Direct link to all my apps in App Store not working in iOS 12

Got same issue on iOS 12 beta 11.

But on iOS 11, 10, 9 url scheme to app store (itms-apps://) works.

The old URL doesn't work in the iOS 12 public release either. But I found that replacing "artist" with "developer" does work on iOS 12: "itms-apps://itunes.apple.com/developer/id463855590"

I tested the "developer" version of the URL on older iOS versions too and found that it worked as far back as I was able to test: iOS 9.3.5.

So, I guess we were supposed to be using "developer" for a long time but they also kept "artist" working until iOS 12.

I'm not sure if any of this is documented anywhere. The iTunes Link maker only seems to support links to individual apps. So, hopefully, this answer will be found by other developers in the future.

In my testing with iOS 12.1, opening a URL such as "itms-apps://itunes.apple.com/developer/<developer-name>/id<developer-id>" from within my app results in the App Store displaying "Cannot Connect to App Store" (even though it worked with iOS 9, 10, and 11). But adding the "geo" subdomain (i.e., "itms-apps://geo.itunes.apple.com/developer/<developer>/id<developer-id>") works in iOS 12.1 and seems to also be backward compatible with earlier versions of iOS.

I opened a case with Apple to see if this was intentional or just got broken and will post their response here once I receive it.

URLs of the form “itms-apps://itunes.apple.com/developer/id463855590” still work fine for me on iOS 12.1. Are you including the letters “id” in the last component, and not just your developer id number? It is your developer id, not an app id.

hacknicity, yes, I have the "id" letters prefixed to the developer ID numbers. I just edited my response to make it more clear. And for me to get it to work in iOS 12.1, I changed "itunes.apple.com" to "geo.itunes.apple.com", so I'm confident the rest of the URL is good.

My app is on the U.S. app store. Could that be the difference between yours and mine?

One other difference is that my URL has both the <developer-name> and the <developer-id>. I'll try with just the <developer-id>.

Ok. So I found that in iOS 12.1 at least (not sure about 12.0), either of these two forms work to open the App Store to all of the developer's apps:

itms-apps://itunes.apple.com/developer/id<developer-id>

itms-apps://geo.itunes.apple.com/developer/<developer-name>/id<developer-id>

Apple's own link maker (https://linkmaker.itunes.apple.com) generates URLs of the second form (except it outputs "https" instead of "itms-apps", but I'm not sure why they seem to prefer both developer name and developer ID. Maybe a single developer can have multiple IDs in some cases?

Unfortunately for me, I had been using a third form of the URL (like the second one but without the "geo.") that worked up until iOS 12 and then with it, suddently stopped working.

None of this seems to be officially documented by Apple that I could find.

Your first form is exactly what I said to use in my answer and what I said worked for me on iOS 12.1 ;-)

I know that the URLs can sometimes have a country code and/or an app or developer name, but they aren't required. I think they make the URL more human readable, but for an in-app link that isn't important.

Just to follow-up to my post: Apple responded to my case I opened with them. They confirmed that there is no official documentation regarding the itms-apps URL scheme, and that there is no guarantee about engineering side changes. But they suggested I use the format itms-apps://itunes.apple.com/<store name>/developer/<developer name>/id<id number>. The <store name> is the code that matches the developer's apple ID registration. For the United States, for example, it's "us". I confirmed this also works with iOS 12.1.

As hacknicity posted, it also works without the <developer name> and the <store name>.

I wish Apple would officially document the itms-apps URL scheme since it's very useful for developers to be able to link to all our apps in the App Store directly from within our apps in a supported way, without worrying about Apple breaking the scheme in an iOS update.

I've noticed recently that this URL format no longer works. I suspect it's related to an issue on the App Store itself, given that when I type my company name, one of the auto-complete suggestions says "in developers" after it. Clicking this, and then my company listing, results in "Cannot Connect to App Store".

Just confirmed that this is broken on iOS 12.1.1, 12.1.4 and 12.2
Works just fine on iOS 11, and using URLs in the form:

itms-apps://itunes.apple.com/developer/id123456789

https://itunes.apple.com/developer/id123456789

itms-apps://geo.itunes.apple.com/gb/developer/developer-name-here/id123456789?mt=8

https://geo.itunes.apple.com/gb/developer/developer-name-here/id123456789?mt=8

The last link was generated using the iTunes Link Maker.

• go to some reputable app's website

• look for their "Get it on the App Store" button

• Inspect said button, and figure out what the current url format is

itms-apps://?action=search&kind=iosSoftwere&q=App%20Store

Good

Hello, I still have this problem with my application, I use cordova to develop, before it linked, it no longer does window.location.replace("itms-apps://apps.apple.com/app/id1589302663");

Its not working it disappeared