External Applications

While Speakap offers the tools to make a nice implementation of external software within the Speakap platform, it might not always possible for your supplier to make this implementation.

In this case, Speakap offers the option to open an external application from its main menu.

How it works

If set-up properly, your external application will be accessible through Speakap’s main menu. When the user clicks on this menu entry, we will try to open the external application by calling it’s URLScheme. If the app is not installed, we will redirect the user to the appropriate store to download the application.

Technical requirements

To be able to open an external application from within the Speakap application(s), we will need to know the following information:

1. The URLScheme to which the application listens
2. A link to iTunes and the Google Play Store where the user can download the application

Please note that it’s not possible for us to determine if an application listens to a specific URLScheme, or if this logic is implemented at all. Your supplier should be able to tell you this and provide you with the correct URLScheme.

Whitelisting the URLScheme

Before continuing to the next step, Speakap must whitelist the URLScheme for the external application. Without adding it to our whitelist, it won’t be possible to open the application.

Please let us know you want us to whitelist your URLScheme on support@speakap.nl.

Adding it to your network

To add this external application to your network, you should create a manifest.json which specifies which URLScheme(s) and store links to open on both the iOS and Android applications.

{
    "name": {
        "en-US": "Example Application",
        "nl-NL": "Voorbeeld Applicatie"
    },
    "icon": "https://example.app.speakap.io/icon.png",
    "iconThumbnailUrl": "https://example.app.speakap.io/icon_thumbnail.png",
    "permissions": [],
    "entries": [
        {
            "position": "main",
            "devices": "ios",
            "url": "yourapp://example.yourapp.com/",
            "fallbackUrl": "https://itunes.apple.com/nl/app/speakap/id713925262",
            "label": {
                "en-US": "iPhone app",
                "nl-NL": "iPhone app"
            },
            "icon": "\uf073",
            "responsive": false
        },
        {
            "position": "main",
            "devices": "android",
            "url": "yourapp://example.yourapp.com/",
            "fallbackUrl": "https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=nl.speakap.speakap",
            "label": {
                "en-US": "Android app",
                "nl-NL": "Android app"
            },
            "icon": "\uf073",
            "responsive": false
        }
    ]
}

You can add this manifest through our Speakap Market in the Network Settings of your Speakap network: https://speakap.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002625433-How-to-install-an-application-in-the-Speakap-Market-

Limitations

Since this is not a full integration with the Speakap platform, there are some limitations to this solution:

• Limited API support; While not impossible, communication with our API is quite limited in this case. We can only support server-to-server communication for sending notifications to individual users for example.
• No Single Sign On Support; While the external application might support SSO, we can’t automatically log the user in when opening the external application. If a SSO connection is required, this should be implemented by your supplier.
• No deep-linking; It’s not possible to direct the user to specific sections of the external application. We can only open the application itself, but have no control over what specific section to open afterwards for example.