How to link to apps on the app store

Question

I am creating a free version of my iPhone game. I want to have a button inside the free version that takes people to the paid version in the app store. If I use a standard link

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=300136119&mt=8

the iPhone opens Safari first, and then the app store. I have used other apps that open the app store directly, so I know it is possible.

Any ideas? What is the URL Scheme for the app store?

Answer 1

Try this way

http://itunes.apple.com/lookup?id="your app ID here" return json.From this, find key "trackViewUrl" and value is the desired url. use this url(just replace https:// with itms-apps://).This works just fine.

For example if your app ID is xyz then go to this link http://itunes.apple.com/lookup?id=xyz

Then find the url for key "trackViewUrl".This is the url for your app in app store and to use this url in xcode try this

NSString *iTunesLink = @"itms-apps://itunes.apple.com/us/app/Your app name/id Your app ID?mt=8&uo=4";
        [[UIApplication sharedApplication] openURL:[NSURL URLWithString:iTunesLink]];

Thanks

Answer 2

Apple just announced the appstore.com urls.

https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/qa/qa1633/_index.html

There are three types of App Store Short Links, in two forms, one for iOS apps, another for Mac Apps:

Company Name

iOS: http://appstore.com/ for example, http://appstore.com/apple

Mac: http://appstore.com/mac/ for example, http://appstore.com/mac/apple

App Name

iOS: http://appstore.com/ for example, http://appstore.com/keynote

Mac: http://appstore.com/mac/ for example, http://appstore.com/mac/keynote

App by Company

iOS: http://appstore.com// for example, http://appstore.com/apple/keynote

Mac: http://appstore.com/mac// for example, http://appstore.com/mac/apple/keynote

Most companies and apps have a canonical App Store Short Link. This canonical URL is created by changing or removing certain characters (many of which are illegal or have special meaning in a URL (for example, "&")).

To create an App Store Short Link, apply the following rules to your company or app name:

Remove all whitespace

Convert all characters to lower-case

Remove all copyright (©), trademark (™) and registered mark (®) symbols

Replace ampersands ("&") with "and"

Remove most punctuation (See Listing 2 for the set)

Replace accented and other "decorated" characters (ü, å, etc.) with their elemental character (u, a, etc.)

Leave all other characters as-is.

Listing 2 Punctuation characters that must be removed.

!¡"#$%'()*+,-./:;<=>¿?@[]^_`{|}~

Below are some examples to demonstrate the conversion that takes place.

App Store

Company Name examples

Gameloft => http://appstore.com/gameloft

Activision Publishing, Inc. => http://appstore.com/activisionpublishinginc

Chen's Photography & Software => http://appstore.com/chensphotographyandsoftware

App Name examples

Ocarina => http://appstore.com/ocarina

Where’s My Perry? => http://appstore.com/wheresmyperry

Brain Challenge™ => http://appstore.com/brainchallenge

Answer 3

At least iOS 9 and above

• Open directly in the App Store

An app

itms-apps://itunes.apple.com/app/[appName]/[appID]

List of developer's apps

itms-apps://itunes.apple.com/developer/[developerName]/[developerID]

Answer 4

A number of answers suggest using 'itms' or 'itms-apps' but this practice is not specifically recommended by Apple. They only offer the following way to open the App Store:

Listing 1 Launching the App Store from an iOS application

NSString *iTunesLink = @"https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/apple-store/id375380948?mt=8";
[[UIApplication sharedApplication] openURL:[NSURL URLWithString:iTunesLink]];

See https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/qa/qa1629/_index.html last updated March, 2014 as of this answer.

For apps that support iOS 6 and above, Apple offers a in-app mechanism for presenting the App Store: SKStoreProductViewController

- (void)loadProductWithParameters:(NSDictionary *)parameters completionBlock:(void (^)(BOOL result, NSError *error))block;

// Example:
SKStoreProductViewController* spvc = [[SKStoreProductViewController alloc] init];
spvc.delegate = self;
[spvc loadProductWithParameters:@{ SKStoreProductParameterITunesItemIdentifier : @(364709193) } completionBlock:^(BOOL result, NSError *error){ 
    if (error)
        // Show sorry
    else
        // Present spvc
}];

Note that on iOS6, the completion block may not be called if there are errors. This appears to be a bug that was resolved in iOS 7.

