Our partners have had some amazing results from integrating with Branch. We’ve also seen our deep links used in some very creative ways. But recently, we came across a new integration featuring TWO partners that we can’t stop talking about.
Yummly + Instacart
Now, I’ve already told you about how I love food and the ability of deep links to make the recipe discovery and sharing process even easier. But why should the experience stop there? I’ll be honest with you, every time I’m searching for a new recipe on any app, it’s because I’m hungry and plan on making the dish relatively soon. With most recipe apps, I can easily discover a new tasty treat and even create a nifty shopping list, but then I need to take the time to go and buy the ingredients before I hit the kitchen. (One day I’ll have a fully stocked kitchen that is ready for any recipe. One day.) What we’re excited about is that Yummly and Instacart have partnered to solve this problem, and they used Branch deep links as their solution.
Say you’re browsing Yummly, one of the Best Apps of 2014 , and you find Peanut Butter Energy Bites that sound pretty darn good and easy to make. Intrigued by this treat, you add the ingredients to the app’s shopping list to prepare for your next voyage to the local grocery store. However, during this process you notice an enticing green button at the bottom of your screen inviting you to “Shop for ingredients” AND have them “delivered by Instacart.” It must be too good to be true.
Deep Linking
So you give it a try and realize it only gets better from there. Selecting this option prompts you to download the latest version of Instacart. Clicking “Download Instacart” generates a Branch link on Branch’s servers which stores the information of the items in your shopping cart. You’re then directed to the app store to complete the Instacart download. When you open Instacart for the first time, the Branch server is pinged and the data stored in the Branch link is associated with you as the same user who clicked the “Download Instacart” button in the Yummly app. Successfully making this connection passes the original information through the app store so you’re brought to a list of the items you needed for the original recipe. All that’s left to do is add the items to your cart and Instacart will deliver them directly to your front door.
As a company that focuses on the growth of mobile apps, we love this example of two companies partnering to help each other grow. They use the power of Branch deep links to pass information from one app, through the app store and install, into another, significantly improving the user experience of both apps. Since developers are typically part of a tight-knit community , we hope to see more instances of apps using Branch links to pass information between themselves. Utilizing Branch’s recently updated dashboard, developers and marketers alike can now easily track the number of installs generated by these campaigns over time.
We continued to be blown away by creative ways developers are utilizing our deep links. Can you think of a new, creative way to use Branch links? Sign up to start experimenting today and let us know what you come up with.