Unable to open a card from the device control quick settings tile about android

[TheLastProject]

I can reproduce this by rebooting the emulator as step 3 (for context, I don't know how you define "Quit Catima" here. IIRC a "force stop" is not a reliable test as that causes Android to block delivery of some intents).

Interestingly, this works fine on Android 13, it broke in Android 14. And long-pressing the card in device controls shows it fine, just short pressing doesn't do anything.

Looking at logcat, I do see a message stating "Background activity launch blocked":

2024-05-11 10:36:38.687   558-2278  ActivityTaskManager     system_server                        W  Background activity launch blocked [callingPackage: me.hackerchick.catima.debug; callingUid: 10190; appSwitchState: 2; callingUidHasAnyVisibleWindow: false; callingUidProcState: BOUND_FOREGROUND_SERVICE; isCallingUidPersistentSystemProcess: false; balAllowedByPiSender: BackgroundStartPrivileges[allowsBackgroundActivityStarts=false, allowsBackgroundForegroundServiceStarts=true, originatingToken=null]; realCallingPackage: me.hackerchick.catima.debug; realCallingUid: 10190; realCallingUidHasAnyVisibleWindow: false; realCallingUidProcState: BOUND_FOREGROUND_SERVICE; isRealCallingUidPersistentSystemProcess: false; originatingPendingIntent: null; backgroundStartPrivileges: BackgroundStartPrivileges[allowsBackgroundActivityStarts=false, allowsBackgroundForegroundServiceStarts=false, originatingToken=null]; intent: Intent { flg=0x10000000 cmp=me.hackerchick.catima.debug/protect.card_locker.LoyaltyCardViewActivity (has extras) }; callerApp: ProcessRecord{afd8460 3979:me.hackerchick.catima.debug/u0a190}; inVisibleTask: false]
2024-05-11 10:36:38.688   558-2278  ActivityTaskManager     system_server                        E  Abort background activity starts from 10190
2024-05-11 10:36:38.688   558-2278  ActivityTaskManager     system_server                        I  START u0 {flg=0x10000000 cmp=me.hackerchick.catima.debug/protect.card_locker.LoyaltyCardViewActivity (has extras)} with LAUNCH_MULTIPLE from uid 10190 (BAL_BLOCK) result code=102

[TheLastProject]

It's quite hard to find documentation on this. My first idea was to just guard the code on Android 14 with a Toast to explain to users to long-press (not perfect, but an okay workaround for now):

    @Override
    public void performControlAction(@NonNull String controlId, @NonNull ControlAction action, @NonNull Consumer<Integer> consumer) {
        consumer.accept(ControlAction.RESPONSE_OK);

        // Android 14 doesn't allow us to start an activity from the background anymore
        if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.UPSIDE_DOWN_CAKE) {
            Toast.makeText(this, R.string.long_press_to_show_card, Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
        } else {
            Intent openIntent = new Intent(this, LoyaltyCardViewActivity.class)
                    .addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK)
                    .putExtra("id", controlIdToCardId(controlId));
            startActivity(openIntent);


            closePowerScreenOnAndroid11();
        }
    }

But of course, Google has another fun surprise up their sleeve: Suppressing toast from package by user request. (Sure, "by user request"...)

Seems that even telling an user from the background that they need to long-press requires Catima to ask for notification permission even though I currently don't have any other need to ask for notification permissions and this will not make sense to users. 😞

[proletarius101]

However, long pressing still won't bring up catima from the lock screen 😔

[TheLastProject]

It seems a bit buggy just after boot but aside from that I can't reproduce that:

Screen_recording_20240511_112906.mp4

[proletarius101]

Seems to be relevant to https://developer.android.com/about/versions/14/behavior-changes-14#safer-intents

But the activity is exported 🤔

[proletarius101]

Maybe this https://developer.android.com/guide/components/activities/background-starts#exceptions

Note: Starting from Android 14, apps targeting Android 14 or higher must opt in to allow background activity launch when sending a PendingIntent. To opt in, the app should pass an ActivityOptions bundle with setPendingIntentBackgroundActivityStartMode (ActivityOptions.MODE_BACKGROUND_ACTIVITY_START_ALLOWED)

If that's the case, there's a bug in Android...

[TheLastProject]

I found out today that apparently Samsung's Android skin ("One UI") doesn't have any effect on long-pressing an entry, just moving it around. Given this extra limitation on Samsung devices making the only workaround I could think of not universally possible I think the only logical option that remains is disabling this functionality on Android 14+.

It sucks for those who do prefer to open cards this way but well, our hands seem tied here...

[proletarius101]

On the other hand, I'm curious how it works for the google home app 🤔

[TheLastProject]

I don't think Google will let us take a peek into the kitchen :P But it may be worth looking at the Home Assistant Android app, see if the same issues exist there and if not how they do it.

[proletarius101]

I can confirm that single tap work for Google Home