Can an iBeacon send users to a website?

Question

I understand that iBeacons can send people to apps, and as I understand it both iOS devices and Android devices (4.3+) can run apps that detect them. I'm wondering if instead of the beacon sending you to a specific app for a store, whether it could send you to a website, using the device's default browser? Or at least, prompt to visit the website?

Apologies for my lack of knowledge in the area..

Answer 1

There is no automatic built-in method to do it.

You need an app to monitor for an iBeacon that will receive a notification when a specific iBeacon is detected.

You can use either a 3rd party app, or the built-in Passbook app (on iOS).

With a 3rd party app, after the user respond to a notification, when the app is opened it can redirect/display a web page which is related to the specific iBeacon (The URL fetched from internal data, web service, or extract the data from the device if possible).

With the built in Apple's Passbook app, you will need a location enabled Pass that contains the iBeacon UUID.
Users with a Pass installed, when it is detected, it will appear on the user's Lock Screen. Then, like any other Pass, you can give the users information about the web page. But you can't redirect to a webpage automatically as with an app.
More about Passbook here

Either way, you still need to get the PassBook's Pass or a relevant App into the users device in advance.