Why I Built a macOS Workspace for Mobile Navigation Testing

Ivan Kholod — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 19:31:31 +0000

For years, deep links in my projects lived everywhere.
Some routes were stored in Confluence, others in Notion, Slack messages, documentation pages, or random text files. Testing them usually meant finding a URL, copying it, booting a simulator, opening the link, and repeating the same process dozens of times every day.
At first, I just wanted a simple tool to store routes and launch them faster.

But while building it, I realized that the problem was much bigger than launching URLs.

Modern mobile apps use deep links, universal links, push notifications, multiple environments, route presets, AASA files, and different testing flows. Managing all of that across documents and internal tools quickly becomes messy.

That’s how DeepLink Studio was born.

DeepLink Studio is a native macOS workspace for managing, testing, validating, and documenting mobile navigation flows.

Today it includes:
• Route management with parameters and presets
• Deep link and universal link generation
• iOS Simulator integration
• Real iPhone and iPad support
• Phone testing through QR codes
• AASA import and validation
• APNS payload import and push testing
• Push Payload Builder
• Route Test Suites with screenshots and reports
• Coverage Dashboard for navigation testing
• Validation Center for common configuration issues
• HTML documentation export
• Xcode project integration

One of my favorite features is Phone Testing.

The app can start a local workspace server, generate a QR code, and instantly expose routes to a real iPhone. Instead of manually copying links between devices, I can simply scan a QR code and start testing.
What started as a small launcher eventually became a complete companion tool for mobile navigation testing.

DeepLink Studio is still evolving, but it has already become one of the tools I use daily while working on iOS applications.

Github download

DEV Community: Ivan Kholod

Why I Built a macOS Workspace for Mobile Navigation Testing