App Indexing: Blurring the Lines Between Your Website and App

You worked really hard to create a great Android app that provides a better experience for users accessing your content from their mobile devices. And yet most of your users still find themselves on your website being sent there by a Google search or a link they clicked on in an e-mail or another app (like the browser).

Don’t you wish there was a way to send those users back to your app instead?

Well, there is a way to do this, and it’s called App indexing. App Indexing allows you to connect pages from your website with specific content within your Android app. This enables users who have your app installed to open it directly from relevant mobile search results on Google.

Transcript

1. App Indexing Blurring the Lines Between your App and your Website Juan Gomez
2. Intro Who am I? • Mobile Engineer at Netflix • Previously at Eventbrite and OneLouder Apps • Android & Python Developer
3. Agenda • Implementing Deep Linking on your App • Including your app in the App Indexing Program • Surfacing your app’s content on Search Autocomplete.
4. Why deep linking?
5. Deep Linking Checklist 1. Identify deep links 2. Add Intent Filter to Android App 3. Add Code to Handle Intent Filter 4. Test Intent Handler
6. Identify Deep Links http://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-great-dickens-christmas- fair-5-weekends-one-friday-tickets-11925103305
7. 1. In your AndroidManifest.xml file, add one or more <intent-filter> elements for the activities that should be launchable from deep links. 2. Add an <action> tag that specifies the ACTION_VIEW intent action. 3. Add a <data> tag for each data URI format the activity accepts. This is the primary mechanism to declare the format for your deep links. 4. Add a <category> for both BROWSABLE and DEFAULT intent categories. • BROWSABLE: is required in order for the intent to be executable from a web browser. • DEFAULT: declares your app can accept an implicit intent. (not required if you’re only providing deep links from Google Search results) Add Intent Filter to Android App
8. Add Intent Filter to Android App
9. Add Code to Handle Intent Filter
10. Test Intent Handler Or you can use this website: https://developers.google.com/app-indexing/webmasters/test Using ADB on the command line:
11. Success!
12. The downside of deep linking? The evil chooser dialog!
13. App Indexing Checklist 1. Create URL format for App Indexing 2. Add App Indexing Markup to your website 3. Verify your website on Webmaster Tools* 4. Connect your app using Google Play Console * if your website/page is brand new.
14. URL format for App Indexing android-app://com.eventbrite.attendee/http/www.eventbrite.com/e/the- great-dickens-christmas-fair-5-weekends-one-friday-tickets-11925103305
15. • For each of the deep links identified earlier, we need to add additional markup. • This markup allows the Google crawler to use deep links to send users to your Android app. • For most modern web application frameworks, this should only involve changing a single template. Add App Indexing Markup
16. Add App Indexing Markup
17. Verify Your App in Webmaster Tools (for new websites) • Go to Google Webmaster Tools. • On the left menu, click All Messages. • Open the verification request message (example: "Google Play: Link http://www.yourwebsite.com to Android application com.yourpackage.name"). • Click Approve the request. • Review the information in the dialog. • Click Approve
18. Verify Your App in Webmaster Tools
19. Connect your app using Google Play Console • Sign in to your Google Play Developer Console. • Click All Applications • Select the application you'd like to verify. • On the left menu, click Services & APIs. • Under "App Indexing from Google Search", click Verify website. • Type your website address. • Click Verify.
20. Connect your app using Google Play Console
21. Search results should now go straight to your app. Success! (for real this time)
22. Adding Search Autocomplete 1. Implement App Indexing 2. Verify Google Play Services Version 3. Create an API Client 4. Record a Page View 5. Record a Page View End 6. Test
23. Verify Google Play Services • The next thing we need to do is make sure that Google Play Services is enabled for our app. • The App Indexing API requires Google Play Services version 5.+ • minSdkVersion 10 or above. • If using selective API on GPS: 
 com.google.android.gms:play-services-appindexing:7.0.0
24. Create an API Client
25. Record a Page View
26. Record a Page View End
27. Test Autocomplete
28. Summary • Use deep linking to redirect traffic from the web to your app • Implement App Indexing to allow Google search result to send users directly into your app (and not your website) • Use the App Indexing API to expose content from your app in Google’s query autocomplete.
29. Useful links • https://developers.google.com/app-indexing/ • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xh_W82JgOms • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjLJoMWSXts
30. Thank You! Twitter: @_juandg Email: jgomez@netflix.com Lanyrd: lanyrd.com/profile/juandg/