Alva Digital Downloads is a Shopify app that delivers digital products, and its checkout links take a buyer from one tap straight to your Shopify checkout. When that tap happens inside Instagram or TikTok, the link opens in the app's own browser. Shopify's checkout runs in that browser too, so buyers can normally check out without leaving the app.
What an in-app browser is
Instagram, TikTok and similar apps open links in a browser built into the app instead of handing them to Safari or Chrome. The buyer stays inside the app, sees your checkout, and is back in their feed when they close it. That built-in browser keeps its own logins, separate from the phone's browser, which is why some payment shortcuts behave differently.
What works and what changes at checkout
The buyer reaches your normal Shopify checkout with the product already in place, and any discount code on the link is passed along. Paying works. Three things are worth knowing:
- No Apple Pay on iPhone. Shopify's own help says Apple Pay needs Safari, so the Apple Pay button doesn't appear in the Instagram or TikTok browser on an iPhone.
- Shop Pay may ask for a code. Because the in-app browser doesn't share the phone browser's saved logins, a buyer Shop Pay normally recognises may be asked for a one-time code by text or email first.
- Everything else stays. Cards and the other payment methods your checkout offers — PayPal, for example, if you've set it up — are still there.
Leave Prefer Shop Pay off on links you share on social media. With it on, buyers without a Shop account meet a sign-up wall, and cold traffic from a bio or a story is the audience least willing to create an account to pay.
After the buyer pays
An order placed through a checkout link is delivered like any other order in your store. Alva Digital Downloads sends the download email and shows the downloads wherever you've set them up, whichever browser the buyer paid in. The link also checks that the product can be delivered before it sends anyone to checkout.
Smart open: a one-tap way out to the phone's browser
Smart open gives buyers inside Instagram or TikTok a button that reopens your link in the phone's own browser. There, iPhone buyers get Apple Pay back, and buyers already signed in to Shop Pay in that browser are usually recognised without a code. It's a setting on each link, under Before checkout: Open in the phone's browser from Instagram and TikTok. It is off by default, and turning it on for one link doesn't change any other.
What the buyer sees
With smart open on, a buyer who taps the link inside a recognised in-app browser gets a short page instead of going straight to checkout. It reads "Some payment options only work outside this app." and offers Open in your browser, plus Continue to checkout to stay where they are. The page waits for a tap — it never switches apps on its own.
- Android: Open in your browser opens the link in Chrome. On a phone without Chrome, the buyer carries on to checkout instead.
- iPhone: from Instagram, the button uses Instagram's own open-in-browser hand-off; from TikTok, it opens Safari.
- Everyone else — desktop visitors and anyone already in Safari or Chrome — goes straight to checkout as usual, even with smart open on. So does a buyer in an in-app browser that has no known way out.
When to turn it on
Turn smart open on for a link you share mostly on Instagram or TikTok, when your buyers are likely to be on iPhone and reach for Apple Pay, or already use Shop Pay in their phone's browser. Leave it off when speed matters most: with it on, in-app buyers take one extra tap before checkout.
Alva Digital Downloads keeps smart open off by default so the standard link stays a plain hop on your own domain straight to checkout — the shape least likely to draw Instagram's link-safety warnings. Smart open also doesn't show its button on a link that collects a personalization, because the buyer has to fill in that field before they can go on.
The pre-checkout page: one screen before checkout
The pre-checkout page shows buyers what they are buying before they reach checkout. Turn it on per link with Show a pre-checkout page before checkout, under Before checkout. It is off by default, and with it off the link goes straight to checkout.
The page shows:
- The product image, title, variant and price.
- What you get — each file by name, with its file type and size, and the total size when there are several. A long list ends with a "+N more" line, and file packs are named after Includes:.
- License key included when the product delivers a licence key, and Access links included when it delivers links.
- Instant download after payment, only when that is true for the product: no download delay, no PDF watermarking, not personalised, and fraud checks off for your store. Otherwise the line is left out.
- The link's discount code in a box headed Discount code, with the note "This should be applied automatically. If it isn't, enter it at checkout." — so a buyer can type it if the checkout drops it.
- A Continue to checkout button. The page never moves on by itself.
- Open in your browser below the button, when smart open is also on and the buyer is inside an in-app browser.
The page sits on your own store's domain and is hidden from search engines, so it never competes with your product page.
When to use it
Use the pre-checkout page when a buyer arriving cold from a bio or a story wants a moment to see what they get — a bundle of files, a licence key, a discount. Skip it for impulse buys, where the fastest route to checkout matters more. A personalised product needs it, because the page is where the buyer types their text: see Sell personalised products with a checkout link.
Link previews when your link is shared
When someone shares a checkout link, apps such as Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp and iMessage show a preview card. Set it per link under Link preview, with Preview title, Preview description and Preview image URL.
- Leave Preview title blank and the product's title is used. Leave Preview image URL blank and the product's image is used.
- A description appears on the card only if you write one in Preview description.
- The image must be a full
https://address, such as an image in your Shopify Files. - The link's Internal name is never shown to buyers or on a preview.
- Apps fetch the preview when the link is shared and can keep it for hours, so a change may take a while to show.
- Preview fetches don't count as clicks in your link's stats.
If a buyer reports a problem with the link itself, work through Why isn't my checkout link working?
Frequently asked questions
Yes. An Alva Digital Downloads checkout link opens your normal Shopify checkout inside the app's browser and buyers can pay there. On iPhone the Apple Pay button does not appear, and Shop Pay may ask for a one-time code, but cards and your other payment methods work as usual.
Shopify's help says Apple Pay needs Safari, and Instagram and TikTok open links in their own browser on iPhone. Turn on smart open for the link and buyers get a one-tap button to reopen it in the phone's own browser, where Apple Pay is available.
No. Smart open is off by default and is set on each link separately, under Before checkout. Even when it is on, only buyers inside a recognised in-app browser see the extra page; everyone else goes straight to checkout.
It adds one tap. The page shows the product, what the buyer gets and any discount code, then waits for them to tap Continue to checkout. Use it when buyers need to see what they are buying, and leave it off for impulse buys.
No. When an app fetches your link to build a preview card, Alva Digital Downloads serves the preview only and does not send it on to checkout. The fetch is not counted as a click in your link's stats.