expo: Recent increase in 'No matching activity' errors from `WebBrowser.openBrowserAsync()`

I’m experiencing the same issue. It fails randomly on Android devices. Expo 41.

This issue is stale because it has been open for 60 days with no activity. If there is no activity in the next 7 days, the issue will be closed.

This issue is, in fact, not stale

Found out the Solution Guys:

https://developer.android.com/training/package-visibility/use-cases

Just add:

<queries> <intent> <action android:name="android.support.customtabs.action.CustomTabsService" /> </intent> </queries>

into AndroidManifest

Before: {“browserPackages”: [], “defaultBrowserPackage”: null, “preferredBrowserPackage”: null, “servicePackages”: []}

After: {“browserPackages”: [“com.android.chrome”], “defaultBrowserPackage”: “com.android.chrome”, “preferredBrowserPackage”: “com.android.chrome”, “servicePackages”: [“com.android.chrome”]}

it was required in Android 11 (API level 30) or higher.

My users were also experiencing this. I was able to track this back to a single commit where we bumped Android API version target from 29 to 30.

So going back to 29 resolved the issue for us:

build.gradle

project.ext {
  minSdkVersion = 23
+  compileSdkVersion = 29
+  targetSdkVersion = 29
+  buildToolsVersion = '29.0.2'
-  compileSdkVersion = 30
-  targetSdkVersion = 30
-  buildToolsVersion = '30.0.0'
}

This was working for me, but now trying to push a new build, Google Play Store requires 30 as of today, so this is a bit of a problem.

@hixus I had the same issue for Android only, found the solution: it turned out you can pass the browserPackage as an option with the name of a browser, which you can get from WebBrowser.getCustomTabsSupportingBrowsersAsync(). Complete code:

const tabsSupportingBrowsers = await WebBrowser.getCustomTabsSupportingBrowsersAsync();
const defaultBrowser = tabsSupportingBrowsers?.defaultBrowserPackage;
await WebBrowser.openBrowserAsync(href, { browserPackage: defaultBrowser })

My users were also experiencing this. I was able to track this back to a single commit where we bumped Android API version target from 29 to 30.

So going back to 29 resolved the issue for us:

build.gradle

project.ext {
  minSdkVersion = 23
+  compileSdkVersion = 29
+  targetSdkVersion = 29
+  buildToolsVersion = '29.0.2'
-  compileSdkVersion = 30
-  targetSdkVersion = 30
-  buildToolsVersion = '30.0.0'
}

Edit: This workaround no longer works, since targeting API 30 is now mandatory.

for what it’s worth - this happened to me because I was using an android emulator that did not have a browser. To fix this, I installed an emulator that had the play store included with the emulator. This emulator had chrome installed out of the box and this error went away.

Hey @abhishek18feb, can you try this code?

let browserPackage: string | undefined;
if (Platform.OS === "android") {
  const tabsSupportingBrowsers = await WebBrowser.getCustomTabsSupportingBrowsersAsync();
  browserPackage = tabsSupportingBrowsers?.preferredBrowserPackage;
}
await WebBrowser.openBrowserAsync(link, { browserPackage });

Hey @giautm , Getting this output for tabsSupportingBrowsers { defaultBrowserPackage: null, servicePackages: [ ‘com.android.chrome’ ], browserPackages: [], preferredBrowserPackage: null }

In my case, I had to:

1. In AndroidManifest.xml, add:

<queries>
  <intent>
    <!-- Required for opening tabs if targeting API 30 -->
    <action android:name="android.support.customtabs.action.CustomTabsService" />
  </intent>
</queries>

1. I’ve encountered an “unexpected element <queries> found in <manifest>” error so I had to update the android/build.gradle and android/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties files: https://github.com/lukasgit/flutter_contacts/issues/220#issuecomment-1061725322

We are seeing this on some Android 11 devices when the user has the DuckDuckGo app set as their default browser. It seems that DuckDuckGo does not support the Custom Tabs Service and thus is not included in the servicePackages returned by WebBrowser.getCustomTabsSupportingBrowsersAsync, which causes defaultBrowserPackage to be null. This helper is not actually used by openBrowserAsync, but as best I can tell it effectively does the same sort of intent lookup and ultimately comes to the conclusion that DuckDuckGo as a default browser cannot be used as an auth session browser.

