url_launcher

A Flutter plugin for launching a URL. Supports iOS, Android, web, Windows, macOS, and Linux.

Usage

To use this plugin, add url_launcher as a dependency in your pubspec.yaml file.

Example

import 'package:flutter/material.dart';
import 'package:url_launcher/url_launcher.dart';

const _url = 'https://flutter.dev';

void main() => runApp(
      const MaterialApp(
        home: Material(
          child: Center(
            child: RaisedButton(
              onPressed: _launchURL,
              child: Text('Show Flutter homepage'),
            ),
          ),
        ),
      ),
    );

void _launchURL() async =>
    await canLaunch(_url) ? await launch(_url) : throw 'Could not launch $_url';

Supported URL schemes

The launch method takes a string argument containing a URL. This URL can be formatted using a number of different URL schemes. The supported URL schemes depend on the underlying platform and installed apps.

Common schemes supported by both iOS and Android:

Scheme	Action
`http:<URL>` , `https:<URL>`, e.g. `http://flutter.dev`	Open URL in the default browser
`mailto:<email address>?subject=<subject>&body=<body>`, e.g. `mailto:smith@example.org?subject=News&body=New%20plugin`	Create email to in the default email app
`tel:<phone number>`, e.g. `tel:+1 555 010 999`	Make a phone call to using the default phone app
`sms:<phone number>`, e.g. `sms:5550101234`	Send an SMS message to using the default messaging app

More details can be found here for iOS and Android

Encoding URLs

URLs must be properly encoded, especially when including spaces or other special characters. This can be done using the Uri class:

import 'dart:core';
import 'package:url_launcher/url_launcher.dart';

final Uri _emailLaunchUri = Uri(
  scheme: 'mailto',
  path: 'smith@example.com',
  queryParameters: {
    'subject': 'Example Subject & Symbols are allowed!'
  }
);

// ...

// mailto:smith@example.com?subject=Example+Subject+%26+Symbols+are+allowed%21
launch(_emailLaunchUri.toString());

Handling missing URL receivers

A particular mobile device may not be able to receive all supported URL schemes. For example, a tablet may not have a cellular radio and thus no support for launching a URL using the sms scheme, or a device may not have an email app and thus no support for launching a URL using the email scheme.

We recommend checking which URL schemes are supported using the canLaunch method prior to calling launch. If the canLaunch method returns false, as a best practice we suggest adjusting the application UI so that the unsupported URL is never triggered; for example, if the email scheme is not supported, a UI button that would have sent email can be changed to redirect the user to a web page using a URL following the http scheme.

Browser vs In-app Handling

By default, Android opens up a browser when handling URLs. You can pass forceWebView: true parameter to tell the plugin to open a WebView instead. If you do this for a URL of a page containing JavaScript, make sure to pass in enableJavaScript: true, or else the launch method will not work properly. On iOS, the default behavior is to open all web URLs within the app. Everything else is redirected to the app handler.