expo-linking

Open Beta Documentation Amazon offers this technical documentation as part of a pre-release, open beta. The features described might change as Amazon receives feedback and iterates on the features. For the most current feature information, see the Release Notes.

@amazon-devices/expo-linking provides utilities for your app to interact with other installed apps using deep links. It also provides helper methods for constructing and parsing deep links into your app. This module is an extension of the React Native Linking module.

Installation
Examples
API reference
Supported versions
Additional resources

Installation

Add the JavaScript library dependency in the package.json file.

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 dependencies: {
     ...
     "@amazon-devices/expo-linking": "~2.0.0",
     "expo": "~50.0.0",
     ...
 }

Reinstall dependencies using npm install command.

Examples

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import * as Linking from '@amazon-devices/expo-linking';
import React, {useEffect, useState} from 'react';
import {Button, StyleSheet, Text, View} from 'react-native';

const URL = 'pkg://com.amazondeveloper.uisvg-demo.main';

export const App = () => {
  const [parsedUrl, setParsedUrl] = useState<string | null>(null);

  useEffect(() => {
    const parsed = Linking.parse(URL);
    setParsedUrl(JSON.stringify(parsed, null, 2));
  }, []);

  const onLinking = async () => {
    const supported = await Linking.canOpenURL(URL);
    if (supported) {
      await Linking.openURL(URL);
    }
  };

  return (
    <View style={styles.container}>
      {parsedUrl && <Text style={styles.text}>{parsedUrl}</Text>}
      <Button title="Link to application" onPress={onLinking} />
    </View>
  );
};

const styles = StyleSheet.create({
  container: {
    backgroundColor: 'white',
    flex: 1,
  },
  text: {
    color: 'black',
    fontSize: 32,
  },
});

API reference

Check out the dedicated documentation page for info about this library, API reference and more: Official Expo documentation for expo-linking.

Hooks

Hook	Description
`useURL`	Returns the initial URL followed by any subsequent changes to the URL

Methods

Method	Description
`canOpenURL`	Determine whether or not an installed app can handle a given URL. On web this always returns `true` because there is no API for detecting what URLs can be opened
`collectManifestSchemes`	Collect a list of platform schemes from the manifest. This method is based on the Scheme modules from `@expo/config-plugins` which are used for collecting the schemes before prebuilding a native app
`createURL`	Helper method for constructing a deep link into your app, given an optional path and set of query parameters. Creates a URI scheme with two slashes by default. The scheme in bare and standalone must be defined in the Expo config (`app.config.js` or `app.json`) under `expo.scheme`
`getInitialURL`	Get the URL that was used to launch the app if it was launched by a link
`hasConstantsManifest`	Ensure the user has linked the expo-constants manifest in bare workflow
`hasCustomScheme`	Returns whether the application has been configured with a custom scheme
`openSettings`	Open the operating system settings app and displays the app’s custom settings, if it has any
`openURL`	Attempt to open the given URL with an installed app
`parse`	Helper method for parsing out deep link information from a URL
`parseInitialURLAsync`	Helper method which wraps React Native's `Linking.getInitialURL()` in `Linking.parse()`. Parses the deep link information out of the URL used to open the experience initially. If no link opened the app, all the fields will be `null`
`resolveScheme`	Returns a string representing the resolved scheme. If a custom scheme is configured, it will return that scheme

Event subscriptions

Subscription	Description
`addEventListener`	Add a handler to Linking changes by listening to the url event type and providing the handler. It is recommended to use the `useURL()` hook instead

Supported versions

Package Version	Based On	@amazon-devices/react-native-kepler version
2.0.x	6.1.1	2.0.x

Additional resources

For information on additional libraries, see Supported Third-Party Libraries and Services.

Last updated: Sep 30, 2025