YouTube's app claims youtube.com and youtu.be in the files Apple and Google read to connect an app to a website. Apple's file for both domains carries one opt-out worth knowing: any address with a noapp parameter is excluded from opening the app.
What the generator does with each YouTube link
- Videos and Shorts. A youtu.be link, a watch?v= link and a /shorts/ link all come back as
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plus the video ID. Everything else in the link is dropped, including a start time set with the Start at box in YouTube's share panel. If the start time matters, share YouTube's own copied link. - Channels. @handle, /channel/, /c/ and /user/ addresses come back as the channel link, with no scheme. The https link already opens the channel in the app, so a scheme would only add a dead end for people without it.
The three forms, for a video
- The https link. Opens the video in the YouTube app, or on youtube.com in the browser.
- The custom scheme (
vnd.youtube://dQw4w9WgXcQ). We found no Google developer page for it. YouTube's own watch pages do publish a longer version in their page head:vnd.youtube://m.youtube.com/watch?v=plus the ID. The generator's short form is not that exact spelling, so treat it as unconfirmed and keep it for places where you know the app is installed. - The Android intent. Opens the video in YouTube in Chrome on Android, and falls back to the watch page.
YouTube links posted in other apps
A YouTube link in an Instagram or TikTok bio is tapped inside that app's browser first. Apple's documentation says a universal link opens the app when it's tapped in a browser or in WKWebView, the web view Apple provides for apps. Apple also gives every app a way to accept or reject each navigation inside its own web view, so the app hosting the browser has the final say. Test the link from the bio where it will live, not only from Safari or Chrome. The Instagram deep link page covers that browser.
How to test it
To see the web fallback without deleting the app, add &noapp=1 to a youtube.com watch link and tap it on an iPhone. YouTube's own file keeps that address out of the app, so it loads in the browser. Then tap the clean link from the generator, which has no noapp parameter, and it should open the app.
Spotify's scheme, by contrast, is documented by Spotify itself; compare it on the Spotify deep link page. The main deep link generator takes a link from any supported platform.