No menu entry to add shortcut to home screen

[opk12]

Steps to reproduce

On my phone, the room settings screen and the app's long-tap context menu have no option to add a shortcut on the home screen. Shortcuts do work in other apps on the same phone.

Intended result and actual result

What did you expect?

To see options to add a shortcut to the home.

What happened instead?

There are no options to add a shortcut to the home.

Your phone model

Samsung

Operating system version

Android 7

Application version and app store

Element Android 1.3.3 (40103030) from F-Droid

Homeserver

matrix.org

Will you send logs?

No

[bmarty]

The app is checking here the returned value of isRequestPinShortcutSupported() before displaying this action item.
There is maybe a missing permission, can you check on the device app settings?

[opk12]

Install shortcuts and uninstall shortcuts are in the list for other apps, but not for Element. Do I report to F-droid?

[ouchadam]

which version of android 7 is the device running? from my understanding android added shortcut support in 7.1.1, so if this device is running 7.0 then unfortunately we won't be able to add shortcuts

https://developer.android.com/reference/android/content/pm/ShortcutManager.html (Api 25)
https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/manifest/uses-sdk-element#ApiLevels

[opk12]

Version 7.1.1. As said above, the other apps have working shortcuts and have install shortcuts/remove shortcuts in the "All permissions" list, Element does not.

[ouchadam]

@bmarty this might actually be a simple case of using the ShorcutManagerCompat instead

By default the system version seems to support android 8.0+ but the compat version can go lower

Note: See also the support library counterpart ShortcutManagerCompat.isRequestPinShortcutSupported(Context), which supports Android versions lower than VERSION_CODES#O using the legacy private intent com.android.launcher.action.INSTALL_SHORTCUT.

[bmarty]

Yes, this is the current imple : https://github.com/vector-im/element-android/blob/main/vector/src/main/java/im/vector/app/features/home/ShortcutCreator.kt#L57. Is there something else you are thinking about?

[ouchadam]

ah 🤦 I confused the ShortcutCreator for the system version

[opk12]

The X-Needs-Info label is still present - is there other info I can provide about the phone?

[ouchadam]

nope, only needed to confirm the exact android 7 version, have removed

[opk12]

Ok. I have not experience in Android development, but where do the install shortcuts / remove shortcuts in the "All permissions" list come from for the other apps? I mean, the app has a hard-coded manifest with the permissions list? Or a build tool generates the list based on the invoked system library's methods?

[ouchadam]

ideally the permission should come through via the ShortcutCompat library but there's something strange going on...

I'm also able to reproduce the issue on a 7.1.1 emulator and fix it by manually adding the com.android.launcher.permission.INSTALL_SHORTCUT permission

7.1.1	10	7.1.1 WITH PERMISSION	7.1.1 LAUNCHER (WP)

For some reason the shortcut permission is being commented by the ShortcutBadger library out during the manifest merging process

[ouchadam]

it seems the workaround is to long press the element icon from the launcher which will show shortcut options and then long press those to add to the homescreen

[opk12]

it seems the workaround is to long press the element icon from the launcher which will show shortcut options and then long press those to add to the homescreen

How? When I long-press the Element icon on the home (Samsung builtin home screen), I have Select multiple items - Remove shortcut - Sleep - Uninstall - App info. Long-pressing them has the effect of a short press.

[bmarty]

For some reason the shortcut permission is being commented by the ShortcutBadger library out during the manifest merging process

It was commented 7 years ago...

Maybe just add

<uses-permission
        android:name="com.android.launcher.permission.INSTALL_SHORTCUT"
        android:maxSdkVersion="25" />

in our Manifest as a workaround, WDYT @ouchadam ?

[ouchadam]

How? When I long-press the Element icon on the home (Samsung builtin home screen), I have Select multiple items - Remove shortcut - Sleep - Uninstall - App info. Long-pressing them has the effect of a short press.

I see, this must be launcher dependant, using the Pixel launcher on 7.1.1 I'm able to long press the launcher icon which reveals the launcher shortcuts which I can then long press to add to the home screen

---

<uses-permission
        android:name="com.android.launcher.permission.INSTALL_SHORTCUT"
        android:maxSdkVersion="25" />

in our Manifest as a workaround, WDYT @ouchadam ?

sounds reasonable to me