Branch.io deeplink in android opens Play Store even when app is installed
When testing deeplinks on android when the app is installed, the link opens the Play Store.
When I click 'Open', the app does open in the correct location, i.e. the deeplink does work. However, I don't want the user to go through Play Store for no reason.
I contacted Branch.io's support with this question. Here's the answer I got from them, which was correct:
The issue you described is one I've run into. Because we don't know (with 100% accuracy) whether a user already has MyApp installed until they open the app from a Branch link, we wait until that's happened before deeplinking them directly into the app (and in the meantime, we send them to the app store).
There is, however, a setting that you can use to change this behavior. In settings/link settings in your Branch dashboard, there's a checkbox at the top of the page with the text "Always try to open app." If you check this box, we will automatically fire your URI scheme when a link is clicked, which means that even users who haven't opened MyApp from a Branch link (but who do have the app installed) will be deeplinked.
(I replaced my app's name with 'MyApp')