TL;DR. The in app browser does not reduce your clicks, which is exactly why it stays invisible. It reduces what happens after the click, because your visitor lands signed out with no autofill and no saved payment. The way to size the loss is a controlled before and after on your own traffic, changing only the link. Here is how to run that measurement properly.

Every article on this topic quotes a percentage. Most of those percentages come from companies selling the fix, including us, so here is how to get your own number instead.

Why the loss is invisible in your analytics

A click is recorded the moment someone taps. Whether they then land in a functioning browser or a signed out webview makes no difference to that number. So your click count looks healthy while your sign ups, sales or streams stay flat, and you go looking for the problem in your offer or your content.

There is a second layer. Traffic from social apps often arrives with the referrer stripped, so it shows up as direct rather than as Instagram. That makes the channel look both smaller and worse than it is.

What specifically breaks after the click

The visitor is signed out of the destination, so anything requiring an account is harder. Autofill does not work because it lives in their real browser. Saved payment methods including Apple Pay are unavailable. Sessions often do not persist, so a multi step flow loses state. And on some destinations the page itself renders badly in a constrained webview.

None of these stop the click. All of them stop the conversion.

How to measure your own number

1. Pick one destination and one metric that matters, sign ups, purchases, streams or bookings.

2. Record the baseline for two weeks, using the same placement and roughly the same posting rhythm.

3. Change only the link, replacing it with a deeplink. Do not change your offer, your content or your posting pattern in the same window.

4. Record the next two weeks on the same metric.

5. Compare. Since the link is the only variable, the delta is a fair estimate of what the webview was costing you.

Two cautions. Seasonality and a viral post can both distort a two week window, so repeat the measurement if the result looks implausible. And compare conversion rate rather than absolute numbers, since traffic volume will vary.

What to look at beyond the headline number

Compare your social conversion rate against your email and search conversion rate. Social should be lower for reasons unrelated to browsers, but a very large gap points at the webview. Use one link per placement so your per link statistics tell you which placement carries the problem.

What the measurement usually shows

Note the last row. A deeplink fixes the experience, it does not restore a referrer the social app chose not to send. Use one link per placement if you need to know where the traffic came from.

The bottom line

Do not take anyone's percentage, including ours. Run the two week before and after on your own traffic, change only the link, and you will have a number that is actually about your audience. It costs nothing but patience.

Frequently asked questions

Why do my clicks look fine if I am losing people? Because the click is counted before the problem occurs.

Why does social traffic show as direct? The referrer is commonly stripped when a link opens inside a social app.

How long should the test run? Two weeks either side is usually enough, longer if your volume is low.

Can I test without changing anything else? Yes, and you must, otherwise the result means nothing.

Is the fix free to test? Yes.

Last updated: September 2026. Written by the OpenUp.to team.

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