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About a month ago, we reported that Google enabled developers to feed content within apps to them via a protocol named App Indexing.
Well the fruits of that labor is not a reality, at least for some developers. Some Android apps that have participated in the App Indexing now may show up for searches done on Android phones.
What I mean is that if you search for something on the Google search app or on the Android browsers and if you have an app that matches the query and it has content that matches, it may show the app in the search results with an open button. When you click that button, it will open the app and take you directly to the content in the app.
Here is an animated GIF of it in action from Google:
For more details on how to add app indexing to your Android apps, click here. But personally, I am a bit worried about handing over this type of content in a structured format to Google for their knowledge graph. If you know what I mean.
Forum discussion at Google+.
Comments:
David Iwanow
12/06/2013 03:30 pm
I posted the same comment on Google+ but since not everyone uses that channel... So Barry any other concerns besides knowledge graph? I can see good/bad outcomes if it gains traction. From one perspective it does seem like a aggressive way to push development from improving iOS apps to just focusing on Android apps. What happens if your responsive web version is a better experience than your app? Does Google take this into consideration when deciding to show app link or not?