[drivebyacct2]

I've asked the question in this same comment thread, but how will this webservice idea solve this problem? Do you not still need an OS or browser level abstraction to look up (every?) url with this webservice to determine if there is an appropriate app specific url? What if I don't want to open the (limited) Facebook app?

[joehewitt]

Here's an example of the problem it solves. I never log into Facebook in Safari because the Facebook app is a much better experience on iOS. Often I tap on links in native apps which go to facebook.com, and then I'm looking at the Facebook login page instead of the content I want to see.

This solution would allow apps (if they choose to use this service) to turn facebook.com URLs into fb:// URLs, and take me where I really want to go when I click those links.

Ideally iOS would provide this URL mapping, as Android does, so that this happened everywhere, not just apps that use this service. I wish Apple would do this. In the mean time, this is one approach we could take.