Firebase Dynamic Links did four things at once: it shortened a URL, it opened your app if it was installed, it sent people to the store if it wasn't, and it remembered where they were going across the install. When Google retired it on August 25, 2025, teams discovered those four jobs now need two or three tools. This page is about picking them, and about which of them crisp does today.
What Dynamic Links did, and what replaces each part
| Job | What FDL did | Replace it with | crisp today |
|---|---|---|---|
| Short, shareable link | yourapp.page.link/abc | A short link on a domain you control | Yes: crisp.to/xcz or your own domain, editable, tracked, never switched off because of your plan |
| Open the app when installed | Redirect through FDL | Universal Links (iOS) / App Links (Android) on your domain | Yes: AASA and assetlinks.json served per app domain |
| Send to the store when not installed | Platform detection | A resolver that reads the user agent | Yes (early access): per-platform routing with store fallbacks |
| Remember the destination through install | Deferred deep linking | A fingerprint or clipboard match + SDK | Early access on Studio: resolver + React Native and Flutter SDKs |
| Link previews when shared | OG tags | OG tags on the short link | Yes: title and image on every link |
| Analytics | Firebase console | Click analytics | Yes: clicks, platforms, countries, referrers |
The three paths
Path 1: Universal Links and App Links only. Free, no third party, maintained by Apple and Google. Your domain hosts an apple-app-site-association file and an assetlinks.json, and URLs on that domain open the app when it's installed. The limits: no deferred linking, no editable destinations, and a URL that's only as short as your domain. For many apps this is enough, and you should start here regardless, because every other path builds on it.
Path 2: Universal Links plus a link platform for everything that isn't an app launch. This is where most teams actually land. Campaign links, QR codes on packaging, share buttons, email links: none of these need an SDK, all of them need to be editable and measurable, and all of them need to survive longer than the service that made them. That last point is the lesson of August 2025. crisp does this today: short links on crisp.to or your domain, dynamic QR codes, OG previews, analytics, and a written never-expire promise.
Path 3: A full deferred-deep-link platform. Branch, AppsFlyer and Adjust do this well and charge for it, typically from several hundred dollars a month at any real volume, with the rest of their attribution suite attached. If you need deferred linking with high match rates and you have the budget, they're the proven option.
crisp's deep-link surface is the early-access version of Path 3: an edge resolver with iOS and Android routing, interstitial pages for in-app browsers, and SDKs for React Native and Flutter that do install matching. It's on the Studio plan, it's labelled early access on every page where it appears, and we'll remove the label when it has earned that.
What to do with your old links
If your Dynamic Links used *.page.link, those addresses are gone and can't be transferred; anything printed with them needs a reprint. If you used your own domain with Dynamic Links, you still own the domain: point it at a new resolver, recreate each path with the same destination, and the printed links start working again. The migration guide walks through recovering the list of links and destinations, including the authentication-flow links (email sign-in, passwordless) that many teams forgot were on FDL.
Two rules for whatever you pick next:
- Own the domain in the link. A service can shut down; a domain you hold can be re-pointed.
- Read what happens to links when the plan ends. If the answer isn't "they keep working", you'll meet this page again.
Where to start
Create the links that don't need an SDK first; that's usually most of them, and it's on the free plan. Set up Universal Links and App Links on your domain. Then, if you need deferred linking, read the SDK docs and decide whether early access is acceptable for your app or whether a Path-3 vendor is the safer call this quarter.