Introducing Opener | Hacker News Reader

Introducing Opener

medium.com

23 pointstimonus16 comments

This is one of those things that Android got right early on, URLs can have 'open handlers' no matter whether they appear - in an email, on the web or a link to google maps that opens the Maps app from another app.

Not only can an Android app register that it handles links for a given domain or scheme, but multiple apps can be available, if say, you've written a better imgur or flickr viewer. But the UX to say "always open this type of link in this app" is simple and unobtrusive as well.

Shame iOS hasn't yet followed along with this, but I suspect it might be one of those things that would substantially affect legacy iOS apps.

Totally agreed, Android does a way better job of this. Opener is a stopgap on iOS, but it would be way better if Apple had a first party fix. Rumor has it there's one coming soon.

apple doesnt want you replacing apple maps with google maps, or safari with chrome.

> Why don’t links just open in apps?

I am not familiar with iOS but in Android they do, since day one, how is iOS different in that regard?

On iOS a URL scheme needs to be setup usually. (e.g. itms:// links open the iTunes store app). I don't think there's a right way to do this really. Half the time I'm frustrated a link didn't open in the app and the other half I'm frustrated it didn't just open in the browser.

You're correct, iOS apps can only handle schemes but now whole URLs. On Android, the system can intercept any URL and pass it to the app (http://instagram.com/blahblahblah goes to the Instagram app, for example), which means web URLs can open in apps instead. On iOS, you must use a dedicated scheme, which means links from the web don't play nice with apps.

Opener attempts to fix this by mapping web links to app-specific links.

How does it compare with http://applinks.org/?

App Links is an "open" solution from Facebook that's poorly adopted by developers. Opener is a solution intended directly for end users that doesn't rely on developer to adopt some standard. Developers usually won't adopt something like App Links, but end users still want to open links in apps. I wrote Opener to fill the gap :)

This looked awesome, but I found it on the app store and you're charging. I don't think this is a serious enough problem for me to pay you to fix it.

There's been a few products like this recently on iOS and Mac (by like this I mean things that could improve my productivity, workflow etc.) that I would like to try but aren't willing to pay for upfront. I won't know if they work for me until I try them. I know it's not a lot of money, but it is if I only use it once and find out it's not for me.

It's more hassle to implement but a free with iAP is surely a better monetisation model for a 'utility' app like this?

I'm not sure how Apple does this, but with the Play Store, you have 15 minutes (I might be wrong on the time) to get a refund after purchase, so that you can make sure it works on your device, that it is what it says on the box, etc.

Actually this is something that iOS should provide. I'll just wait for the next iOS release.

Yeah, hopefully it's coming soon

It's common for iOS and OSX apps that are tool oriented/helpful to the user to have a price. Frankly, I'd rather pay $2 than wait 5 seconds for some random full-screen advertisement in the app every time I open it.

I will gladly pay 2$ for this. Thank you so much!

No, thank you!!

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