# 🆕 Deep Links **URL:** \ **Category:** General\ **Created:** [September 17, 2020, 7:25pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/deep-links/15966 "2020-09-17T19:25:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![George\_B](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/george_b/32/534_2.png) [@George\_B](https://community.glideapps.com/u/George_B)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2020, 12:04am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/deep-links/15966/122 "2020-12-08T00:04:08Z")
Deep links are essentially a path that navigates to a screen in an app. If the steps that lead to that screen have visibility restrictions that are not met then the link will not work. This is the behavior you are seeing correct? ---
**Author:** ![yinon\_raviv](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/yinon_raviv/32/1627_2.png) [@yinon\_raviv](https://community.glideapps.com/u/yinon_raviv)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2020, 4:52am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/deep-links/15966/123 "2020-12-08T04:52:42Z")
Yes, I’m used to website where each page has a dedicated link and you can jump right into it. I figured what you said while developing the app and I think I might have an ok workaround. Once completed will share. ---
**Author:** ![a.manda](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/a.manda/32/32645_2.png) [@a.manda](https://community.glideapps.com/u/a.manda)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2020, 12:41am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/deep-links/15966/124 "2020-12-27T00:41:11Z")
> [@Wiz.Wazeer](#): > > Here is a deep link demo in markdown wrapped inside a rich text component! Hi @Wiz.Wazeer your app link is broken, do you by chance still have this demo somewhere? I’d like to put a link into a rich text component - but it’s to VCF cards which would be a different link for each details screen. Is this even possible? As of now I can make a button to share the VCF (it’s a link to the file hosted on Glide) but the shared link looks terrible and suspect
 ---
**Author:** ![Wiz.Wazeer](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/wiz.wazeer/32/72423_2.png) [@Wiz.Wazeer](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Wiz.Wazeer)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2020, 1:55am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/deep-links/15966/125 "2020-12-27T01:55:35Z")
Hi @a.manda, I am working on that template, adding all the latest stuff. The rich text example freezes on iPhone I checked, but on android I don’t know. I have not tried with VCF links and I doubt they would work (unless some1 has tried them successfully)
have you considered “navigate to tab” \> link to screen under compound action
it’s an effective alternative unless of course the link is to an external site. ---
**Author:** ![a.manda](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/a.manda/32/32645_2.png) [@a.manda](https://community.glideapps.com/u/a.manda)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2020, 2:24am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/deep-links/15966/126 "2020-12-27T02:24:11Z")
I tried making a button that shares a link to the details screen (alternative to the VCF thing) but learned that does not work unless the app is public. (Which makes sense for security) The links _are_ external - hosted by Glide but are external to the app screens. Just trying to avoid displaying Glide’s unchangeable file naming structure: ![Photo Dec 26, 9 11 02 PM](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/glideapps/original/3X/4/1/4173bfe7e946a6599cbe1a463d36a4701b143fc7.jpeg) Since the rich text solution is buggy I’ll next try rehosting on Google Drive instead đŸ€žđŸ» ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Hager](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/jeff_hager/32/43_2.png) [@Jeff\_Hager](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Jeff_Hager)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2020, 7:03am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/deep-links/15966/127 "2020-12-27T07:03:09Z")
> [@a.manda](#): > > I’d like to put a link into a rich text component - but it’s to VCF cards which would be a different link for each details screen Wouldn’t this just be a template column built with the markdown text and link, used to fill a rich text component? ---
