Ask HN: How do I know where my mobile downloads are coming from?

Re:Ask HN: How do I know where my mobile downloads are comin... by farren on Friday May 18, 2012 @08:16PM (#3994694)

I've been using a sort of ghetto hack, so I'm not sure if you want to copy me.

When users land on any of my marketing pages, I cookie them in safari. Then when they open my mobile app, I send them to safari, check if the cookie exists, and then redirect them back to the app. This lets me tie installs back to link clicks.

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Re:Ask HN: How do I know where my mobile downloads are comin... by germancoder on Friday May 18, 2012 @08:55PM (#3994771)

I question the accuracy because w3.org actually mentions that cookies work differently on mobile devices vs. web. However, if you're only targeting smart phones with full web browsing capabilities like the iPhone or Android (or Win7???) then it should be ok.

Source: http://www.w3.org/TR/mobile-bp/#d0e1925

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Re:Ask HN: How do I know where my mobile downloads are comin... by germancoder on Friday May 18, 2012 @08:57PM (#3994772)

Thanks though for sharing this solution. I'll stick around to see if anything new pops up.

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Re:Ask HN: How do I know where my mobile downloads are comin... by peterstark on Friday May 18, 2012 @08:19PM (#3994699)

Haha. I've been several apps use that approach before. It is a terrible user experience to flash open the browser each time the app opens. This is not something I can do for my app.

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Re:Ask HN: How do I know where my mobile downloads are comin... by PhotonCannonR on Friday May 18, 2012 @08:44PM (#3994750)

Oh wow, that's actually kind of a clever hack. How quickly can you redirect back to the app? Is there a tutorial on something like this (my Google-fu failed me here)?

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