Redirect to Android App from a Website?

Question

When a user opens a website I want one of the following two cases to be happen:

1. If the app mycoolapp is installed redirect the user to the app using the custom url scheme mycoolapp://
2. If the app is not installed stay on the current page without posting or redirecting to an unknown page or an error popup.

Case 1 is easy you can use the following code:

window.location = "mycoolapp://"; 

This will work if the app is installed on the device. When the app is not installed it redirects the user to a blank page which is unknown.

For case 2 I have a solution using an iFrame which works great on iOS and on the native Android browser. It does not work on Chrome for Android.

var redirect = function (location) {
    var iframe = document.createElement('iframe');
    iframe.setAttribute('src', location);
    iframe.setAttribute('width', '1px');
    iframe.setAttribute('height', '1px');
    iframe.setAttribute('position', 'absolute');
    iframe.setAttribute('top', '0');
    iframe.setAttribute('left', '0');
    document.documentElement.appendChild(iframe);
    iframe.parentNode.removeChild(iframe);
    iframe = null;
};    

redirect('mycoolapp://');

When the app is installed it is working on the native Android browser, but on Chrome for Android there is not redirect. Nothing happens on the page.

How can I make redirect to my app working on Chrome for Android without redirecting to a blank page when the app is not installed?

Edit: I know that you can use an Intent

window.location = "intent://#Intent;package=com.mycoolapp;scheme=mycoolapp;launchFlags=268435456;end;";

This is not what I want because it launches the app page on google play if the app is not installed. Is there a way that it will not redirect to google play?

Answer 1

 Add this in manifest file,note the scheme.

        <intent-filter>
            <data android:scheme="startci" />
            <action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW" />
            <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
            <category android:name="android.intent.category.BROWSABLE" />
        </intent-filter>

in html give the code, the scheme is same as in the manifest file.

<a href="intent:#Intent;scheme=startci;package=gramener.star;end">click here</a>

if you want to add parameter to your app use this

<a href="intent:#Intent;scheme=startci://open?url_param=hi santhosh;package=gramener.star;end">click here</a>

if the app is not installed so if you want to redirect to some other page add the fallback url like this. the url must be encoded

<a href="intent:#Intent;scheme=startci://open?url_param=hi santhosh;package=gramener.star;S.browser_fallback_url=http%3A%2F%2Fzxing.org;end">click here</a>

to get the parameter add below code

 Uri data = this.getIntent().getData();
    if (data != null && data.isHierarchical()) {
        if (data.getQueryParameter("url_param") != null) {
            String param = data.getQueryParameter("url_param");               
            Log.d("the param is",param);
              //do something here
        }
    }