Spotify Web API - Authenticate user via native mobile app rather than browser?

Question

I am testing the following example to authenticate a user by logging in and redirecting to the auth screen - http://jsfiddle.net/JMPerez/j1sqq4g0/

This example uses a callback page with the following script:

(function() {
  var hash = {};
  window.location.hash.replace(/^#\/?/, '').split('&').forEach(function(kv) {
    var spl = kv.indexOf('=');
    if (spl != -1) {
      hash[kv.substring(0, spl)] = decodeURIComponent(kv.substring(spl+1));
    }
  });

  console.log('initial hash', hash);

  if (hash.access_token) {
    window.opener.postMessage(
      JSON.stringify({
        type:'access_token',
        access_token: hash.access_token,
        expires_in: hash.expires_in || 0
      }), 
      'http://fiddle.jshell.net'
    );
    window.close();
  }
})();

When trying on mobile, it will open a new tab in Safari. Is it possible to check if the app if installed on iOS and login via that instead? Will make the process much quicker.

As seen in an issue here, it seems resolved but cannot understand what is triggering it to do so? - https://github.com/spotify/web-api/issues/718

Thanks!

Answer 1

To summarize here's an aggregated answer:

• iOS doesn't allow for looking what apps are installed on your device, neither does Android.
• Using universal links (both on Android and iOS), you generally speaking may generate a link that opens an app, but for this, the corresponsing App needs to register this connection on your device.
• For Spotify especially, I don't think that the Spotify-app has registered such a link. It's not usual that native Apps trigger for authentication only, so it's unlikely that Spotify does.