As you know, Google Search Console will let you track your app's analytics and crawl stats for Android apps. It also lets iOS app developers submit their iOS apps so they can do the app association to their web site.
Well, now I learned via Google+ that sometimes, Google may just seek out to see if a web site has an iOS app by looking for Apple's Universal Links and added an iOS app association by itself.
Former Googler, Pierre Far, posted on Google+ that he noticed for one of his clients that Google tried to associate an app to it even though the client never had an app. He wrote, "Googlebot is requesting iOS 9.3 app association files required for Universal Links and Shared Web Credentials," adding "amusingly, this site definitely has never had any apps associated with it."
So I asked Google's Mariya Moeva and when she looked into it, she said "all working as intended." She said that Google "might check sites from time to time to see if anyone might have implemented Apple's Universal Links and added an iOS app association."
Interesting.
Here is the screen shot from Pierre Far:
Forum discussion at Google+.
