Requests to /.well-known/apple-app-site-association

I also received the following in my log:

[Mon Feb 29 12:34:53 2016] [error] [source 66.249.75.XXX] File does not exist: /public_path/apple-app-site-association

Where XXX in the log is a number between 0 to 255.

Then, I checked Whois IP 66.249.69.0, 1, 2 ....... 255

And what I found, All IP in range from 66.249.64.0 - 66.249.95.255 assigned to Google Inc. Wait are you kidding me, why google requesting apple-app-site-association on my server?

Because Google extending it's mapping to include information on associations between websites and specific iOS apps for Google App Indexing for universal links from Google Search in Safari..

Whois log for IP 66.249.64.0

NetRange:       66.249.64.0 - 66.249.95.255
CIDR:           66.249.64.0/19
NetName:        GOOGLE
NetHandle:      NET-66-249-64-0-1
Parent:         NET66 (NET-66-0-0-0-0)
NetType:        Direct Allocation
OriginAS:       
Organization:   Google Inc. (GOGL)
RegDate:        2004-03-05
Updated:        2012-02-24
Ref:            https://whois.arin.net/rest/net/NET-66-249-64-0-1



OrgName:        Google Inc.
OrgId:          GOGL
Address:        1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
City:           Mountain View
StateProv:      CA
PostalCode:     94043
Country:        US
RegDate:        2000-03-30
Updated:        2015-11-06
Ref:            https://whois.arin.net/rest/org/GOGL


OrgAbuseHandle: ABUSE5250-ARIN
OrgAbuseName:   Abuse
OrgAbusePhone:  +1-650-253-0000 
OrgAbuseEmail:  [email protected]
OrgAbuseRef:    https://whois.arin.net/rest/poc/ABUSE5250-ARIN

OrgTechHandle: ZG39-ARIN
OrgTechName:   Google Inc
OrgTechPhone:  +1-650-253-0000 
OrgTechEmail:  [email protected]
OrgTechRef:    https://whois.arin.net/rest/poc/ZG39-ARIN

i believe iOS 9.3 introduced slightly different lookup logic around the apple-app-site-association file and the app handoff feature.

"Handoff first searches for the file in the .well-known subdirectory (for example, https://example.com/.well-known/apple-app-site-association), falling back to the top-level domain if you don’t use the .well-known subdirectory."

see: https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/Handoff/AdoptingHandoff/AdoptingHandoff.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40014338-CH2-SW10