Dynamic links inconsistency

[FilipMik]

Hi all,

recently I've encountered this issue with Firebase dynamic links on Android device, described below.

I'm using this dynamic link, which I created in Firebase console:

Short version - https://miiska.page.link/payment-return-url
Long version - https://miiska.page.link/?link=https://www.seznam.cz&apn=com.thefuntasty.miska&afl=https://www.google.com/

I'm using it to navigate user back to app after a payment is finished in Chrome Custom Tab (CCT). The dynamic link is passed to webgate pay service as callback URL, which is loaded after the payment finishes.

ISSUE

The problem is that when the webservice running in CCT, in application com.thefuntasty.miska, loads the dynamic link, sometimes the dynamic link is registered and user is redirected straight back to application com.thefuntasty.miska as desired.

But many other times, the web service in CCT loads URL https://www.google.com/ even though the application com.thefuntasty.miska is installed. For example, 3 out of 8 times, the app is started, the other times is URL loaded in CCT as if the app isn't installed.

I'm using GMS Google Services 4.0.0 plugin and have encountered this issue on 3 different devices running on API levels 24 and 27.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

[samtstern]

@FilipMik apologies for the slow response, a bunch of us were on vacation.

Are you seeing this inconsistency between attempts on the same device? Or are you saying the behavior differs from device to device?

[FilipMik]

@samtstern This inconsistency was happening on every device I have tested. After many hours spend searching, I concluded that the error is related with Google Chrome. Everywhere else, the links were running perfectly. So there must be some kind of security reason when chrome simply won't open app from address bar.

[samtstern]

@FilipMik thanks for the follow up! I'm still going to file a bug internally just so someone can check into this and maybe talk to the Chrome people to clarify the behavior.