According to a report this morning from The Wall Street Journal, Google will now be able to show publicly available info from the Facebook app in mobile searches. Clicking on such a link while on your smartphone will take users directly to the relevant part of the Facebook app. The agreement between Google and Facebook went into affect last Friday, according to an Alphabet spokesperson.
Google first introduced app indexing for iOS apps in search back in May, allowing in-app content to appear in search results with links that send users directly to an app. The feature was originally only available in the Google app and Chrome browser, but now Google is launching an updated version of the framework that will make the app links also appear in Google search results in Safari.
Getting your app content found on Google just got easier. App Indexing is now compatible with HTTP deep link standards for iOS 9, as it has been on Android from the beginning. That means that you can start getting your app content into the Search results page on Safari in iOS, simply by adding Universal Links to your iOS app, then integrating with our SDK.
Developers simply need to support the Universal Links standard to get their apps to show up in search results. Users will begin to see the app indexing links showing up in Safari on iOS by the end October.
Devs can read more on how to support the feature here.
Google’s App Indexing technology isn’t exactly the most exciting thing to discuss, but so long as the majority of the company’s revenue still comes from search (it does), it is imperative that they figure out how to make their main business work on mobile where the eyeballs are going. So the company announced that today App Indexing is coming to iOS apps, starting with Chrome and Google Search.
Google originally launched App Indexing for Android users back in December before rolling it out globally in English for a number of apps back in April. As pictured above, the feature allows content from Android apps to show up in search results with a button for users to quickly launch the app. Today the company announced it’s expanding the feature once again and launching it for apps in several languages other than English. It’s also added some other English results in the U.S. including the Walmart, Tapatalk, and Fancy apps.
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