Home Dynamic QR Device Routing

Device Routing

One sticker on the machine, the right store on every phone that scans it.

Wash House puts one vinyl sticker on every machine door, printed by the machine supplier. Changing it means visiting every site with a heat gun, and the person scanning it is standing in front of the machine holding a bag of wet laundry.

The scan happens on

The rule engine

ScanEvery scan enters hereDeviceiOS · Android · DesktopiOS · Android · DesktopiOSiOSAndroidAndroidDesktopDesktopEveryone elseEveryone elseApp StoreApp Storeapps.apple.com/app/exampleapps.apple.com/app/exampleGoogle PlayGoogle Playplay.google.com/store/apps/e…play.google.com/store/apps/exampleDownload pageDownload pageexample.com/appexample.com/appSite homeSite homeexample.comexample.com

What the scanner gets

External destination

https://apps.apple.com/app/example

This branch leaves for a page somebody else owns, so there is nothing of ours to show.

App Store

Straight to the store listing. No splash page asking somebody in a laundrette which phone they are holding.

Desktop is matched positively against known desktop platforms rather than inferred from the absence of a phone, so an unknown agent falls through to the default. Two of these branches leave for an app store, which is somebody else page and is shown as one.

Get this wrong and an Android customer at the machine lands on an App Store page telling them the app is unavailable. The vinyl is already on the door; the rule is the only part still editable.

no subscription · pay per scan · nothing to cancel

There is no universal app link, and the reader is holding the answer

A printed code promoting an app has to resolve to two different stores. Every workaround leaks readers somewhere, and the least visible leak is the one that is not a reader at all.

  • A splash page with two store buttons adds a tap before the store opens.
  • Two codes labelled iOS and Android double the artwork and halve the target.
  • A third-party smart-link service adds a hop, a dependency and a privacy question.
  • Inferring desktop from anything that is not a phone sends crawlers into a store listing.

What Wash House put on the machine door

  1. iOS and Android are matched first

    The user agent is tested for iPhone, iPad and iPod, then for Android. These two branches always exist.

    branches: ios · android · else
  2. Desktop is a branch you opt into

    Turn on the desktop branch and it is matched positively, against known desktop platforms, rather than inferred from the absence of a phone.

    { "desktop": true }
  3. Everything unknown takes the default

    Crawlers, consoles, e-readers and user agents nobody has seen yet fall through. That is deliberate: an unknown agent is not evidence of a desktop.

What one vinyl does across two platforms

  • Straight into the right store device

    The scan opens the App Store or Google Play directly, with no interstitial to tap through.

  • A desktop branch that means desktop

    Send desktop scanners to a download page or a handoff instead of a mobile store listing they cannot use.

  • Bots land somewhere honest

    A crawler takes your default rather than a store link, which keeps your store referrals cleaner.

  • Automated scans are labelled

    Scans flagged as automated are counted and shown separately rather than folded into your total.

  • Store URLs can move

    Apps get renamed and relisted. Repoint the branch and the sticker on the door follows.

  • One rule, 5 credits per change

    Device routing is a custom rule at 5 credits · every change · add, edit or remove · a save that changes nothing is free · and every scan through it is 1 credit.

Questions

How is the device detected?

From the user agent the scanning browser sends. iPhone, iPad and iPod match the iOS branch and Android matches its own; both are positive tests rather than deductions.

Why is desktop not on by default?

Because anything that is not a recognised phone is not necessarily a desktop. Turning the branch on matches known desktop platforms explicitly, which leaves crawlers and unknown agents falling through to your default instead of being mislabelled.

Are bot scans free?

No. A scan that resolves is 1 credit whether or not a person made it. What we do is label them, so you can see what share of your traffic they are rather than discovering it in a total.

Can a tablet be told apart from a phone?

iPad matches the iOS branch alongside iPhone, so tablets and phones on that platform share a destination. If they need to differ, the difference belongs on the page you send them to.

Is device routing enough for an app campaign?

It is the routing half. Deferred deep linking into a specific screen after install lives in your app and its store listing, not in the redirect, and we do not provide it.