Google began testing app indexing, and released guidelines for webmasters to have Google index deep links within their app. Earlier search results based on app indexing was only available in the Unites States for use with a select number of apps.
Google recently made an announcement yesterday stating app deep links will now be available for globally and expanded the feature to work with 24 additional apps. These include: 500px, AOL, BigOven, Bleacher Report, Booking.com, Eventbrite, Glassdoor, Goodreads, Huffington Post, Merriam-Webster, Pinterest, Realtor.com, Seeking Alpha, TalkAndroid, TheFreeDictionary, The Journal, TripAdvisor, Tumblr, Urbanspoon, Wattpad, YP, Zagat, Zappos and Zillow.
If developers choose to use app indexing, relevant search results linked to their apps will appear on the web page of the Google search along with normal web links. If a user clicks on the app link, it will not open in a web browser, instead it will open in the relevant app.
In a post Chaesang Jung, a software engineer with Google, explained, “Let’s say that a user is searching for a movie. With app indexing, Google will begin to include deep links to apps in Android search results. When the user taps on the ‘open in app’ deep links, the app opens up directly to the movie in question.”
