The Rich Fallback Page: When the App Isn't There, Zippy Catches the Fall
New for Hero links: when someone taps your link and the native app isn't installed, they land on a beautiful fallback page — destination preview, a big Open-in-app button, and a browser escape hatch — instead of a dead-end web tab.
⚡ Zippy: my whole job is opening the real app. but what if the app isn't installed? until today: a shrug and a web tab. now: I catch the phone mid-fall, show off where the link goes, and hand them a big shiny button. nobody hits the ground.
Zippy links open the native app — the real Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Spotify app — instead of leaving people logged out in a web tab. But there's always been one gap in the net: what if the app isn't installed?
Until now, the answer was the same as everyone else's: bail to the web URL and hope. Functional, sure. Also the least exciting moment in the entire journey. Someone tapped your link, got hyped, and landed on... a bare mobile website they may not even be logged into.
Today that dead end gets a trampoline.
Meet the rich fallback page
When someone taps a Hero link on mobile and the app doesn't open, they no longer free-fall to the bare web. They land on a fast, clean Zippy page that shows:
- A preview card of the destination. Title, image, the works — pulled from the link's own OG data, so people instantly see where they're headed instead of guessing.
- A big "Open in the app ⚡" button. One tap re-fires the deeplink. Maybe the app was installed and the OS just fumbled the handoff — happens more than you'd think. Now there's a retry button instead of a dead end.
- A "Continue in browser" link. No hostage-taking. If they want the web version, it's one tap away.
Free-tier-branded links also get a small "zipped with Zippy" footer. That's it — no interstitial ads, no countdown, no "wait 5 seconds".
The link never changes
This is the part we care about most. Your short link is exactly the same link — same slug, same QR code, same everything. The fallback page only exists after the app-open attempt fails, so:
- App installed? Opens instantly, same as always. Zero extra hops, zero slowdown.
- App missing? The fallback page catches them.
The redirect engine stays lightning-simple: it just knows whether to hand off, and the pretty page lives in the cloud. And the page itself is never cached stale — every visit gets the current destination, so if you re-point the link later, the fallback follows along. Post once, it keeps working forever.
Composes with everything
The fallback page isn't a separate link type — it's a layer on the links you already have. Geo routing, device routing, UTM tags, custom QR codes, living-link edits: all of it still works, and any of those paths that ends in "app not installed" now ends on the fallback page instead of a shrug.
Who gets it
Rich fallback pages are a Hero power (and up), spelled out in the fallback page docs and shipped here in the changelog. Sidekick links keep the classic behavior — straight to the web URL, same as before. Nothing breaks, nothing changes on existing links; Hero links just got a better worst case.
The gist
The one moment where a Zippy link used to feel like every other link — app not installed, dumped to the web — is now a branded catch: preview of the destination, a retry button for the app, and a browser way out. Your link stays the same; its worst case just got a glow-up. ⚡
Ready? Start zipping →