apple-itunes-app Meta Tag

By  on  
apple-itunes-app Meta

Whenever you visit the website of a vendor that provides an iOS app, you're either hit by an alert or ugly popup saying "Download our iPhone App!"  It's great that they want to pitch their iOS app but the lack of structure and uniformity in the advertisement is ugly.  Apple recently introduced a proprietary META tag which triggers a uniform advertisement for a vendor's iOS app within mobile Safari.

<-- App ID (required), Affiliate Data (Optional), Argument (Optional) -->
<meta name="apple-itunes-app" content="app-id=myAppStoreID, affiliate-data=myAffiliateData, app-argument=myURL">

<-- Digg's tag -->
<meta name="apple-itunes-app" content="app-id=362872995, affiliate-data=bevbOqLt02I, app-argument=digg://">

The content of I'm a huge fan of this type of strategy.  The more uniformity, the better, especially when I get to avoid an ugly prompt within my mobile browser.  Digg uses this META tag and I hope many more vendors join the club!

Recent Features

  • By
    5 Ways that CSS and JavaScript Interact That You May Not Know About

    CSS and JavaScript:  the lines seemingly get blurred by each browser release.  They have always done a very different job but in the end they are both front-end technologies so they need do need to work closely.  We have our .js files and our .css, but...

  • By
    I&#8217;m an Impostor

    This is the hardest thing I've ever had to write, much less admit to myself.  I've written resignation letters from jobs I've loved, I've ended relationships, I've failed at a host of tasks, and let myself down in my life.  All of those feelings were very...

Incredible Demos

  • By
    Use Custom Missing Image Graphics Using MooTools

    Missing images on your website can make you or your business look completely amateur. Unfortunately sometimes an image gets deleted or corrupted without your knowledge. You'd agree with me that IE's default "red x" icon looks awful, so why not use your own missing image graphic? The MooTools JavaScript Note that...

  • By
    Making the Firefox Logo from HTML

    When each new t-shirt means staving off laundry for yet another day, swag quickly becomes the most coveted perk at any tech company. Mozilla WebDev had pretty much everything going for it: brilliant people, interesting problems, awesome office. Everything except a t-shirt. That had to change. The basic...

Discussion

  1. Hmm… I shop for and download Android apps using my iPad and search for iOS apps using my Androids and desktops with a variety of browsers. I don’t think this is very un-normal.

    I’m not sure this won’t lead to a more confusing experience where lazy developers stick this in their page and assume I’ll see their ad because “If they want and iOS app they must be on iOS”.

  2. Chris

    Similar META is available for Windows 8 apps (mobile devices like Surface but actually any “Metro” IE10)
    http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ie/hh781489%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

    It even is in the appbar then. There are also similar features for an Start screen bookmark as iOS has for webapps pinned to the homescreen (custom icon).

  3. There are two apps, one for iPhone, and another for iPad HD. what about this situation?

  4. What is an “affiliate-data” parameter?

  5. feuerbach

    Is there any similar solution for Android users?

  6. Hi,
    I have 2 apps for one website: one on ipad and the other on iphone…should i implement 2 differents meta tag or only one with 2 app id?
    Thanks,

    • Sabihullah

      Have you got the answer?

  7. Hi,
    It seems to be disabled when the page is seen in the twitter app webview,
    Do you know if there is a way to display it in twitter (different from dealing with a classic HTML box which does not provide the “installed or not” feature)
    Thanks,

  8. Maktum Mallat

    Is there any similar solution for Android users?

Wrap your code in <pre class="{language}"></pre> tags, link to a GitHub gist, JSFiddle fiddle, or CodePen pen to embed!