How to Redirect Users From an External site Into the SN Mobile App (Instead of the Browser)

[sarah_bioni]

When integrating external portals or corporate websites, it’s common to provide a link that should open directly in the ServiceNow Mobile App (Now Mobile, Agent, or Mobile Publishing).

However, many developers notice the following behavior:

👉 Clicking the link opens the browser instead of the ServiceNow app.

This article explains how to generate a proper deep link so an external site can trigger the ServiceNow Mobile App.

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🧩 Step 1 — Generate the deep link inside ServiceNow

Below is an example of generating a deep link for a Record Producer using the MobileDeepLinkGenerator.

var deepLinkGen2 = new global.MobileDeepLinkGenerator('Request');

var newUrl = deepLinkGen2.getUniversalLink(

'/mesp?id=sc_cat_item&sys_id=9f812ba4fbd42e50bc74f9685eefdc12'

);

This will generate a universal link similar to:

https://{instancename}.service-now.com/mobileapplink?snapp=mobile¶ms=eyJpbnN0YW5jZUlkIjoiZDI5ZWVlMzkzYmFmZGExMDg3MjcxMmM1ZTRlNDVhMmYiLCJpbnN0YW5jZU5hbWUiOiJwZHNwbWFpbmRldjIiLCJpbnN0YW5jZVVybCI6Imh0dHBzOi8vcGRzcG1haW5kZXYyLnNlcnZpY2Utbm93LmNvbSIsInVybCI6Ii9tZXNwP2lkPXNjXr2123=

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🛠️ Step 2 — Rebuild the final URL

The universal deep link you generated internally can now be reconstructed into the final format used by external websites:

✔ Correct final structure

https://{instancename}.service-now.com/mobileapplink?snapp=mobile&params=<encoded-params>

Simply take the params= value from the generated URL and reuse it.

This is the URL you’ll publish externally — and it will correctly trigger the “Open in the app” flow.

Final result:

https://{instancename}.service-now.com/mobileapplink?snapp=mobile&params=eyJpbnN0YW5jZUlkIjoiZDI5ZWV...

IMPORTANT

The properties below need to be activated (value = true):

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🌐 Step 3 — Use this final URL in any external environment

When users click it, they'll see the native OS prompt to open the ServiceNow app:

The system automatically handles the redirection.