Physical Web FAQs: How to manage Eddystone URLs and more

It’s been just five months into 2016 and we have already seen Eddystone make some major announcements which has now put the beacon format well ahead on the track to becoming the new beacon industry standard. Not only did they open doors to 800 million additional users for businesses by announcing Chrome browser support on Android for Eddystone, but with Eddystone-EID they also announced a new privacy-focused way in which users can track their personal stuff.

Among all this buzz, we have been receiving quite a few questions around managing Eddystone URLs, what consumers need to do to receive these notifications on their Android and iOS devices, and more. We have addressed some of the questions around how Eddystone beacons work and how they will impact your current beacon projects, in our earlier blogs.

In this blog we have tried to answer all the questions that we have been receiving of recent to help businesses get a better idea of how to tackle issues they may face while working with Eddystone beacons.

[Tweet “FAQs around Eddystone-URLs”]

1) Why doesn’t the Chrome browser app on Android detect my Eddystone beacon?

As a measure to avoid ‘Man-in-the-middle’ attacks, Chrome browser on Android fails to trigger URLs unless they are secure ( i.e use https). However, this limitation isn’t applicable to both the Chrome browser app on iOS and the Physical Web app on Android.

This inconsistency in the Eddystone beacon experience on the Chrome browser in iOS and Android suggests that the Google hasn’t thought through or communicated this aspect well enough.

[Tweet “Why it’s important to ensure that your Eddystone-URLs are secure”]

2) How do I manage my Eddystone beacon URLs remotely?

Before we answer this question, let’s first take a look at things you need to keep in mind about the Eddystone URL:

(a) Your web address doesn’t always have to be 18 characters or less.

(b) With the scheme (http part) portion and domain ending portion being encoded, sometimes even longer URLs can fit into the beacon advertising data.

(c) In most of the cases, you wouldn’t have to worry about this encoding as well, as it is handled by the beacon management app.

Now in order to remotely manage the Eddystone-URL without having to reconfigure the beacon, you need to ensure that you insert a shortner-generated URL into the beacon in the first place. The important thing to note here is that, while goo.gl and bit.ly are two of most commonly used URL shortners, they don’t allow you to change the URL in the future.

[Tweet “Why you shouldn’t use goo.gl or bit.ly to shorten your Eddystone-URL”]

Therefore, you might want to use a shortener such as tiny.cc, in order to ensure that you will be able to change the URL at any point of time. Also, if you are looking for something that involves lesser dependency on a third-party and more privacy of visitor stats, then you might want to take a look at yourls.org, a self-hosted URL shortener.

Now, like we had mentioned earlier, always keep in mind that Chrome browser on Android only triggers secure Eddystone-URLs (i.e https rather than http). However, it’s only the final redirected-to URL that needs to be secure. This means that, you can actually use tiny.cc or your own self-hosted URL shortener on a non-secure domain to create a secure, shortened URL that will be inserted into the beacon.

3) What does the user need to do receive Eddystone notifications on his/her Android or iPhone device?

Here are a list of things that a user needs to do in order to receive Eddystone notifications on his/her device:

iOS device –

(i) Ensure that your iPhone or iPad is running on iOS 8.0 or higher. You can check the iOS version that your device is running on as follows:

(a) Go to your home screen

(b) Touch Settings > General > About

(ii) Add Chrome to the ‘Today’ view on your device

(iii) Turn Bluetooth ON. This can be done as follows:

(a) Go to your home screen

(b) Touch Settings > Bluetooth

You can also turn Bluetooth ON by swiping up from the bottom of the screen when the screen is on.

(iv) Install Chrome on your device

(v) Swipe down from the very top of your screen

(vi) From the upper left corner, choose Today

(vii) Scroll down to the bottom and touch Edit. Now choose Chrome from the given list of apps

Once you have enabled all of this, the next time you open your Today view when you are near an object that’s part of the Physical Web, you’ll see a list of suggested webpages.

Android device –

(i) Ensure that your Android device is running on Android 4.3.2 or higher. You can check the iOS version that your device is running on as follows:

(a) Go to your home screen

(b) Touch Settings > About phone

(ii) Turn Bluetooth ON. This can be done as follows:

(a) Go to your home screen.

(b) Touch Settings > Bluetooth

(iii) Turn Location ON. This can be done as follows:

(a) Go to your home screen

(b) Touch Settings > Location

(iv) Grant permission to Chrome location (on Android 6.0 and above). This can be done as follows:

(a) Go to your home screen

(b) Touch Settings > Apps > Chrome > Permission

Once you have enabled all of this, you’ll receive a notification with the Physical Web icon when you are near an object that’s part of the Physical Web. You can then simply tap on the notification to see a list of suggested webpages.

[Tweet “Steps to be taken by Android and iOS device users in order to receive Eddystone notifications”]

4) What do Eddystone-triggered URLs look like?

Image source: mobiforge.com

A user will see a URL and some metadata that is attached to this URL (currently, the Meta: Title tag) just like it appears on Google search results.

5) Can I broadcast text instead of a URL?

Theoretically, you may, but it wouldn’t be of much use. Particularly because a Eddystone-URL has to start with a byte representing the http:// or https:// prefix. Given that, chances are that your text wouldn’t look good. Moreover, if a user clicked on it, a browser would open and needless to say, it would display an error page.

Now, if you were actually planning on using the text to come up with a catchy headline that captures the attention of the user, then you could just place that catchy headline or call to action in the meta title of the Eddystone-URLs.

If there are other important questions that you would like us answer let us know in the comments below.

If you are planning an Eddystone beacon pilot, take a look at Beaconstac, that includes everything you need to kickstart your campaign in under 15 minutes. Using Beaconstac you can set up your own campaign, without a developer’s help!