1158869 - Make logging in to Firefox Account-backed web properties easy when the device has an Android Firefox Account

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Firefox for Android Graveyard :: Firefox Accounts, defect, P5)

Description

[Nick Alexander :nalexander [he/him]]

Right now a Firefox for Android user who has an Android Firefox Account will have to log in to any Firefox Account-backed service on the web.  (This is because they have used a custom native sign in flow that does provide log in credentials to any web context.)

We should try to make this better, perhaps with an X-Auto-Login like solution.  

This ticket tracks adding a "semi-native" flow whereby a user visiting accounts.firefox.com or an oauth-backed service does not have to enter their password again if the Android Firefox Account on device can provide a login credential.

Comment 1

[Nick Alexander :nalexander [he/him]]

For context: this hasn't be an issue to date because Firefox for Android users essentially never interact with a Firefox Account-backed web property.  They don't use accounts.firefox.com (except by very occasional choice) or a Hello-like OAuth flow.

vladikoff, others: does the existing WebChannel messaging system already allow a "clean" browser context (one with no cookies or localStorage, etc) to log in to, say, accounts.firefox.com or the oauth log-in page for a referrer?

If so perhaps we can make this work by implementing the accounts WebChannel interface on Android.

Comment 2

[Vlad Filippov (:vladikoff)]

(In reply to Nick Alexander :nalexander from comment #1)
> For context: this hasn't be an issue to date because Firefox for Android
> users essentially never interact with a Firefox Account-backed web property.
> They don't use accounts.firefox.com (except by very occasional choice) or a
> Hello-like OAuth flow.
> 
> vladikoff, others: does the existing WebChannel messaging system already
> allow a "clean" browser context (one with no cookies or localStorage, etc)
> to log in to, say, accounts.firefox.com or the oauth log-in page for a
> referrer?
> 
> If so perhaps we can make this work by implementing the accounts WebChannel
> interface on Android.

Hey Nick,

I created a content-server bug for this feature: https://github.com/mozilla/fxa-content-server/issues/2353
Currently we don't have an easy away to start a clean "suggested" login flow AFAIK. 
I wonder if there is a way to populate localStorage for some "origin" before displaying the login webview.
 
Vlad.

Comment 3

[Michael Comella (:mcomella) [NI reported issues only: ex-Mozilla]]

Bulk edit: moving potentially relevant issues from disabled Android Background Services product to Firefox for Android.

Removing priority to throw back to triage owners: please close these bugs if they're no longer relevant! Thanks!

Comment 4

[Firefox Bug Husbandry Bot]

Re-triaging per https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1473195

Needinfo :susheel if you think this bug should be re-triaged.

Comment 5

[BMO Automation]

We have completed our launch of our new Firefox on Android. The development of the new versions use GitHub for issue tracking. If the bug report still reproduces in a current version of [Firefox on Android nightly](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.mozilla.fenix) an issue can be reported at the [Fenix GitHub project](https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/). If you want to discuss your report please use [Mozilla's chat](https://wiki.mozilla.org/Matrix#Connect_to_Matrix) server https://chat.mozilla.org and join the [#fenix](https://chat.mozilla.org/#/room/#fenix:mozilla.org) channel.