Apple has launched a new feature in Apple Business Connect called Custom Action Links. With Custom Action Links, businesses can decide what types of user actions they want to drive (think: place order, make a reservation, etc.) in their Apple Maps place card. Businesses can add Custom Action Links in the Business Connect portal or with the Business Connect API.
From the user’s perspective, actions appear at the top of a given business’ place card. Those place cards in turn show up whenever a user searches for a business and clicks on the listing or map pin to reveal more info.
Custom Action Links build on an existing feature in Apple Business Connect that lets businesses highlight user actions that involve third parties. For example, ordering groceries with Instacart, hotel reservations through Booking.com, or restaurant reservations via OpenTable.
The difference with the latest feature is that businesses can now create a link directly to their website or preferred platform without an app (hence “Custom” Action Links). These actions can include things like links to a restaurant menu or to a transactional flow for something like an event ticket. The possibilities are broad.
From a technical perspective, this happens in one of two ways. Businesses can add Quick-Links, which deep link to a specific page in their app. Or they can create an app clip, which is an easy way to let customers complete a quick task like ordering food or making a reservation without downloading an app. Once the customer has finished the task, businesses can offer the opportunity to download the full app.
Yext Moves Quickly on New Apple Business Connect with API Integration
Smart Move
Backing up, what is Apple Business Connect? For those unfamiliar, this is Apple’s business-facing tool that lets them manage how their listings appear across the Apple ecosystem in apps like Maps, Siri, Wallet, and more. It can include things like updating hours of operation, menus, or other dynamic info they want displayed.
For Apple, this is a smart move because it engenders greater scalability. By crowdsourcing key business details to businesses themselves, it’s a more effective way to keep all that dynamic data up to date. Apple is also banking on the fact that SMBs will be self-interested and motivated to do so.
Going deeper on that last point, Apple’s sheer scale should be an effective motivator for businesses to show up and update their profile info. Apple’s footprint and device installed base make this a worthwhile move, similar in some ways to the ways SMBs are motivated to maintain their Google Business Profiles.
Furthermore, we’ve seen an inflection in SMBs that self-manage online profiles. Born from the need to update dynamic business info in the Covid era, SMBs developed new muscles. And many continue to exercise those muscles in a post-Covid world. Apple Business Connect could benefit from this trend.
Meanwhile, Custom Action Links are available now and businesses can register for Apple Business Connect for free. On the user end, iPadOS 17.4 or iOS 17.4 are required to view Custom Action Links.
