Fibe TV app for tvOS "Deep Links" for Home Assistant control

[EasyBouncer]

Hi there,

I'm wondering if I can get the attention of some of the Fibe TV app developers on this forum. I'm trying to more seamlessly integrate Fibe TV into my smart home setup and I believe the answer is something called "Deep Links".

In a nutshell, "Deep Links" or "Universal Links" is essentially a way for apps to more quickly launch content in the apple ecosystem by using the same links between devices. This allows the Bell Fibe TV app to launch directly into the content that you selected rather than just opening the app. This is something that the Fibe TV app already does on AppleTV so I already know they are using Deep Links.

Now when it comes to my smart home, I'm using Home Assistant and because it integrates well with the AppleTV, it can take advantage of Deep Links. As of now I can launch the Fibe TV app but I am not able to launch directly into specific channels, like CP24, TSN, etc, nor can I launch directly into specific shows.

I'm hoping someone knows, or a developer would share, how the deep links are formulated. That would be extremely helpful and would significantly improve the Fibe TV usefulness in Home Assistant.

Thank you.

Deep Links: https://developer.apple.com/wwdc17/246

Home Assistant AppleTV integration: https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/apple_tv/

[dks]

Thank you for your question. As this is a community based user to user forum, we have no connection with anyone involved in app development at Bell. Neither do they post here or have any involvement with the forum. Thank you for your question, however. 

[EasyBouncer]

That’s unfortunate but also not terribly important. This is still something that could be answered by knowledgeable users and/or by providing some direct contact info for the app development team.

[dks]

Thank you for your reply. What I was politely trying to say is that this forum is not where you will find the answers to your questions, because of the nature of the forum. I suggest you try more specific Apple developer forums, which will allow you to gain a better understanding of the issues involved. No one in this forum can or could provide the contact information you are looking for, unfortunately. 

[EasyBouncer]

Thank you for your reply. Though I appreciate your response, I can't imagine you know the personal and technical knowledge of every single member of this forum. I'm certainly not trying to be combative. Perhaps we could give some time for this post to sit in the forum until like minded individuals that are struggling with their own FibeTV smart home integration, come across the post and can provide me with helpful feedback.

Thank you for your concern though.

[dks]

Thank you for your reply. Again, this is a user to user forum. I am well aware of the variety of levels of user experience and skill. Posts, like most of the internet, live forever.

You are asking for potential app programming level information and change, which is beyond the focus of this forum. Bell may or may not have their programmers include support for Deep Links going forward in their app in the future. That's not something this forum has any information about.     

[dks]

Perhaps you can share your insights into the issue. Bell developers don't frequent this forum, as it is a peer to peer customer support community. We do also ask for courtesy. 

[Retiredandbored]

@EasyBouncer. a good place for getting the attention of highly skilled users and is also monitored by bell employees is the digital home forums. You get more flow with your question there. To give @dks credit it is highly unlikely IMHO that there is anyone here that has access to the designers and programmers. Unlike the competitor Rogers forums that have highly knowledgeable users who also contribute to the digital home forums and also have staff moderators who are part of their social media team this forum is really truly a user based forum which provides links to hard to find support documents or posts and user experience. It took me a while to realize the limit of this board as I was an active member in the other two boards. 

You can wait to see if an answer comes but do give digital home forums a try. 

All the best to both of you. 

Bruce 

[ZaneP · Accepted solution]

You may be waiting for quite a while to get a reply here on how the deep links are formulated. I have no insider info on the number of Fibe TV app developers who follow this forum. I strongly suspect it's very very few.

To reiterate what @dks posted, this is a wide-open community-based support forum. We participate in q&a on how to solve problems encountered when we're using Bell's current services. What's coming in the future (like, say, a seamless integration of Deep Links) is not disclosed by Bell here (or anywhere, frankly).

[Retiredandbored]

Yes as we will find on baby forums and discussion groups it is not the practice of any technology company to discuss what they are working on. Wish we had more open disclosure discussion or transparency but really is not the way it is. It is a great question as I stumble around constantly trying to remember what I can use voice control for searching across apps and controlling things like pause across the apps and to be honest I just live with it. It would be great if the apps on the box were more highly integrated as I have accessibility challenges.  

I can't even say how a suggestion that would make up the food chain other than possibly to escalate. You can also down vote a support topic on the web site and give a suggested change. I have had some success correcting erroneous answers to a support question. I suspect with bells integration of Google AI and customer support we will begin to see less contact with the ability to discuss suggestions in the future. The topic of how well Google AI and customer support works is a thread of its own. 

Keep asking questuons. One may get an answer but the responses here unfortunately are limited to what we can find on the internet support docs AGM meetings quarterly meetings and other communications to individuals on this board. 

I think we have beat that one to death. 

[dks]

I can assure you that all of the Community All-Stars are real, very human people. No AI is used in the forum, so far. OTOH, the chat bot in the MyBell app may well have an AI component, but that is my speculation. 

[dks]

Yes, the Digital Home forums are a good place to ask questions. Bell did withdraw their dedicated support forum over in the DSL Reports forums about six months ago and have consolidated that functionality here, but it is a different type of support now. There are highly knowledgeable internet users in the DSL Reports Bell forum, but it is not official in any way. The Bell Reddit forum is also useful, but has a lot of drama. 

[dks]

No, I am not an employee and have never been an employee of Bell. None of the Community All-Stars receive any compensation for Bell. This was not a support question but a request for information and contact which isn’t available through the Community Forum. I made that clear. That point is apparently not acceptable, no matter how well grounded in fact it is. Asking any user to stop responding is also not acceptable in the forum.