iOS AppLinks - fallback to safari? When and how? return false on continueUserActivity not working

[LeoJHarris]

Hi have a quick question regarding AppLinks on iOS.

I have this AppLinks working to the point that the continueUserActivity is in fact called, returning true allows me to handle the AppLink, when I remove my app from the device safari takes over and opens as expected.

The problem become that when I return false on continueUserActivity which as I understand it instructs the OS to take over essentially saying my app choose not to handle it, then the expected outcome becomes the fallback to safari, but this actually never happens. Rather it just hangs on the app despite returning false. Is this expected behavior?

I've searched the docs, interrogated AI and come to a conclusion that whilst there is no guarantee the OS will open safari there's is a fairly good chance that it will.

I'm at the point where as a last resort manually falling back to safari with a prompt therefore overriding the expected behavior but I've thoroughly exhausted all other troubleshooting.