**Author:** ![a.manda](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/a.manda/32/32645_2.png) [@a.manda](https://community.glideapps.com/u/a.manda)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2020, 10:01am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/deep-links/15966/128 "2020-12-27T10:01:47Z")
Sorry Jeff, just realized my long game wasn’t obvious here - @Wiz.Wazeer had shared his “bury long link inside rich text component” method in a few different posts and [this](https://community.glideapps.com/t/sharing-issues/16532) is the one that has better context for what I’m trying to do. I have handmade (🙄) VCFs for all my contacts and uploaded them via Glide onto every details screen. Along with an “Add To Contacts” button (which just links to the VCF and loads it straight up) I have a “Share This Contact” button which is attached to the action “Show sharing options” with **data** being set to the VCF link. Since Glide renames all uploaded files this share action results in a bunch of shady-looking jibberish being shared - see my phone screenshot above your reply. I thought the rich text component method was a possible solution to this problem, but now I’m unsure of that? I was able to build a rich text component that holds the link per your instructions: ![CleanShot 2020-12-27 at 04.47.56](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/glideapps/original/3X/d/c/dcd15e72fdfd65f6bd49eff2eb08184c14c074a5.png) And thank you because that’s SO COOL all on its own - but I’m not seeing how to apply it to my previously-not-clear problem. First off, I can’t attach this rich text component to my share button (right?) and secondly, if I directly attach the template column to my share button it STILL displays the shady looking gibberish when I click to share. Seems like no matter how I mask the gibberish the act of sharing cuts down to the actual file name â˜č I tried as a solution hosting the VCFs on Google Drive, Dropbox, and iCloud but none of those services load the file correctly as a contact card like Glide does. (They all load it into their proprietary windows and not as a raw file) Seems like my only solution is finding a “real” web host
? ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Hager](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/jeff_hager/32/43_2.png) [@Jeff\_Hager](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Jeff_Hager)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2020, 4:40pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/deep-links/15966/129 "2020-12-27T16:40:25Z")
OK, I see what you are saying. I would agree with a third party host to avoid the weird name. I’m not aware of a good way to mask a file name or at least in my experience I haven’t had to deal with that unless you are actually building your own host website with code. I think it will download with whatever name it has. As for the other services you’ve tried, I would do some research on other url formats they offer or additional query parameters that you can add to the url. Sometimes the base url will take you directly to their page, but with the correct url or parameters, you can get the direct download. This is an excerpt I found while searching for dropbox > To get a direct download link, just paste your link into a text editor and replace the `www.dropbox.com` with `dl.dropboxusercontent.com` , which will give you a link like: > > `https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/hriinb9w3a2107m/iPad%20intro.pdf` ---
**Author:** ![a.manda](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/a.manda/32/32645_2.png) [@a.manda](https://community.glideapps.com/u/a.manda)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2020, 7:42pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/deep-links/15966/130 "2020-12-27T19:42:14Z")
I see!!! Again, this is so incredibly cool as standalone knowledge, thank you!! Sadly, Glide keeps hitting me with “gotchas” - if I use the direct download link for Dropbox, Glide auto-wraps that link with the app url like so: `https://appname.glideapp.io/dl/dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/randomnumbers/filename.extension` Now if I use a direct download link for Google Drive, that does load except Drive adds their OWN gibberish, so I’m back to the gibberish file name issue. I couldn’t find a direct download converter for iCloud, but I’m wondering - is this a thing where Glide only allows their “Show sharing options” action to attach directly to an outside link IF that link is already encrypted? And if it’s not they wrap the link in the app? As a
security measure? I don’t really understand this because I can attach any of these links to the “open link” action without Glide wrapping the app around it. (Although a window does pop up to say “This website is trying to download a contact card. Do you want to allow this?” so maybe that’s the difference) Now I’m thinking that ANY hosting service that provides a “raw” link to the file would result in Glide wrapping that link with the app 😭 **Side Note** : If you ignore the “Share Contact” button and instead click the “Add To Contacts” button and the VCF loads nicely into the screen - YES at this point there is a share icon native to the phone itself (at least on iPhone) but there is a strange bug happening where choosing to share via text loads an empty text message with no attachment. Email option works correctly, but the text option is just an empty text. This was discovered by one of my users and I reproduced it. Basically I feel like a mouse in a maze filled with dead-ends on this one! Sigh
 ---
**Author:** ![david](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/david/32/62831_2.png) [@david](https://community.glideapps.com/u/david)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2020, 10:50pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/deep-links/15966/131 "2020-12-31T22:50:04Z")
Glide doesn’t wrap your links. Are you sure they start with `https://`? ---
