Applinks validator "domain missing from entitlement"

Question

having some trouble setting up universal links.

Created a .well-known/apple-app-site-association file and are serving it (with no redirects) from our applinks subdomain.

Enabled the Associated Domains in the app's Capabilities and included our applinks domain applinks:applink.*******.com

Enabled the Associated Domains on developer.apple.com for our appID

Apple's applinks validator is giving us:

At this point, I'm beginning to think it might have something to do w/ our extensions. (we have two packaged in our app) Does anyone know if we need to enable Associated Domains for the extensions as well?

Answer 1

This is the "App Search API Validation Tool", not the "Universal Links Validation Tool" (which doesn't exist from Apple). The results from this tool have no connection to whether Universal Links work or not.

This tool causes a lot of confusion, because domains that definitely work with Universal Links (https://google.com, https://jet.com, for example) still throw errors. Officially, it is comparing your website's apple-app-site-association file to your app's listing on the App Store, so if the version of your app that is publicly available does not yet have Universal Links entitlements, that will cause these errors. However, Universal Links will still work fine with local builds.

If your links are correctly opening your app, there is probably no need to worry.

Answer 2

It is worth noting that the domains you specify are in your entitlements, not in iTunes connect. For apple to know these you would have to publish your app, so they can extract the relevant information. I am working on a new app which is not on the store yet, so apple can't possibly report the domains.