At Facebook F8, a few months ago, Facebook launched App Links, a cross platform app deep linking system. Now, Facebook launched new Analytics feature to use App Links to access info about apps. The App Links Analytics initiative is designed to make it easier for developers to link other apps contents in partnership with its subsidiary Parse and mobile analytics provider Mixpanel.

The open source solution works as an interface between different apps installed. Instead of a link opening in a mobile browser, App Links will open the app if it is installed on the device. For example, if a user sees a Vimeo link in Facebook, the link will open Vimeo with the user already logged into his or her account.  This reduces the friction of having to log into different accounts in a mobile browser.

“Our fundamental goal is to make App Links build the fabric of the mobile ecosystem,” said Facebook product manager Vijay Shankar. “If we can make every URL out there have associated deep linking points, we can basically build the existing fabric on the web on mobile.”

App Links supports iOS, Android, and Windows Phone. Facebook also announced Windows universal support so the app links can work on the entire Windows ecosystem.

Facebook adds Analytics to App Links

App Links community said over three billion unique URLs are now enabled with App Links, from companies including Pinterest, Redfin, Goodreads, Edomondo, Hulu, Flixter, Wattpad, Venmo, MovieTickets.com, Mixcloud, Rdio, SoundCloud, Tumblr, EyeEm, Houzz, Flickr, Vevo, Vimeo, Rhapsody, Fancy.com, iHeart, Songkick, and DailyMotion. Developers enable App Links on HTML pages by publishing tags for Android and custom URL scheme for App Store identification.

Since the App Links is open source, the company provides Bolts SDK that will support sending events so that developers can measure the traffic associated with their app’s App Links integration. This will help developers understand how traffic is flowing to and from any App Links integrated mobile app.

App Links Analytics support three different analytics tools including Facebook Insights, Parse Analytics and Mixpanel, to measure traffic associated with the integration. Developers can also build their own analytics solutions using the open-source system.

Moreover, the company also launched analytics support to track and monitor links. The Facebook App Links Index API provides a central repository for apps to discover whether any URL on the web can be deep linked on mobile.

“We have met with a lot of developers who have adopted App Links already, and the most requested feature was, ‘Help me understand the value of my App Links integration,’” Shankar said.

Mobile apps talking to one another for better monetization

Facebook app-download ads are among the social network’s most successful product. App Links is designed to work for anything linkable, whether it be links to content in other apps, on websites, or even advertisements. Among the things developers can see when using the new analytics feature are when a person leaves to another app, when a user reaches that app, and when they return to the previous app.

The key is that developers can use App Links for ecommerce, Facebook app-download ads, or Facebook’s mobile News Feed for better monetization. In long run, Facebook can pay developers to get apps installed on their devices. For developers, App Links Analytics can help grow the number of links and traffic to one’s app and contents.

Any content that uses App Links will be more accessible to mobile phone users and in return, marketers and developers can take advantage of it. E-commerce developers can also tap the system’s potential by enabling affiliate referral programs.

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