Which "app-id" do I use for an App Clip's apple-itunes-app meta tag?

Question

I'm following the instructions to associate an App Clip with a website:

<meta name="apple-itunes-app" content="app-id=myAppStoreID, app-clip-bundle-id=appClipBundleID, app-clip-display=card">

But I'm not sure what to put in the app-id because usually the App ID refers to the Team ID + bundle identifier (e.g. ABCDE12345.com.example.MyApp), but then it also says myAppStoreID which sounds different.

What goes in the app-id parameter?

Answer 1

In this case, app-id refers to the App Store ID, and not the App ID. This is clearly stated in the more general documentation about Smart App Banners.

These identifiers are sometimes confusing because of conflicting names¹, or wrong documentation². Here's a comprehensive list that should hopefully clear up some confusion:

	Example values	Terms used by Apple	Description
Bundle ID	com.example.MyApp, com.example.MyApp.Clip	bundle ID, Bundle ID (explicit)	User defined, typically in reverse domain name notation.
Team ID	ABCDE12345, 8XCUU22SN2	Team ID, Team ID	Assigned by Apple.
App ID Prefix	ABCDE12345	App ID Prefix (Team ID)	Usually same as Team ID.
$(AppIdentifierPrefix)2	ABCDE12345.	$(AppIdentifierPrefix)	The App ID Prefix followed by a .
App ID	ABCDE12345.com.example.MyApp	app identifier, App ID1, explicit App ID, app identifier	The $(AppIdentifierPrefix) followed by the Bundle ID.
wildcard App ID	ABCDE12345.*, ABCDE12345.com.example.*, *	wildcard App ID	Similar to the App ID, but with a wildcard (*) character.
App Store ID	1146562112	app-id, myAppStoreID, app ID1, Apple ID	Assigned by Apple. Used in App Store URLs.

Footnotes:

1. Notice how even though App ID and App Store ID are clearly different values, they have both been referred to as App ID and app ID, respectively.

2. Note that this variable includes the trailing .. You can see this by looking at a build’s environment variables, or at the variable’s usage in the Fruta app ($(AppIdentifierPrefix)com.example.apple-samplecode.fruta). There is only one location that shows it doesn’t contain a ., but it contradicts itself in the same sentence. A nearly identical paragraph correctly omits the .:

   For example, if your full app’s app identifier is $(AppIdentifierPrefix)com.example.MyApp, the app identifier for your App Clip would be $(AppIdentifierPrefix)com.example.MyApp.Clip.