[Feature] Open album links in emails through my.immich.app so the mobile app opens them

[piomar123]

I have searched the existing feature requests, both open and closed, to make sure this is not a duplicate request.

• Yes

The feature

The feature

Links in album invite/update emails use the External Domain (e.g. https://photos.example.com/albums/<id>). On a phone these open in the browser, even when the Immich app is installed, because Android/iOS app links are only registered for my.immich.app. my.immich.app already supports ?instanceUrl= to point at a self-hosted instance.

Proposal

An admin setting, off by default, e.g. server.emailLinksViaMyImmich ("Open album links from emails in the Immich app"). When it is on and an External Domain is set, album links in emails (thumbnail, "View Album" button, fallback link) become:

https://my.immich.app/albums/<id>?instanceUrl=<externalDomain>

Reasons for the opt-in:

• It routes the click through a third-party host (my.immich.app), which some admins won't want. It also needs External Domain to be set.
• With the setting off, behaviour is unchanged.

The switch is disabled in the UI when no External Domain is set. The setting is also available in the config file and documented in system-settings.md.

Testing

I tested this on my own instance. The links opened the app on both Android and iOS.
Implementation is in my fork:

• feat(server): optionally open album email links through my.immich.app piomar123/immich#3

Related

• Closed upstream PRs: feat(server): optionally open album email links through my.immich.app #32347 (the feature) and feat(server): optionally open album email links through my.immich.app #32354 (feature plus docs). Both were closed automatically because of the LLM policy, so I'm requesting the feature here.

Similar discussions:

• [Feature] Add custom domain to supported web adresses of mobile app #22184
• [Feature] Support App Links / Deep Linking for custom self-hosted domains on Android #31787
• [Feature] Add an `instance` parameter to my.immich.app deep links, and make the link type selectable when sharing #31013

were closed. This request is narrower than those:

• It doesn't need app links for custom domains, because the links keep pointing at my.immich.app, which the apps already handle through the existing instanceUrl parameter. No custom app build is needed.
• It only changes links in album invite/update emails, not the links people get from the share dialog. That avoids the concerns raised in [Feature] Add an `instance` parameter to my.immich.app deep links, and make the link type selectable when sharing #31013 about link previews and denser QR codes.
• It's an opt-in admin setting, off by default, so the privacy implications of routing the click through my.immich.app (which is the admin's choice) don't affect anyone who doesn't enable it. The default behaviour doesn't change.

Platform

• Server
• Web
• Mobile