Hyper links to social media apps

  • Unknown's avatar
    privacyoracle · Member ·

    Hi there
    On my wordpress site, I have links to my social media (youtube, twitter etc). However when people click on the links their brower takes them to the youtube webpage instead of the youtube app. I would prefer that viewers are taken to the youtube app. Can you help me with this?

  • supernovia · Staff ·

    Hi privacyoracle, it may depend on the links you’re using. Could you link to an affected page or post? Or, could you tell us what link you’re using to embed the videos?

    Also, it’s entirely possibly that this can’t be changed. If we have more context we may be able to see if there’s an easy fix, though.

  • Unknown's avatar
    privacyoracle · Member ·

    hi supernovia
    thanks for reaching out.
    in the menus section of my wordpress page, I have links to my social media accounts. I have inserted the regular URL hyperlinks to these accounts. When viewing my page from mobile web page, if I click on any of the links to my social media, it only opens up the social media page in a web browser. However I want the social media pages to open up via mobile apps on my phone and on the phones of other people.

    You can see this on my page
    https://privacyoracle.wordpress.com/
    (password 1234)

    When you click on the link to my you tube page via your mobile, I suspect it will open the page via your mobile web browser and not via your youtube app?

  • supernovia · Staff ·

    Ok, I did a little digging and here’s what I’ve found:

    Some social media links have specific app links like fb:// but as far as I can tell, Youtube does not. They use universal links, where the person’s phone determines whether it will open in a browser or not:
    https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/7174035?hl=en

    There are some services out there that claim to create deep app links for you using their own URL types, but I’m not positive that would work with Youtube. Plus if you used their structured link instead of a youtube address, your social menu would not recognize it as a youtube link.

    Also, on my phone, iPhone SE, it opens straight to YouTube, although there’s nothing in the channel right now.

    I hope that helps!

  • Unknown's avatar
    privacyoracle · Member ·

    thanks Supernovia. Much appreciated.

  • supernovia · Staff ·

    You bet. Enjoy your weekend!

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