Anyone encounter Chrome first time run issue? Thanks.

[Smao0875]

Hi Guys,
When I was playing around with the sample app, I found that there is something unusual when I made request after clearing data of Chrome.

Chrome version: 56.0.2924.87

The activity stack will be after I made auth request:
Task1: MainActivity -> AuthorizationManagementActivity
Task2: FirstRunActivity (chrome)

Then we hit "ACCEPT & CONTINUE", activity stack won't change.

We choose an google account in the list and click "CONTINUE", activity stack won't change.

We hit "OK, GOT IT", activity stack changes to :
Task1: MainActivity -> AuthorizationManagementActivity
Task3: Preferences (chrome)
Then a list of items are shown up (I attached an image for you to review)

In this screen we couldn't do anything with the existing Google accounts shown in the list.
-- Nothing happens if we click on these two existing Google accounts.
If we want to add account by choosing "Add accounts", then we will get "account already exist" error.

It only happens at the first time Chrome is being used, should I worry about it or just let it go?

Has anyone else met this kind of situation? I can reproduce this issue on different kinds of devices.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.

[iainmcgin]

Sounds like an issue with Chrome rather than AppAuth, due to it only happening after data wipe / first run. I'll notify the Chrome engineers I work with to see if it is a known problem.

[Smao0875]

@iainmcgin
Thanks. Got it.

[shafty023]

If anyone has a workaround please share. This is blocking our ability to switch to AppAuth and the deadline for not using in-app webviews to authenticate via OAUTH2 is next month.

[iainmcgin]

Why is this blocking you? This only happens when the user has never set up Chrome on the device, which is a very unusual circumstance.

[shafty023]

@iainmcgin I can reproduce it with the following scenario:

1. Sign into chrome with test2
2. Sign into AppAuth app with test1

We get redirected to some special sign in activity which breaks the context for AppAuth app. This signin activity actually tries adding the google account to the device which is not what we want. We just want to auth with google and have it sign into the google accounts within chrome and not within Android. Regardless, if you sign in at this point you will not be redirected to the original AppAuth app.

This is going to be very common where people are signed into Chrome with some gmail account but they want to sign into another gmail account with an AppAuth app. So this special signin activity that Chrome is displaying breaks the context to redirect back to the AppAuth app.

[lquinn]

@iainmcgin, I don't think it's that unusual for a user with a new device to set up a Gmail account before they set up Chrome.

[iainmcgin]

There's unfortunately nothing that can be done to fix the issue from the AppAuth side. I'll bug the Chrome engineers.

[shafty023]

@iainmcgin The issue only happens when a user is already signed into chrome. Is there not a way to launch Chrome into incognito mode via AppAuth which would technically get around this problem for now? I know that's not a good solution long term because Google wants the user to only have to sign in once and launching into Incognito mode would break that but it would technically work. Or is there no way via an Intent to launch Chrome into incognito?

[iainmcgin]

No, there is no way to launch an incognito custom tab (or standalone Chrome browser) at present - I confirmed this with the Chrome engineers I work with.

[shafty023]

@iainmcgin Did you open a bug with the Chrome team that we can follow by chance? Or is it private/internal?

[iainmcgin]

There's no public bug yet, I'm discussing the issue directly with the responsible parties on the Chrome team.