Firebase Dynamic Links Alternative
Firebase Dynamic Links was shut down by Google in August 2025. If all you needed was a link that opens the app, this is a free replacement you can use today.
Google deprecated Firebase Dynamic Links in August 2023 and shut the service down in August 2025, leaving every FDL link dead and a lot of teams looking for somewhere to go. The honest answer is that FDL did two quite different jobs, and no single free tool replaces both. This page explains which half you can replace for free, and which half genuinely needs a paid platform.
Switch if
- You used Dynamic Links mainly to make a shared link open the right app instead of a mobile browser.
- You link to apps you do not own — YouTube, Instagram, Amazon, Spotify — where an SDK was never an option anyway.
- You want links working again today, with no SDK, no console, and no account.
- Your links go in bios, newsletters, ads, and messages rather than into an attribution dashboard.
Stay with Firebase Dynamic Links if
- You relied on deferred deep linking — the user installs the app from the store, and the app then opens the exact screen the link pointed to. This tool does not do that, and it cannot be faked without an SDK in your app.
- You need install attribution or campaign analytics. Branch, AppsFlyer and Adjust exist for this and are the correct migration target.
- You are deep linking into your own app and need the link to survive the install flow. That requires code in your app.
OpenLinkInApp vs Firebase Dynamic Links
| Feature | OpenLinkInApp | Firebase Dynamic Links |
|---|---|---|
| Status | Live and maintained | Shut down August 2025 |
| Opens an installed app from a shared link | Yes — Android intent, iOS scheme or Safari hand-off | Yes, while it existed |
| Deferred deep linking (survives an install) | No | Yes — this is the part you cannot replace for free |
| SDK required in your app | None | Yes |
| Analytics and attribution | None | Basic, via Firebase |
| Works for third-party apps you do not own | Yes | Not really — built for your own app |
| Setup time | Paste a URL | Console project plus SDK integration |
| Price | Free, unlimited, no account | Free tier with limits, then paid plans |
Moving off Firebase Dynamic Links
- 1List the Dynamic Links you still have in circulation — bios, pinned posts, email footers, printed QR codes.
- 2Separate them into two piles: links that just needed to open an app, and links that needed to survive an app install.
- 3For the first pile, paste the original destination URL into the generator above and swap the new link in wherever the old one was published.
- 4For the second pile, budget for Branch, AppsFlyer or Adjust — deferred deep linking needs an SDK inside your app and no link generator can provide it.
- 5Test each replacement on a real Android phone and a real iPhone before you publish it. Deep links behave differently on the two, and an untested link is worse than the dead one it replaced.
What actually died with Dynamic Links
FDL bundled three things: a short link, a rule for opening your app when installed, and deferred deep linking that carried the destination through an App Store or Play Store install. The first two are commodity behaviour that any decent link tool can do. The third needs code running inside your app to read the pending link after first launch, which is why every product that offers it ships an SDK.
Why a free tool can cover the common case
Most FDL links in the wild were never doing attribution. They were a creator's link in a bio, a support article pointed at an app screen, or a share button. For those, the mechanism is Android's intent:// with a browser fallback and, on iOS, a custom scheme or a hand-off into real Safari. None of that requires an account, so none of it needs to cost anything.
The migration nobody warns you about: your old links are gone, not redirecting
Shutdown means the FDL domains stop resolving, so anything already printed, pinned, or embedded in an old app build is a dead end rather than a redirect. Replace the links you control first, then go looking for the ones you forgot — QR codes on packaging and links inside shipped app versions are the two that usually surface last.