If users click on a link inside an app, and it doesn't take them to the destination they were expecting to go, it could cause confusion, and it could also mean that a potential app download doesn't happen. That, in a nutshell, is the problem deep linking is intended to solve. Over the last year, a number of firms started to launch deep-linking services that will send users who click on a banner or a link not only to the app itself, but to a specific location within an app. For consumers, that means it would be faster to make a transaction on a mobile commerce app, for instance, or to see content specific to a certain level of a mobile game. Major industry players like Twitter and Facebook have created ways to support deep linking to apps from their respective services, while Google is reportedly supporting deep linking in the next version of Android, code-named Kit Kat. For more on this, check out this FierceDeveloper special report.
