Thanks to the introduction of in-app deeplinks, the opportunities for mobile marketers are greater than ever. Apps can now link directly to content in other apps or specific areas of the app store to promote native app content and increase their discoverability in the app store.
Social networks were among the first to leverage deeplinks to drive mobile app downloads and installs. Twitter launched promoted App Cards, Facebook rolled out targeted app install ads, and Pinterest introduced App Pins.
And now, according to a Next Web tipster, Twitter is back at it – this time with Pinned Apps.
The new element is an extension of Twitter’s Pinned Tweets feature. By pinning a tweet, accounts can ‘lock’ a tweet to the top of their stream allowing it to break through the noise of a busy Twittersphere to be the first viewers of the page see. Brands and individuals alike commonly use this feature to gain more visibility for key content and announcements without the need to invest in promoted tweets.
While up until now, the Pinned Tweets feature was only available for Twitter’s web version, the future rollout of Pinned Apps is designed specifically for Twitter’s mobile apps. The feature will allow brands and app publishers to pin a deeplink to their app straight to their Twitter profile – appearing prominently below their bio and above their latest tweet. The pin includes the app’s current app store rating, its number of ratings, and its price. Viewers with the pinned app already install will see an “Open” button to launch the app while viewers without the app will see a “Download” app taking them to the app’s landing page in the App Store.
In accordance with Twitter’s policy around Pinned Tweets, however, it is likely that each Twitter account can pin a maximum of one app – requiring brands with multiple apps to select a single app to showcase. As brands catch on, we expect to see many use this new key real estate to ‘announce’ their newest apps and convert their existing social following into early adopters.
Twitter has since confirmed that the company is, indeed, working with a limited number of brands (including Periscope, Vine, and Uber) to test the Pinned Apps feature on the Twitter iOS app.
There has been no word on when this update will be launched to the public or whether or not similar tests are being conducted in Twitter’s Android app.
