Google today announced that its app indexing feature is now compatible with the HTTP deep link standards for iOS 9, which will allow iOS users to open mobile app content directly from the Google Search results page in Safari for iOS.
To use the feature, developers need to add Universal Links to their iOS apps and then integrate with Google’s SDK. For end users, this change will result in better integration between search results and apps.
For example, when searching for a restaurant with Google Search and getting a Yelp result, clicking on the Yelp link will open the Yelp app on iOS instead of opening the Yelp website within Safari.
Google’s app indexing feature for iOS was announced in May, but prior to today, it was limited to the Chrome browser and Google app for iOS. iOS users will begin to see app content in Safari on iOS starting at the end of October.
