How to launch apps (facebook/twitter/etc) from mobile browser but fall back to hyperlink if the app isn't installed

Chase Florell picture Chase Florell · Dec 3, 2012 · Viewed 24.5k times · Source

I am hoping there might be some way of detecting whether or not an uri:scheme is registered on a mobile device from within the browser.

IE: I'd like to check if the facebook, twitter, pinterest apps are installed and can be launched from their associated uri:scheme.

if(fb_isInstalled) {
    // href="fb://profile/...."
} else {
    // href="http://m.facebook.com/..."
}

Basically if the user has installed facebook, then launch the app, but fall back to the mobile version of the fb website if the app is not installed.

Answer

Chase Florell picture Chase Florell · Dec 3, 2012

I think I've got a working solution.

 <!-- links will work as expected where javascript is disabled-->
 <a class="intent"   
    href="http://facebook.com/someProfile"   
    data-scheme="fb://profile/10000">facebook</a>

And my javascript works like this.
note: there's a little jQuery mixed in there, but you don't need to use it if you don't want to.

(function () {

    // tries to execute the uri:scheme
    function goToUri(uri, href) {
        var start, end, elapsed;

        // start a timer
        start = new Date().getTime();

        // attempt to redirect to the uri:scheme
        // the lovely thing about javascript is that it's single threadded.
        // if this WORKS, it'll stutter for a split second, causing the timer to be off
        document.location = uri;
        
        // end timer
        end = new Date().getTime();

        elapsed = (end - start);

        // if there's no elapsed time, then the scheme didn't fire, and we head to the url.
        if (elapsed < 1) {
            document.location = href;
        }
    }

    $('a.intent').on('click', function (event) {
        goToUri($(this).data('scheme'), $(this).attr('href'));
        event.preventDefault();
    });
})();

I also threw this up as a gist that you can fork and mess with. You can also include the gist in a jsfiddle if you so choose.


Edit

@kmallea forked the gist and radically simplified it. https://gist.github.com/kmallea/6784568

// tries to execute the uri:scheme
function uriSchemeWithHyperlinkFallback(uri, href) {
    if(!window.open(uri)){
        window.location = href;
    }
}
// `intent` is the class we're using to wire this up. Use whatever you like.
$('a.intent').on('click', function (event) {
    uriSchemeWithHyperlinkFallback($(this).data('scheme'), $(this).attr('href'));
    // we don't want the default browser behavior kicking in and screwing everything up.
    event.preventDefault();
});