It’s easy to overlook deep linking as it can seem like a tedious thing and definitely the last of your priorities. As a developer, your mind is cluttered with these bugs and updates you need to keep up with, and  not to mention new blossoming app ideas, deep linking is the last thing on your mind. Well, maybe it shouldn’t be.

More recently, there is a new type of deep linking: contextual deep-linking. When a user is searching for specific content, instead of only searching the web, a deep link leading to in-app content will appear. This exposes  content that users would not normally see unless he/she have the app already downloaded. Now deep links can be found useful and beneficial to not only existing users, but also drives growth and retention with newly acquired users.  

According to an observation done by Tech Crunch of a sign up event, 29% of users that were contextually deep linked immediately signed up in the app, whereas only 16% of users who were not deep linked signed up. This 29% is only going to continue growing. 

Contextual deep linking not only helps obtain more users, it also helps keep users. Continuing on with the Tech Crunch study, deep-linked users are more engaged with the app after install than regular users.  It is hypothesized that the deep links create a more positive install experience which then yields more continuous activity than non-deep linked installs. Obtaining more users and keeping more users… what more could be asked?

Contextual deep linking is creating a movement for deep linking in making it relevant and useful again –we can’t dismiss it anymore! This is the new trend that developers should and will begin to follow. Contextual deep links promote viral sharing which can lead to many other possibilities, even desktop-to-mobile transitions. Deep linking will take away tedious moments of manually looking for something on top of having more content to choose from. No more being taken away to the app store to only download the app or be taken to the home page if you already have it installed. Users will be taken to where they should be, where they wanted to all this time.

This end-result is what should have been already  implemented all this time, but it is not too late! The consideration of contextual deep linking has been slowly been rising and will continue to grow and be perfected. Mobile links will be changed forever and for the better.