Concepts

Smart app banner vs smart link: which one gets your app downloaded?

A banner shows only on your own website, in Safari on iPhone. A smart link works wherever you can paste a URL, on iPhone and on Android.

Short answer

A smart app banner is Apple's install bar: a meta tag on your own website that Safari on iPhone shows at the top of the page. A smart link is a URL you share anywhere, in a bio, a QR code or an ad, that opens the App Store on iPhone and Google Play on Android. OneStoreLink (onestore.link) is a smart-link service; most apps use both, the banner for Safari visitors already on their site and the link everywhere else.

Last reviewed 2026-10-22

Both come up when someone asks how to drive mobile app downloads, and they are not rivals: they act at different moments. The banner catches people who are already reading your website on an iPhone. The smart link travels: it is what you paste where your audience is, and it has to work for Android users and inside the in-app browsers of Instagram and TikTok. This guide sets out what each one does, where each one stops working, and how they fit together.

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The problem

Apple's Smart App Banner appears only in Safari on iPhone and iPad: not in other browsers, not on Android, and not inside the Instagram or TikTok in-app browsers.
Android has no equivalent that every browser shows: Chrome's install prompt for a native app depends on a web app manifest and on conditions Chrome decides.
A banner lives on your own pages, so it does nothing for a QR code, a bio, an ad or an email.
A store URL shared in its place opens the wrong store for half your audience.

With onestore.link

Keep the Smart App Banner on your website: for an iPhone user already in Safari it is one tap, and it says Open when the app is already installed.
Share one onestore.link URL everywhere else: it opens the App Store on iPhone, Google Play on Android, and a page with both buttons and a QR code on a computer.
Inside Instagram and Facebook the link hands off to the store by itself; in TikTok, whose browser often blocks that, the page shows the store button at once.
For a download button on your website that also works on Android, point it at the same link: onestore.link generates that button for free, without JavaScript.

How to do it

No SDK, no rebuild. Just a URL.

1
Add the Smart App Banner to your website
Add Apple's apple-itunes-app meta tag to the head of your pages, with your app's App Store ID. Safari on iPhone and iPad then shows the banner by itself.
```
<meta name="apple-itunes-app" content="app-id=123456789">
```
2
Create one smart link for both stores
On onestore.link, search your app or paste its store URLs, then activate the link from the email. That URL is the one you share in bios, QR codes, ads and emails.
3
Point every button you control at that link
Use the same link behind the download buttons on your website, in your email footer and in your QR codes, so Android visitors and in-app browsers are covered where the banner is not.

Frequently asked questions

Does the Smart App Banner work on Android?

No. It is an Apple feature that only Safari on iPhone and iPad displays. On Android, use a download button or a link that points at a smart link, which sends Android visitors to Google Play.

Do I need a smart link if I already have a Smart App Banner?

Yes, for everything outside your website. The banner only appears to visitors already on your pages in Safari; a bio, a QR code, an ad or a newsletter needs a URL, and that URL has to send each phone to its own store.

Is a smart link the same as a deep link?

No. A smart link picks a destination, usually the right store, from the visitor's device. A deep link opens a specific screen inside an app that is already installed. On a Pro link, onestore.link can try your app first through a deep link, then fall back to the store.