Deferred deep linking, without an SDK

1. Create the link. Your server calls POST /api/v1/referral-links with the target screen encoded in customPayload — for example screenName: "promo_screen". You get back a short link to share anywhere.
2. The user taps and installs. LinkTrace records the click server-side, detects the device, and sends the user to the App Store or Play Store. If the app is already installed and you have set up Universal Links and App Links on a branded subdomain (Scale plan), the link opens the app directly instead — see deep linking.
3. The app resolves the destination on first launch. After install, your app calls POST /api/v1/attributions once — on first launch or right after sign-up. If the install matches a recorded click, LinkTrace returns the original link metadata, including your customPayload. Your app reads screenName and navigates there.

POST https://api.linktrace.in/api/v1/referral-links
Content-Type: application/json
x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY

{
  "referrerIdentifier": "user_9821",
  "campaign": "summer_referral",
  "customPayload": {
    "screenName": "promo_screen",
    "promoCode": "SAVE20"
  }
}

{
  "success": true,
  "data": {
    "attributed": true,
    "referrerIdentifier": "user_9821",
    "campaign": "summer_referral",
    "customPayload": {
      "screenName": "promo_screen",
      "promoCode": "SAVE20"
    }
  }
}

The full request and response shapes, with iOS, Android, React Native and Flutter routing examples, are in the deferred deep linking guide and the API reference.

• Matching is probabilistic. Without an SDK, LinkTrace matches installs to clicks with device fingerprint matching. It works best when the tap and the first app open happen close together, on the same device and network. When there is no confident match, the API returns attributed: false rather than a guess.
• The window is 24 hours. The user must install within 24 hours of tapping the link. Installs outside that window return attributed: false. A user who taps today and installs next week starts fresh.
• Some contexts strip signals. Private browsing, some in-app browsers, and a user switching devices between tap and install can all break the match. Plan your onboarding so a missed match degrades to your default home screen, not an error.

The integration is the same two HTTP calls on both platforms. There is no Android SDK and no iOS SDK: your server creates links, and your app calls the Attribution API once after install. Platform-specific setup — Universal Links on iOS, App Links on Android — is only needed when you want links to open an already-installed app directly, which is covered on the deep linking page.

The deeper engineering story — why fingerprint matching and deterministic attribution differ, and where iOS and Android implementations silently break — is in our implementation walkthrough. For the conceptual difference, read deferred vs standard deep links.

LinkTrace is deferred deep linking, install attribution, and referral tracking for apps growing through links: referrals, social, messaging, QR and influencer campaigns. It is not a paid-media measurement suite. If you need SKAdNetwork management, ad-network postbacks, fraud scoring and paid-media cost aggregation, you need a full MMP — our MMP alternative page has an honest breakdown.