Defining default link handling behaviour in app - react-native

Question

My users open a link of my app in Whatsapp/Slack and it opens in a webview inside Whatsapp/Slack. How can I get it to open in my app and not in Whatsapp?
If there is a link I should read up, please post. I did search and then have asked.

Answer 1

As suggested in React Navigation documentation :
InYourAppName/android/app/src/main/AndroidManifest.xml, do these followings adjustments:
1.Set launchMode of MainActivity to singleTask in order to receive intent on existing MainActivity.
2.Add the new intent-filter inside the MainActivity entry with a VIEW type action.
Now, your manifest file should be like below :
<activity
android:name=".MainActivity"
android:launchMode="singleTask">
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
</intent-filter>
<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="mychat" />
</intent-filter>
</activity>

Answer 2

Since you mentioned opening of your react native app, when clicking on a link, I assume that you are talking about deeplinking your content on the app.
In iOS there are two ways of achieving this, and there must be similar approaches for android as well.
The first method is by defining custom url for your app. By registering a custom url scheme for your app, any url that starts with your-custom-url:// will be automatically redirected to your iOS app.
To register a custom url scheme, follow these steps:
Open Xcode and click on your project, on the left pane.
Select your target (your app), and navigate to the Info tab.
Scroll down to the URL Types section and click plus to add a new one.
In identifier field enter your app bundle identifier (ex: com.your.app.name)
Keep the role as editor and in the URL schemes add the custom url prefix for your app. (ex: myawesomapp).
These steps will register your custom url scheme.
The second way of handling deeplinking in the app, is by using UNIVERSAL LINKS.
This is the apple's suggested way of handling deeplinking. According to apple,
Adding support for universal links is easy. There are three steps you need to take:
Create an apple-app-site-association file that contains JSON data about the URLs that your app can handle.
Upload the apple-app-site-association file to your HTTPS web server. You can place the file at the root of your server or in the .well-known subdirectory.
Prepare your app to handle universal links.
Now any link to your website such as www.example.com/user/username, will be redirected to your app that you got registered.
You can refer docs