Firebase Dynamic Links is gone. Here's what you can still recover, and how to move.

*Disclosure: I run Grivn, a deep link service, so I'm not neutral here.

I founded and run Jefit, a workout app. When Google announced that Firebase Dynamic Links were going away, we had to replace the links our app creates - about 200,000 a month, more than 10 million so far. Each one is supposed to open the right screen in the app, even for someone who installs the app after tapping it.

It sounds like a library swap. It isn't. Here's what we learned.

FDL was doing three jobs, not one. It sent each person to the right place for their device: the app, the App Store or Google Play, or a web page. It carried the link through an install, so a new user landed on the screen they tapped instead of the home screen. And it counted clicks. The first and the last are easy to rebuild. The middle one is the whole problem.

Some links can come back, and some can't. Links on your own domain work again if you still know their short codes: point the domain at something that knows them. Links on yourapp.page.link are gone, because that domain belongs to Google. Google also marked link metadata for deletion on August 25, 2025, so if you never exported your links, rebuild the list from your own records now.

Android plays fair; iOS doesn't. On Android, the Play Install Referrer hands your app the link after an install. iOS has no equivalent. You either ask the user to paste, and iOS shows its paste prompt, or you match the first app open to a recent click by network and device signals. Apple's developer agreement says you can't derive data from a device to uniquely identify it, with or without tracking permission, and App Review has rejected apps whose SDKs match users this way. If you match, keep the signals coarse and short-lived, treat a match as a hint rather than proof, and be ready to switch it off.

Order matters. Ship the app update with the new link domain first, point DNS at the new setup after that, and expect a short overlap. Then test like a real user: on a real phone, tap a link, install, open, and see where you land.

Whether you build it yourself or pick a service, ask the same four questions. Can it bring back your old short codes? Will it run on your own domain? Can you turn install matching off? Can you take your links with you if you leave?

If you're in the middle of this move, tell me in the comments what broke. Happy to help.