What is a push notification?
A push notification is the alert that appears on a customer’s phone — a title and a short message. This is working today. What happens after the customer taps it depends on the app being told where to send them, which is where deep linking comes in.What is deep linking?
Deep linking lets a tap or a link take a customer straight to one specific screen inside the app, rather than opening the app to wherever it last was. Instead of opening the app and requiring the customer to navigate to Transfers, a deep link opens directly to Transfers. Without deep linking Customer taps a notification. The app opens. The customer still has to navigate to the right screen themselves. With deep linking Customer taps a notification. The app opens directly to the relevant screen — accounts, a transfer, a message, or whatever the notification was about.How the two work together
Today, a push notification and a deep link are two separate pieces. For a tap to land on a specific screen, the app needs a built-in instruction that says where to go when the notification is tapped. The same mechanism also lets the app open to a specific screen from a regular web link — for example, one shared in an email, a text message, or on a website — with no push notification involved at all. Customer taps a notification or link, the app reads where it should go, then the app opens directly to that screen. If a customer isn’t logged in yet, the app doesn’t lose the request — it takes them to that screen right after they log in.What’s needed to finish deep linking
The mechanics are ready. Turning this on for a specific bank’s app requires the following confirmed. 1. Production app identifiers Every link is addressed to the exact app, so two values are needed:- Android app ID — the unique identifier the Android app is published under in the Play Store. The production ID is required; a test/preproduction ID is not sufficient.
- iOS URL scheme — the short custom name the iOS app registers with the phone so it knows to open when a matching link is tapped.
com.yourbank.appname · iOS: yourbank
2. Production web banking address
The live web address customers use for online banking today, not the test/PTE address. Used as the fallback destination any time a link needs to point to the website instead of the app — for example, on a device where the app isn’t installed.
Example — https://secure.yourbank.com/onlinebanking
3. Screen names for each destination
Each screen inside the app has an internal route name that a link points to. The correct route name is needed for every screen customers should be able to jump to directly. Common ones:
Any additional screen not in this list can be named and its route will be confirmed.
4. Default landing page
Where the customer lands when a notification or link doesn’t specify an exact screen. Most banks use their account summary screen.
Example —
accounts or dashboard
5. Looking up identifiers if not already known
Both identifiers from item 1 can still be looked up even if they’re not on hand:
- iOS URL scheme — export the app’s installer file using a device-management tool such as iMazing, then check the settings file inside it for the app’s registered URL scheme.
- Android package name — usually visible in the app’s Google Play Store listing address, or confirmed directly from the installed app.