lander-android

Deep linking without the fuss. The native Android SDK for Lander, in Kotlin: receive App Links and custom scheme URLs, resolve them to the link you created in Lander, recover deferred links after install, create short links from inside the app, and report conversions.

• One Flow for every link: cold start, warm start, deferred (after install).
• Every link says how sure Lander is: DETERMINISTIC, PROBABILISTIC or UNATTRIBUTED.
• Links are buffered until you collect, so nothing is lost during startup.
• Unknown links still reach your app with the raw URL.
• Offline event queue with batching, retries and deduplication.
• Privacy first: a random install ID, no fingerprinting, no advertising ID.
• Small: kotlinx-coroutines and the Play Install Referrer library, nothing else. HTTP uses HttpURLConnection.

Requires Android API 24+ (minSdk 24). Works from Kotlin and Java. Full docs: docs.golander.link/docs/android.

Install

// app/build.gradle.kts
dependencies {
    implementation("link.golander:lander-android:0.1.0")
}

The SDK declares the INTERNET permission and brings com.android.installreferrer:installreferrer, so there is nothing else to add.

Manifest setup

Inside the <activity> that should open links (usually your launcher activity), in AndroidManifest.xml:

<activity
    android:name=".MainActivity"
    android:exported="true"
    android:launchMode="singleTop">

    <!-- App Links for your Lander domain. autoVerify makes Android check
         https://<domain>/.well-known/assetlinks.json, which Lander serves. -->
    <intent-filter android:autoVerify="true">
        <action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW" />
        <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
        <category android:name="android.intent.category.BROWSABLE" />
        <data android:scheme="https" android:host="acme.golander.link" />
    </intent-filter>

    <!-- Optional: custom scheme -->
    <intent-filter>
        <action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW" />
        <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
        <category android:name="android.intent.category.BROWSABLE" />
        <data android:scheme="acmeshop" />
    </intent-filter>
</activity>

android:launchMode="singleTop" makes links that arrive while the app runs go to onNewIntent instead of starting a second activity.

In the Lander dashboard (Apps, Android), add your package name and the SHA-256 fingerprints of every signing key (debug, upload and the Play App Signing key) so assetlinks.json verifies. Check verification with:

adb shell pm get-app-links com.acme.shop

Usage

Initialize

Call initialize once, in Application.onCreate. It returns immediately: loading the install ID, the launch report (POST /v1/sdk/init) and, on first launch, the Play Install Referrer all run in the background.

class App : Application() {
    override fun onCreate() {
        super.onCreate()
        Lander.initialize(
            this,
            apiKey = "pk_live_...", // publishable key from the dashboard
            enableLogging = BuildConfig.DEBUG,
        )
    }
}

Only publishable keys (pk_test_..., pk_live_...) are accepted. Secret keys (sk_...) are rejected, because anything shipped in an app is public. Surrounding whitespace is ignored. A bad key throws IllegalArgumentException, and the message never contains the key.

Hand over intents and receive links

class MainActivity : ComponentActivity() {
    override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
        Lander.handleIntent(intent)

        lifecycleScope.launch {
            repeatOnLifecycle(Lifecycle.State.STARTED) {
                Lander.deepLinks.collect { link -> navigate(link.route) }
            }
        }
    }

    override fun onNewIntent(intent: Intent) {
        super.onNewIntent(intent)
        setIntent(intent)
        Lander.handleIntent(intent)
    }
}

Call handleIntent in both places, for every intent: an intent without a link tells Lander the app was not opened by one. The SDK marks each intent it read, so an activity recreated after a rotation or process death does not deliver its link again.

LanderLink mirrors the API's ResolvedLink:

Field	Meaning
uri, uriString	The URL that opened the app, exactly as Android delivered it
linkId	Lander link ID, or null when the link is unknown to Lander
url	Canonical short link, for example https://acme.golander.link/p-123
path	The in app route set on the link, for example /product/123
params	Link params, with the opened URL's query parameters merged over them
campaign, channel	Attribution labels set on the link
isDeferred	True when the link was recovered after an install or handed off after sign in
confidence	DETERMINISTIC, PROBABILISTIC or UNATTRIBUTED
method	How the link was tied to the open: app_link, install_referrer, landing_page, authenticated_handoff or probabilistic_match
isResolved	Whether Lander recognized the link
route	path when resolved, otherwise the raw URL's path and query

How delivery works:

This is the beginning of the README. Read the rest at the original. Read the full README ↗