With the introduction of Horizon-based themes it’s no longer possible to reliably install app blocks via deep links into the product details section.
In the past, this section was flat and merchant could see where app block installed and move it to the right position. In Horizon themes product details are wrapped into additional block.
This breaks the expansion of section in theme editor when app block is added and makes it impossible for merchant to move app block to the right place. As a result, the merchant have to remove app block and place it into the correct block manually, which kills the purpose of deep link and causes lots of confusion.
Demo of the problem: CleanShot 2026-02-17 at 21.44.37 · CleanShot Cloud
Deep link that I’m using:
shopify://admin/themes/143486451791/editor?addAppBlockId=app_key/app_block&target=mainSection&template=product
This issue breaks onboarding flow for every app that uses deep links to install blocks to product details in Horizon-based themes.
Proposed solution
I think the best solution would be ability to target specific block inside section. We already can target sections like this:
target=sectionId:product_recommendations_qggXJq
This can be extended by adding support for block ID at the end:
target=sectionId:product_recommendations_qggXJq:product-details
Also, expansion of section/block after app block installation needs to be fixed as reported here.