Hybrid Android - App shows splash screen every time launching after backgrounding app

[IuliiaHerets]

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Version Number: 9.0.67-1 Reproducible in staging?: N Reproducible in production?: N If this was caught on HybridApp, is this reproducible on New Expensify Standalone?: N Issue reported by: Applause Internal Team

Action Performed:

1. Launch hybrid app.
2. Open any report.
3. Background the app (not quit the app).
4. Relaunch the app.

Expected Result:

App will not show splash screen every time launching after backgrounding app.

Actual Result:

App shows splash screen every time launching after backgrounding app.

Issue reproducible on hybrid app only.

Workaround:

Unknown

Platforms:

• [ ] Android: Standalone
• [x] Android: HybridApp
• [ ] Android: mWeb Chrome
• [ ] iOS: Standalone
• [ ] iOS: HybridApp
• [ ] iOS: mWeb Safari
• [ ] MacOS: Chrome / Safari
• [ ] MacOS: Desktop

Screenshots/Videos

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/933e8805-9a59-4160-9dcd-565d575d7caa

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[melvin-bot[bot]]

Triggered auto assignment to @MonilBhavsar (DeployBlockerCash), see https://stackoverflowteams.com/c/expensify/questions/9980/ for more details.

[melvin-bot[bot]]

💬 A slack conversation has been started in #expensify-open-source

[melvin-bot[bot]]

Triggered auto assignment to @jliexpensify (Bug), see https://stackoverflow.com/c/expensify/questions/14418 for more details. Please add this bug to a GH project, as outlined in the SO.

[github-actions[bot]]

:wave: Friendly reminder that deploy blockers are time-sensitive ⏱ issues! Check out the open `StagingDeployCash` deploy checklist to see the list of PRs included in this release, then work quickly to do one of the following:

1. Identify the pull request that introduced this issue and revert it.
2. Find someone who can quickly fix the issue.
3. Fix the issue yourself.

[jliexpensify]

@MonilBhavsar this seems like a minor issue, maybe not a deploy blocker?

[MonilBhavsar]

Agree, this does not need to be a blocker

[Julesssss]

Thanks both, I'm going to take this one as @war-in and I have been working on related issues.

[war-in]

Hi 👋 I've been working on deeplinks and have some insights on why the BootSplash is visible when clicking on the app icon on Android.

When the deeplinks arrived we had to switch to singleTask launch mode on both HybridApp activities

• ExpensifyActivityBase, which is OD activity;
• and ReactNativeActivity, which is ND activity.

The ExpensifyActivityBase is marked as a launcher activity so it's being opened as the first one each time the user clicks on the icon, even if the ReactNativeActivity was on top. That means if we want to show the NewApp we need to bring the activity to the front by sending a new intent.

Why do we need BootSplash here? When the icon is clicked the OD activity is shown and then ND is brought to the front. We need to show BootSplash to hide this behaviour

[Julesssss]

Thanks. So the next question is why we must use singleTask. Perhaps there are alternatives solutions that allow deep links to remain working? Or is there some detail that prevents us from alternative deep link handling?

[melvin-bot[bot]]

@Julesssss Eep! 4 days overdue now. Issues have feelings too...

[war-in]

When I used the standard launch mode, it resulted in two instances of the app. An additional activity was created on top of the app that opened the deep link.

To address this, I switched to singleTask mode. This ensures only one activity instance exists, and any new intent reuses the existing instance instead of creating a new one.

Since NewDot also uses the singleTask launch mode, I believe we should align with it for consistency

[Julesssss]

Thank you for the explanation. When I have a moment I want to look into the Activity <> App structure. But for now I'll downgrade to weekly.

[melvin-bot[bot]]

@Julesssss this issue was created 2 weeks ago. Are we close to a solution? Let's make sure we're treating this as a top priority. Don't hesitate to create a thread in #expensify-open-source to align faster in real time. Thanks!

[Julesssss]

I'm not going to have time to look into alternative Activity launch modes, but the splash screen is quite annoying and we should see if there is an alternative solution/

[Julesssss]

Still on the backlog for further investigation from SWM team.

[Julesssss]

Same as above

[Julesssss]

Is currently low priority.

[war-in]

@Julesssss I think it's resolved on the main already (after the deeplinks PR removal). Once we migrate to fragment the issue shouldn't occur anymore

[Julesssss]

That's great, thanks. I'll keep this low priority for now.

[war-in]

Hi 👋 just letting you know that the migration to fragment PRs have been merged, so the issue should not be reproducible anymore

[Julesssss]

Hi 👋 just letting you know that the migration to fragment PRs have been merged, so the issue should not be reproducible anymore

That's great, thanks.

[melvin-bot[bot]]

This issue has not been updated in over 15 days. eroding to Monthly issue.

P.S. Is everyone reading this sure this is really a near-term priority? Be brave: if you disagree, go ahead and close it out. If someone disagrees, they'll reopen it, and if they don't: one less thing to do!

[war-in]

@Julesssss I think we can close this one, because it's not relevant since the fragments and deeplinks PRs

[Julesssss]

Thanks for pointing that out @war-in, closing