This morning, Google has announced that they are supporting iOS apps with the App Indexing protocol. Google says that “an intital group of apps” will be testing iOS app indexing with Google.
But what is App Indexing? Basically, it is a system that lets people click from the listings in Google’s search results into apps on their Android devices, such as smartphone and tables. But now, with the new support for iOS apps, users will be able to click into their iOS apps on their devices.
In order to take advantage of this new feature, app developers are required to add markup to their apps, as well as submit a special sitemap file to Google through the Google Search Console to verify their apps.
When will we begin seeing these initial groups of apps show up in search results in the Google App and Chrome? They’ll release globally in the coming weeks.
This is possibly how it could look:
Currently, it isn’t possible to get your iOS app into this group of apps, but it’s possible to get an early start by getting your prepared for iOS app Indexing with Google.
- Add deep linking support to your iOS app.
- Make sure it’s possible to return to Search results with one click.
- Provide deep link annotations on your site.
- Let Google know you’re interested. Keep in mind that expressing interest does not automatically guarantee getting app deep links in iOS search results.
For more on Google App Indexing, click here.