Answer 5

If you have the app store id you are best off using it. Especially if you in the future might change the name of the application.

http://itunes.apple.com/app/id378458261

If you don't have tha app store id you can create an url based on this documentation https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/qa/qa1633/_index.html

+ (NSURL *)appStoreURL
{
    static NSURL *appStoreURL;
    static dispatch_once_t onceToken;
    dispatch_once(&onceToken, ^{
        appStoreURL = [self appStoreURLFromBundleName:[[NSBundle mainBundle] objectForInfoDictionaryKey:@"CFBundleName"]];
    });
    return appStoreURL;
}

+ (NSURL *)appStoreURLFromBundleName:(NSString *)bundleName
{
    NSURL *appStoreURL = [NSURL URLWithString:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"itms-apps://itunes.com/app/%@", [self sanitizeAppStoreResourceSpecifier:bundleName]]];
    return appStoreURL;
}

+ (NSString *)sanitizeAppStoreResourceSpecifier:(NSString *)resourceSpecifier
{
    /*
     https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/qa/qa1633/_index.html
     To create an App Store Short Link, apply the following rules to your company or app name:

     Remove all whitespace
     Convert all characters to lower-case
     Remove all copyright (©), trademark (™) and registered mark (®) symbols
     Replace ampersands ("&") with "and"
     Remove most punctuation (See Listing 2 for the set)
     Replace accented and other "decorated" characters (ü, å, etc.) with their elemental character (u, a, etc.)
     Leave all other characters as-is.
     */
    resourceSpecifier = [resourceSpecifier stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfString:@"&" withString:@"and"];
    resourceSpecifier = [[NSString alloc] initWithData:[resourceSpecifier dataUsingEncoding:NSASCIIStringEncoding allowLossyConversion:YES] encoding:NSASCIIStringEncoding];
    resourceSpecifier = [resourceSpecifier stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfString:@"[!¡\"#$%'()*+,-./:;<=>¿?@\\[\\]\\^_`{|}~\\s\\t\\n]" withString:@"" options:NSRegularExpressionSearch range:NSMakeRange(0, resourceSpecifier.length)];
    resourceSpecifier = [resourceSpecifier lowercaseString];
    return resourceSpecifier;
}

Passes this test

- (void)testAppStoreURLFromBundleName
{
    STAssertEqualObjects([AGApplicationHelper appStoreURLFromBundleName:@"Nuclear™"].absoluteString, @"itms-apps://itunes.com/app/nuclear", nil);
    STAssertEqualObjects([AGApplicationHelper appStoreURLFromBundleName:@"Magazine+"].absoluteString, @"itms-apps://itunes.com/app/magazine", nil);
    STAssertEqualObjects([AGApplicationHelper appStoreURLFromBundleName:@"Karl & CO"].absoluteString, @"itms-apps://itunes.com/app/karlandco", nil);
    STAssertEqualObjects([AGApplicationHelper appStoreURLFromBundleName:@"[Fluppy fuck]"].absoluteString, @"itms-apps://itunes.com/app/fluppyfuck", nil);
    STAssertEqualObjects([AGApplicationHelper appStoreURLFromBundleName:@"Pollos Hérmanos"].absoluteString, @"itms-apps://itunes.com/app/polloshermanos", nil);
    STAssertEqualObjects([AGApplicationHelper appStoreURLFromBundleName:@"Niños and niñas"].absoluteString, @"itms-apps://itunes.com/app/ninosandninas", nil);
    STAssertEqualObjects([AGApplicationHelper appStoreURLFromBundleName:@"Trond, MobizMag"].absoluteString, @"itms-apps://itunes.com/app/trondmobizmag", nil);
    STAssertEqualObjects([AGApplicationHelper appStoreURLFromBundleName:@"!__SPECIAL-PLIZES__!"].absoluteString, @"itms-apps://itunes.com/app/specialplizes", nil);
}

Answer 6

If you want to open an app directly to the App Store, you should use:

itms-apps://...

This way it will directly open the App Store app in the device, instead of going to iTunes first, then only open the App Store (when using just itms://)

Hope that helps.

---

EDIT: APR, 2017. itms-apps:// actually works again in iOS10. I tested it.

EDIT: APR, 2013. This no longer works in iOS5 and above. Just use

https://itunes.apple.com/app/id378458261

and there are no more redirects.