 5 of the 11 page workflow you built, that also requires authentication and a bunch of data loading.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Reddit Welcomes Michael Seibel to Board of Directors by stevula on Wednesday June 10, 2020 @09:48PM (#23484440)

I think we can safely say that Reddit content is organized in a way that should be conducive to deep linking (each post and comment thread has a unique and permanent URL). Their deep links generally work well for me though, unlike some other apps.

I once had to implement deep links for a React Native app and, while I’m by no means a great mobile dev there were plenty of thorny bits. For example, I think iOS doesn’t open a deep link in app if you type the url directly into the address bar. It will only open in the app if the user taps a link. Another complexity is making sure a deep link opens in the app for app users and opens the App Store for other users.

iOS also has two different systems for deep linking, custom protocols (eg myapp://) and universal links (a server side manifest that you register with Apple). These each have their pros and cons.

To be sure, those should be solvable problems for a company with even a fraction of Reddit’s resources.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Reddit Welcomes Michael Seibel to Board of Directors by raydev on Friday June 12, 2020 @01:22AM (#23496298)

Someone already said it above, but I don't know if the blame lies entirely with Reddit since deep links from Safari to the app work fine for some of us. I've never had issues getting linked deep into any comment thread, for example.

YouTube links, on the other hand, never work for me. They always open in Safari and then I have to find a way to trigger the app link by opening one of the menus on the YouTube website.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Reddit Welcomes Michael Seibel to Board of Directors by baddox on Wednesday June 10, 2020 @09:53PM (#23484475)

I don’t think that’s the only difficulty. There’s something else going on in iOS. YouTube links don’t even open in the YouTube app on my iPhone (I have to load the safari page, add them to Watch Later, then switch to the YouTube app). It does, however, work on my iPad.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Reddit Welcomes Michael Seibel to Board of Directors by joegahona on Wednesday June 10, 2020 @11:37PM (#23484991)

Do you have to be logged in to add them to Watch Later?

The same thing happens to me with Youtube, but only on iPad, not iPhone. The way I get the app open is, when I get to Safari, I try to open the page in desktop. Youtube app kicks open then.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Reddit Welcomes Michael Seibel to Board of Directors by baddox on Thursday June 11, 2020 @12:07AM (#23485108)

You do have to be logged in, and I am logged into YouTube in Safari.

[ Parent | on HN ]