Copy a track link and look at the end of it. The string after /track/ is the Spotify ID, which Spotify's developer documentation describes as a base-62 identifier. The same ID sits at the end of a Spotify URI such as spotify:track:6rqhFgbbKwnb9MLmUQDhG6, the example in those docs. That's why Spotify gets a working scheme from a public link while Instagram posts and TikTok videos don't. Nothing has to be looked up.
Three forms of one Spotify link
- The https link (
https://open.spotify.com/track/4cOdK2wGLETKBW3PvgPWqT). Spotify's docs say a Spotify URL launches the Spotify app, if it's installed, and goes to that item. The file open.spotify.com publishes for Apple lists /track/, /album/, /artist/, /playlist/, /show/ and /episode/ paths, the same six kinds the generator reads. Without the app, the link loads in the Spotify web player. - The custom scheme (
spotify:track:4cOdK2wGLETKBW3PvgPWqT). The URI format from Spotify's own docs. They also say you can paste one into the search box of the Spotify desktop app to jump straight to that item. On a phone without Spotify it still opens nothing. - The Android intent. Works in Chrome on Android: Spotify if it's there, the open.spotify.com page if it isn't.
What the generator won't read
- Profile links under /user/. Spotify's file covers them, but they aren't one of the six kinds the generator handles, so the generator returns an error for them instead of a result. Share them as they are.
- spotify.link short links. Spotify's app claims that domain too, but the generator only reads spotify.com addresses. Follow the short link with the redirect checker and use the open.spotify.com address at the end of the chain.
- Anything after the question mark. The generator rebuilds the link from the kind and the ID, so extra parameters don't carry through.
How to test it
On an iPhone with Spotify installed, tap the https link. If it opens the website instead, the phone may be remembering an earlier choice. Apple's universal links guide says that once someone chooses to open a site in Safari using the breadcrumb in the status bar, iOS keeps opening that site in Safari until they tap Open in the Smart App Banner on the page. Test on a phone that hasn't made that choice, or undo it that way.
Telegram is the other platform whose scheme matches its docs word for word (Telegram deep link page). For a video link, the YouTube page shows a scheme with much weaker backing. The deep link generator reads all of them.