App Clip card appears when full app is installed + duplicate card on open

Question

Pranalee OP

Created 5h

Replies 1

Boosts 0

Participants 2

Hi team,

We're experiencing two issues with our App Clip invocation via appclip.apple.com links.

Setup:

App Clip URL: https://appclip.apple.com/id?p=com.x.AppClip The App Clip card and experience work correctly when the full app is NOT installed ✅

Issue 1: App Clip card shown even when the full app is installed

When the full app is already installed on the device, tapping the App Clip link shows the App Clip card instead of directly opening the full app. After tapping "Open" on the card, the full app launches — but then the App Clip card appears again on top of the app, requiring the user to dismiss it a second time.

Expected behavior: If the full app is installed, tapping the App Clip link should bypass the App Clip card entirely and open the full app directly, routing to the correct screen using the URL parameters.

Actual behavior:

User taps App Clip link → App Clip card appears (should not appear if app is installed) User taps "Open" on the card → Full app launches App Clip card appears again on top of the full app → User has to dismiss it manually This results in unnecessary friction — two extra taps just to get into the app.

Issue 2: Full app does not route to the correct screen

When the full app eventually opens (after dismissing the cards), it opens to the default home screen rather than routing to the screen specified by the parameter in the URL.

Expected behavior: The full app should handle the URL parameters and navigate to the appropriate screen.

Actual behavior: The full app opens to its default/home screen, ignoring the url parameter.

Questions:

Is this expected behavior that appclip.apple.com links always show the App Clip card even when the full app is installed? If so, is there a recommended approach to bypass the card and open the app directly?
What is causing the duplicate App Clip card after tapping "Open"? Is this a known issue, or is there something in our configuration that could be triggering it?
For the full-app-installed case, what is the recommended way to handle deep linking from an appclip.apple.com URL into a specific screen in the full app? Should we be handling this via NSUserActivity, UIApplicationDelegate, or a Universal Link handler?

Environment:

iOS 26.x
Xcode 26.x
App Clip configured with appclips associated domain
Full app and App Clip share the same App ID prefix

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Answer 1

DTS Engineer OP

Apple

3h

Thanks for your post. Very interesting but I think , but I can be wrong, because this URL lives on on a different domain, not yours, it isn't resolved the way a normal Universal Link to your own associated domain is. iOS's if the full app is installed, skip the App Clip and open the app directly logic depends on the Advanced App Clip Experience. Are you thinking on going to that option? Please take a look at https://developer.apple.com/documentation/appstoreconnectapi/advanced-app-clip-experiences

If your App Clips are not using the Advanced Experience, the system may display the App Clip card at appclip.apple.com/id?p=com.x.AppClip while redirecting internally. A double invocation may occur if the flow round-trips through a URL on your domain registered under the appclips section of your AASA file. Please verify that there are no overlapping or ambiguous paths between the appclips and applinks sections that could trigger re-evaluation. Could you provide a link to your AASA file for review?

How the full app handle routing from these URLs? My suggestion is to use Universal Links, not custom URL schemes or application(_:open:options:). Ensure AASA has correct, non-overlapping appclips/applinks entries for both bundle IDs. Add Universal Link to the full app to parse the param and route.

Hope this helps and hope I’m correct and my assumptions, but I’m guessing because I have not seen a link to your host AASA file and App Clip configuration.

Albert  WWDR