Sharing interactive posts to Google+ from your Android app

Interactive posts provide an easy and prominent way to allow users to share your site or app with their friends and invite them to take a specific action, for example RSVP to an event or take part in a discussion. Interactive posts can drive new users to your app, improve conversions, and increase engagement.

More on interactive posts ›› Interactive Posts

A typical scenario is as follows. Let's say you created a music-playing app called MySongApp that supports web, Android and iOS. You implemented the Google+ Share button on each of the song-playing pages.

1. Jojie is using MySongApp on any of the three platforms and is playing a song "Love" she particularly likes. She wants to share this song with her friends, so she taps the Share button.
2. This opens the Share dialog, with a preview of the song based on the content in your app. Jojie types "I love this song", then sends it to her circles.
3. Three people who receive and read Jojie's post in their Google+ streams want to listen to Jojie's song:
   • One person with an Android phone does not have MySongApp installed, so when she taps the Listen link in the post, the Google Play store launches to the MySongApp installation page. She installs MySongApp, which then launches and deep-links directly to the song "Love" and starts playing it.
   • Another person with an iPhone also does not have MySongApp installed, so when she taps the Listen link in the post, the Apple App Store launches to the MySongApp installation page. Just like the previous example, she installs MySongApp, which then launches and deep-links to the song and starts playing it.
   • A third person is using a desktop web browser, so when he clicks the Listen link in the post, he is taken to the web page on your website that also starts playing the song "Love".

With deep-linking, users are taken to the page in your app that gives them the best in-app experience for their device, and are prompted along the way to install your app only when necessary.

Before you begin

If you plan on building deep linking into your app, you must create a client ID for each platform that you plan on supporting within the same Google Developers Console project.

If your app uses Google+ Sign-in, you must create a Google Developers Console project and initialize the GoogleApiClient object.

Choose a call-to-action label

Choose a value from the following list to designate the label for the call-to-action button.

ACCEPT
ACCEPT_GIFT
ADD
ADD_FRIEND
ADD_ME
ADD_TO_CALENDAR
ADD_TO_CART
ADD_TO_FAVORITES
ADD_TO_QUEUE
ADD_TO_WISH_LIST
ANSWER
ANSWER_QUIZ
APPLY
ASK
ATTACK
BEAT
BID
BOOK
BOOKMARK
BROWSE
BUY
CAPTURE
CHALLENGE
CHANGE
CHAT
CHECKIN
COLLECT
COMMENT
COMPARE
COMPLAIN
CONFIRM
CONNECT
CONTRIBUTE
COOK
CREATE
DEFEND
DINE
DISCOVER
DISCUSS
DONATE
DOWNLOAD
EARN
EAT
EXPLAIN
FIND
FIND_A_TABLE
FOLLOW
GET
GIFT
GIVE
GO
HELP
IDENTIFY
INSTALL
INSTALL_APP
INTRODUCE
INVITE
JOIN
JOIN_ME
LEARN
LEARN_MORE
LISTEN
MAKE
MATCH
MESSAGE
OPEN
OPEN_APP
OWN
PAY
PIN
PIN_IT
PLAN
PLAY
PURCHASE
RATE
READ
READ_MORE
RECOMMEND
RECORD
REDEEM
REGISTER
REPLY
RESERVE
REVIEW
RSVP
SAVE
SAVE_OFFER
SEE_DEMO
SELL
SEND
SIGN_IN
SIGN_UP
START
STOP
SUBSCRIBE
TAKE_QUIZ
TAKE_TEST
TRY_IT
UPVOTE
USE
VIEW
VIEW_ITEM
VIEW_MENU
VIEW_PROFILE
VISIT
VOTE
WANT
WANT_TO_SEE
WANT_TO_SEE_IT
WATCH
WATCH_TRAILER
WISH
WRITE

Configure the share dialog

The steps for adding interactive posts to your app builds on the steps for implementing basic sharing. Interactive posts can have deep links attached to both the content URL and the callt-action button.

To create interactive posts when a user clicks on the share button:

1. Add a share button to your layout named share_activity.xml.

   <Button
     android:id="@+id/share_button"
     android:layout_width="wrap_content"
     android:layout_height="wrap_content"
     android:text="Share interactive post on Google+"
     android:enabled="false" />
   

2. Initialize the share button in your Activity.onCreate handler. Configure your share button's OnClickListener to invoke your onClick handler.

   @Override
   protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
       super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
       setContentView(R.layout.share_activity);
       mShareButton = (ImageButton) findViewById(R.id.share_button);
       mShareButton.setOnClickListener(this);
   }
   

3. Configure your onClick handler to send the interactive post:

   @Override
   public void onClick(View view) {
     switch (view.getId()) {
       case R.id.share_button:
         PlusShare.Builder builder = new PlusShare.Builder(this);
   
         // Set call-to-action metadata.
         builder.addCallToAction(
             "CREATE_ITEM", /** call-to-action button label */
             Uri.parse("http://plus.google.com/pages/create"), /** call-to-action url (for desktop use) */
             "/pages/create" /** call to action deep-link ID (for mobile use), 512 characters or fewer */);
   
         // Set the content url (for desktop use).
         builder.setContentUrl(Uri.parse("https://plus.google.com/pages/"));
   
         // Set the target deep-link ID (for mobile use).
         builder.setContentDeepLinkId("/pages/",
                 null, null, null);
   
         // Set the share text.
         builder.setText("Create your Google+ Page too!");
   
         startActivityForResult(builder.getIntent(), 0);
         break;
     }
   }
   

   The protocol (http/https), host name, and port (if specified) for the content URL and the call-to-action URL must match. Because these must match, you should avoid using URL shorteners and redirects for either URL.

If you choose to use deep linking, you should configure your app to handle the incoming deep links.

Next steps

• Fetch people information
• Measure impact