Verses challenge links aren't working properly (Alphabear Mobile Version)

Known iOS issues:

Clicking the link doesn't always work

Unfortunately we have noticed that the challenge link behaves differently depending on a number of things, including which program you use to open it, whether the game is running, etc. It's too complicated to list every possible combination, and we don't own all of the pieces (e.g., the Safari web browser) involved so we can't "just make it work."

Please try this. It's a lot of steps, but so far as we know it seems to produce consistent results.

[Update 2019-05-21 - Actually, please don't do this any more. We recently removed Alphabear from the iOS App Store, which unfortunately breaks Step 3. We will update this FAQ if we find another approach that seems to be consistent.]

1. Copy the URL from the text or iMessage or however you receive it.
2. Open the Safari web browser.
3. Paste the URL into Safari's URL field, then click Go.
   
   • Your device might launch Alphabear at this point. If so, hopefully you will be put directly into the Verses challenge.
   • But the expected behavior is that it won't launch Alphabear. You will probably be taken to a webpage that looks like this:
     
     If so, do the following:
     
     1. Click the Get App button
     2. A window will come up asking 'Open in "App Store"?'. Click the Open button.
     3. This will take you to Alphabear's page in the App Store. Click the Open button.
     4. This should launch Alphabear, or bring it to the foreground if it was already running. There may be a brief black screen complaining about not having an internet connection, but that should quickly go away and you should be in the challenge.

Known Android issues:

• Clicking on a Verses challenge link opens the game but doesn't start the match - This problem usually occurs if the game is closed when you click on the link.  Until this is fixed, please open the game first, minimize it with your device's 'home button', then click on the link while the game is running in the background.  Having the game already open seems to help with this issue.
• Twitter: Clicking on a Verses challenge link posted on Twitter just opens a blank browser and hangs there - There appears to be a problem with the way Twitter's built-in browser tries to open the link. If this happens to you, you can copy the link from the Twitter browser by clicking on the options button (it usually looks like 3 squares lined up vertically) and selecting 'copy link' or 'open in <browser>". If you tapped 'copy link,' paste that link into your web browser app's URL bar and hit GO! (Please make sure Alphabear is already open as described in the first item on this list)
• Facebook takes me to the Google Play Store even though the game is running - If this happens to you, you should be able to get the link to work if you simply switch back to Alphabear using the "recent apps" screen on your device (most Android devices can access this screen with a recent apps button or long-pressing the home button).
• Certain web browsers seem to have trouble opening challenge links - If this is the case for you, please try downloading a different browser such as Chrome and see if it helps!

If you can't get it to work...

...please contact us at support@spryfox.com and include all the info described in this FAQ page.

Also, please include the following information:

• What method of link sharing you've tried (Examples: Facebook, Twitter, email, SMS text messaging, etc)
• Your device's default browser (Examples: Safari, Chrome, Firefox, etc)
• Any additional information is helpful!