**Author:** ![a.manda](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/a.manda/32/32645_2.png) [@a.manda](https://community.glideapps.com/u/a.manda)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2021, 12:18am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/deep-links/15966/132 "2021-01-01T00:18:16Z")
@david good call, my test link WAS somehow missing `https://`đŸ€Ż It still worked with the “open link” action so I didn’t catch that! And since I had just learned that Glide _ **does** _ wrap the app url around the action: `Show sharing options--->Link to current screen` on non-public apps I had it in my head that this was normal Glide behavior
thank you very much for catching that. ---
**Author:** ![gp9293](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/gp9293/32/16743_2.png) [@gp9293](https://community.glideapps.com/u/gp9293)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2021, 2:16pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/deep-links/15966/133 "2021-01-17T14:16:03Z")
On capturing the deep link URL to a column upon record creation
any luck with this? Would be powerful. Thank you. ---
**Author:** ![Robert\_Petitto](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/robert_petitto/32/25193_2.png) [@Robert\_Petitto](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Robert_Petitto)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2021, 2:30pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/deep-links/15966/134 "2021-01-17T14:30:01Z")
I would love this feature as well. It was around in staging when they first introduced the feature, but it never made it production. ---
**Author:** ![gp9293](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/gp9293/32/16743_2.png) [@gp9293](https://community.glideapps.com/u/gp9293)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2021, 3:01pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/deep-links/15966/135 "2021-01-17T15:01:37Z")
Is there any way to capture the deep link value and store it somewhere, anywhere? I want to send the link in an SMS to direct the user to the specific page. Thanks ---
**Author:** ![ThinhDinh](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/thinhdinh/32/49_2.png) [@ThinhDinh](https://community.glideapps.com/u/ThinhDinh)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2021, 3:37pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/deep-links/15966/136 "2021-01-17T15:37:19Z")
The only way, I think, is to manually access the specific row via the real app and paste the deep link to your Sheet. ---
**Author:** ![ehdubya](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/ehdubya/32/24087_2.png) [@ehdubya](https://community.glideapps.com/u/ehdubya)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2021, 4:06pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/deep-links/15966/137 "2021-01-17T16:06:19Z")
This is the only way we could get it to work too. ---
**Author:** ![mcclurefaith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/bc8723/32.png) [@mcclurefaith](https://community.glideapps.com/u/mcclurefaith)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2021, 1:04am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/deep-links/15966/138 "2021-04-09T01:04:38Z")
Can you provide more specific about how to do this? ---
**Author:** ![ThinhDinh](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/thinhdinh/32/49_2.png) [@ThinhDinh](https://community.glideapps.com/u/ThinhDinh)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2021, 1:06am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/deep-links/15966/139 "2021-04-09T01:06:21Z")
If you have added a rowID to the Sheet, publish the app, go to the specific screens you want to copy the URL, then copy the URL in the address bar and paste it to the Sheet. ---
**Author:** ![Claudio\_Balbino](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/claudio_balbino/32/33691_2.png) [@Claudio\_Balbino](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Claudio_Balbino)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2021, 1:30am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/deep-links/15966/140 "2021-04-09T01:30:37Z")
I use the Integromat service with Bitly to shorten the links \>\>\>\> [https://www.integromat.com/en/integration/2019-create-shortened-url-addresses-from-new-google-sheets-spreadsheet-row-via-bitly](https://www.integromat.com/en/integration/2019-create-shortened-url-addresses-from-new-google-sheets-spreadsheet-row-via-bitly) Works great for me! ---
**Author:** ![mcclurefaith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/bc8723/32.png) [@mcclurefaith](https://community.glideapps.com/u/mcclurefaith)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2021, 1:37am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/deep-links/15966/141 "2021-04-09T01:37:53Z")
OK, I see. I’m looking for a way to automate that and use the links outside of Glide (in Zapier). Still not possible? [Previous page](https://community.glideapps.com/t/deep-links/15966.md?page=6) [Next page](https://community.glideapps.com/t/deep-links/15966.md?page=8)