If the user 1) changes their default browser, 2) uninstalls DuckDuckGo, or 3) has DuckDuckGo installed without a default browser being selected, then openBrowserAsync works as expected. I was able to reproduce the issue and the user-initiated resolutions in a Pixel 4 API 30 emulator with DuckDuckGo, Chrome, and the OS default web browser installed. I’m not sure if this is an Expo bug necessarily, but it definitely seems wrong that although there are browsers available that could work as an auth session browser (Chrome in this case), the attempt fails seemingly because the default browser does not meet the requirements.

A development-driven solution that appears to work is adding

<queries>
  <package android:name="com.duckduckgo.mobile.android" />
</queries>

to our app’s manifest file (following this post linked above). This is obviously a very specific and poor solution, but it may help determine how to approach the intent resolution issue.

I’ve noticed this error on newer versions of Android when attempting to open a URL with no protocol. Prefixing with https:// when missing fixed it for me.

You can pick the first element of browserPackages to use.

Hi @isotopeee, what is the version of package expo-web-browser in your application? Can you upgrade to the latest version?

@giautm I’m on expo-web-browser version 8.0.0. I haven’t tried upgrading yet though.

I think managed doesn’t need because expo control it, but it should be updated in expo packages (if ins’t)

The latest question: what’s version of expo-web-browser? In the version 10.1.0 they have the intent in the manifest: https://github.com/expo/expo/blob/main/packages/expo-web-browser/android/src/main/AndroidManifest.xml

Ah nice! Iam currently in a lower version (“expo-web-browser”: “^8.6.0”), I can’t update right now because of the new dependencies.

I think managed doesn’t need because expo control it, but it should be updated in expo packages (if ins’t)

The latest question: what’s version of expo-web-browser in your app?

In the version 10.1.0 they have the intent in the manifest: https://github.com/expo/expo/blob/main/packages/expo-web-browser/android/src/main/AndroidManifest.xml

Yea, Vanilla RN Project, so we need to manually add it.

I think managed doesn’t need because expo control it, but it should be updated in expo packages (if ins’t)

And on bare workflow I guess it should be done manually either

Hey, we still with that problem!?

{“browserPackages”: [], “defaultBrowserPackage”: null, “preferredBrowserPackage”: null, “servicePackages”: []}

I am testing on a simulator Android 11, it has with Chrome selected to be the default browser.

@hixus hey, I don’t think it breaks on other platforms, Based on this code

https://github.com/expo/expo/blob/eb76b7b5e1ffbf6dd16f2b78b33f582b8a1b11be/packages/expo-web-browser/src/WebBrowser.ts#L36-L62

So, what is the exception?

Seems ios exception is the one from line 55 (The method or property WebBrowser.getCustomTabsSupportingBrowsersAsync is not available on ios, are you sure you've linked all the native dependencies properly), so that should be moved to else clause or removed completely.

@hixus I had the same issue for Android only, found the solution: it turned out you can pass the browserPackage as an option with the name of a browser, which you can get from WebBrowser.getCustomTabsSupportingBrowsersAsync(). Complete code:

const tabsSupportingBrowsers = await WebBrowser.getCustomTabsSupportingBrowsersAsync();
const defaultBrowser = tabsSupportingBrowsers?.defaultBrowserPackage;
await WebBrowser.openBrowserAsync(href, { browserPackage: defaultBrowser })

Thanks for solution. Although calling getCustomTabsSupportingBrowsersAsync breaks ios so had to add platform select

let browserPackage: string | undefined;
if (Platform.OS === "android") {
  const tabsSupportingBrowsers = await WebBrowser.getCustomTabsSupportingBrowsersAsync();
  browserPackage = tabsSupportingBrowsers?.defaultBrowserPackage;
}
await WebBrowser.openBrowserAsync(link, { browserPackage });

I got the same issue using the Android emulator (Pixel running on API 30). Works fine in web, but get this error when trying to run it on Android and the browser does not start.

Likewise, fine on iOS Expo Go, but the emulator goes nuts.