Someone without the LinkedIn app taps your profile link and gets a sign-in screen. That's why the generator rates LinkedIn "partial", the only platform it doesn't rate "solid". LinkedIn gates a lot of profile content behind a login, and that's LinkedIn's decision, not something a link format can route around.
Three ways to link a LinkedIn profile
- The https link (
https://www.linkedin.com/in/yourname/). LinkedIn's file for Apple claims /in/* and /company/* for its main app, and the Android file names com.linkedin.android. LinkedIn also tags its own profile pages: a public profile's page head names com.linkedin.android as the Android app and gives the https profile address, not a scheme, as the address for the iPhone and Android apps to open. - The custom scheme (
linkedin://in/yourname, orlinkedin://company/yourcompany). We found no current LinkedIn documentation for it, and LinkedIn's own pages point apps at the https address instead. Treat it as unconfirmed. - The Android intent. Opens the profile or company page in LinkedIn in Chrome on Android, with the linkedin.com address written in as the fallback.
LinkedIn's rule on deep links
LinkedIn's User Agreement mentions deep links by name. In its list of things members agree not to do: "Deep-link to our Services for any purpose other than to promote your profile or a Group on our Services, without LinkedIn's consent." Linking to your own profile from your bio or your website is the use it names. For anything wider, read the agreement yourself.
The generator reads two kinds of link
Profiles under /in/ and company pages under /company/. A post, article or job link is refused, because the generator only knows those two shapes. Share it unchanged: the https address is the one LinkedIn itself points apps to.
How to test it
- Open the link in a private browser window, signed out, on a phone without LinkedIn. That is what a stranger sees.
- Then tap it on a phone with LinkedIn installed. The generator's readout says it usually opens in the app, not always, so check it from the place you'll post it.
Facebook uses the same kind of page tags with a different value; the Facebook deep link page shows the contrast. The Instagram page shows a platform whose own pages do publish a scheme. The deep link generator covers the rest.