Swift: How to open a new app when UIButton is tapped

Question

I have an app and when a uibutton is clicked, I want to open another app that is already installed (i.e. Waze). How can I do such? Big thanks.

I think this is your answer. Hope it helps [http://stackoverflow.com/a/27697105/5417484](http://stackoverflow.com/a/27697105/5417484) — Vladimir Dimov, Nov 26 '15 at 06:58

score 32 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 03 '21 at 13:46

32

Try this. For example you want to open an Instagram app:

let instagramHooks = "instagram://user?username=johndoe"
let instagramUrl = URL(string: instagramHooks)!
if UIApplication.shared.canOpenURL(instagramUrl)
{  
    UIApplication.shared.open(instagramUrl)
} else {
    //redirect to safari because the user doesn't have Instagram
    UIApplication.shared.open(URL(string: "http://instagram.com/")!)
}

edited Apr 03 '21 at 13:46

Michiel Dral

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answered Nov 26 '15 at 07:25

Orkhan Alizade

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That code is changed to this: UIApplication.shared.openURL(NSURL(string: "http://instagram.com/")! as URL) – Mohammad Mirzakhani Jan 21 '19 at 18:32
Are there a way to how to do this for other apps? I can not seem to make it work with Facebook... – Chris Apr 27 '20 at 18:32

score 8 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:09

In SecondApp

Go to the plist file of SecondApp and you need to add a URL Schemes with a string iOSDevTips(of course you can write another string.it's up to you).

2 . In FirstApp

Create a button with the below action:

- (void)buttonPressed:(UIButton *)button
{
  NSString *customURL = @"iOSDevTips://";

  if ([[UIApplication sharedApplication] canOpenURL:[NSURL URLWithString:customURL]])
  {
    [[UIApplication sharedApplication] openURL:[NSURL URLWithString:customURL]];
  }
  else
  {
    UIAlertView *alert = [[UIAlertView alloc] initWithTitle:@"URL error"
                              message:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"No custom URL defined for %@", customURL]
                              delegate:self cancelButtonTitle:@"Ok" 
                              otherButtonTitles:nil];
    [alert show];
  }

}

That's it. Now when you can click the button in the FirstApp it should open the SecondApp.

For more info Refer here

wzso · Answer 3 · 2017-11-13T07:00:36.510

You can look up Waze Community for reference.

Objective-C code snippet:

if ([[UIApplication sharedApplication]
canOpenURL:[NSURL URLWithString:@"waze://"]]) {

  // Waze is installed. Launch Waze and start navigation
  NSString *urlStr =
    [NSString stringWithFormat:@"waze://?ll=%f,%f&navigate=yes",
    latitude, longitude];

  [[UIApplication sharedApplication] openURL:[NSURL URLWithString:urlStr]];

 } else {

  // Waze is not installed. Launch AppStore to install Waze app
  [[UIApplication sharedApplication] openURL:[NSURL
    URLWithString:@"http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id323229106"]];
}

Swift code snippet:

if UIApplication.shared.canOpenURL(URL(string: "waze://")!) {
    // Waze is installed. Launch Waze and start navigation
    let urlStr = String(format: "waze://?ll=%f, %f&navigate=yes", latitude, longitude)
    UIApplication.shared.openURL(URL(string: urlStr)!)
} else {
    // Waze is not installed. Launch AppStore to install Waze app
    UIApplication.shared.openURL(URL(string: "http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id323229106")!)
}

Note that when compiling with iOS SDK 9.0 and up, you need to update your application's plist with the following code to include Waze. LSApplicationQueriesSchemes waze — wzso, Nov 26 '15 at 07:15

score 3 · Answer 4 · edited Jan 19 '21 at 13:36

3

In Swift 4 you can use:

if let url = URL(string: "\(myUrl)") {
    UIApplication.shared.open(url, options: [:], completionHandler: nil)
}

edited Jan 19 '21 at 13:36

Olcay Ertaş

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answered Jan 21 '19 at 18:42

Mohammad Mirzakhani

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score 2 · Answer 5 · answered Nov 09 '17 at 20:22

in swift4 waze

class FullMapVC: UIViewController {

    var lat:CLLocationDegrees?
    var long:CLLocationDegrees?

    func wazeMaps()
    {
        let openUrl = URL(string: "waze://?ll=\(String(describing: lat!)),\(String(describing: long!))&navigate=yes")!
        UIApplication.shared.open(openUrl , options:[:]) { (success) in
            if !success
            {

            }
        }
    }

}

replace url with if you wanna use google maps

 let openUrl = URL(string: "comgooglemaps://?saddr=&daddr=\(String(describing: lat!)),\(String(describing: long!))&directionsmode=driving")!

score 2 · Answer 6 · answered Mar 16 '21 at 17:30

2

For Swift 4 / 5 / ..., you can do it properly like this :

if let url = URL(string: url), UIApplication.shared.canOpenURL(url) {
    UIApplication.shared.open(url)
} else {
    // display error ?
}

answered Mar 16 '21 at 17:30

Medhi

2,656
23
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Swift: How to open a new app when UIButton is tapped

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