2023 State of Mobile Deep Linking: A Landmark Report

Deep links are the connective tissue of mobile growth: every paid campaign, every email, every share, and every search result depends on a link resolving to the right screen inside the app. Yet almost nobody measures whether they actually work. This report does.

Our study included the top apps from each major vertical and tested their deep links the way users open them — from real source apps and messages, on real iOS and Android devices, across search, social media, email, and SMS channels. Each app received a unique score, and the results reveal patterns that are intriguing and, at times, surprising.

By examining extensive data sets, we unveil the good, bad, and ugly of deep linking implementations: which channels are most reliable, where links fall back to the home screen or a webview login, and how performance varies across verticals — enabling you to assess and optimize your app’s outreach strategies and capitalize on practices that work.

Every result in the report was produced by Mobot’s robots on physical devices, not by a simulator or a script — because a deep link that resolves on a simulator says nothing about what happens on the phone in your user’s hand.