Apple provided special options in iOS settings for testing App Clips with different URLs. We need to have our App Clip downloaded on our device - we can do that by connecting the iPhone to the Xcode. Then we can configure our phone to launch our App Clip when it is triggered by the chosen URL. Let’s set up our testing environment to test if our AppClipLinkingManager native module works properly:
First, we need to connect our device to Xcode - additional “Developer” options should be shown in device settings.
Open the “Developer” menu and find the App Clip Testing section.
Choose Local Experiences.
Select the Register Local Experience option.
Here we can specify the URL that should open our App Clip. Let’s set a URL different to our initial one. In my case, I’ve set another post number:
https://example-app-clip-domain.com/post/30
The next important field is Bundle ID - it has to be the same value as the Bundle Identifier of the App Clip target. Thanks to that, the field device will know which app should be launched.
The last required fields are the Title and Subtitle text fields. They will be shown on the App Clip card.
Optionally, we can change the Action button label to “View” or “Play” instead of “Open” and set-up the background image for the App Clip card. The same settings can be set on AppStoreConnect App Clip Card Configuration, Local Experiences settings are applied only to the local environment.
Save your new Local Experience. Now we can test it. The easiest way to test the invocation process is to scan a QR code with the URL provided in the newly registered Local Experience. Generate QR codes with sites like 📷 QR.io and scan codes with the pre-installed Code Scanner iOS app - I recommend it instead of the Camera App that often ignores the Local Experiences Developer settings, but if your iPhone does not have the Code Scanner app pre-installed, use the Camera App instead.
Alright, let’s run our App Clip, minimise it, and scan the code with a different URL than the initial one.
Our onNewUrl event works!
TIP: If Local Experiences configuration do not work, run "Clear Experience Cache" under App Clip Testing.