1984236 - I can't use docs.google.com in Firefox for Android - I must choose to use the G-docs app

Status: NEW

(Firefox for Android :: App Links, defect)

Description

[Maire Reavy [:mreavy]]

Steps to reproduce

1. Browse to docs.google.com or to the URL of a specific G-doc
2. Prompt says, "Open in Drive. Would you like to leave Firefox Nightly to view this content?" With a checkbox offered to "Always open links in apps" and a choice of "Cancel" or "Open"
3. I click "cancel" and I can't see a list of my docs or interact with a specific doc. It's broken until I kill and restart Firefox
4. Also,on docs.google.com, after I click "cancel," if I next click on the "Sign in" button under "online, collaborative documents," the browser takes me to to docs.new with a message "302 Moved. The document has moved <here>" At that point, nothing is clickable and because the browser has remembered that I don't want to open the app, the page is effectively dead.

Expected behavior

1. I expect a "Stay in browser" choice
2. I expect to be able to see my list of docs and edit a doc within Firefox, but it appears I can't do that in Firefox for Android like I can on Desktop
3. If I go to Chrome for Android, it doesn't prompt at all; it simply opens the Google docs app every time

Device information

• Firefox version: 143.0a1
• Android device model: Galaxy S24
• Android OS version: 15

Any additional information? I have screenshots if that's helpful. I can also take a video of the above steps and upload it here.

Comment 1

[Daniel Holbert [:dholbert]]

FWIW I'm seeing a similar experience in Chrome as in Firefox, except that the choice to launch the app at one of the steps isn't optional there, which happens to smooth over some rough edges in the gooogle workspace web of sites.

Specifically:

1. docs.google.com redirects to https://workspace.google.com/products/docs/ (in both Chrome and Firefox)
2. That page has a sign in button, which is really just a link to https://docs.new/
3. when I tap that link, Chrome launches the docs app, while Firefox invites me to launch the docs app. If I decline the launch in Firefox, I end up just looking at the actual web version of https://docs.new/ which makes sense (though its sometimes a redirect, see below)
4. (In Chrome, if I directly load docs.new, I get the same experience as in Firefox from here on out, minus the 302 redirect)
5. docs.new shows "302 moved" with a link, which ultimately (sometimes requiring multiple taps) redirects to a blank doc with a edit button. The edit button doesn't directly work in Firefox or Chrome - it spawns an in-content invitation to launch the external app, but you can't edit if you don't want to launch the app.
6. There's a back button which points to a drive.google.com url, which invites me to launch that app (or auto launches in Chrome). If I decline the launch in Firefox, I end up at the web version of Google Drive, which makes sense.

Comment 2

[Daniel Holbert [:dholbert]]

So there are a few distinct issues here:
(1) bug 1847273 covers the fact that you don't get any more chances to launch Google Docs after you've tapped "Cancel" once. (i.e. that Firefox remembers that you don't want to open the app)

(2) We might need a new bug [or maybe this is a version of bug 1980753] about the fact that docs.new gets stuck on a 302 redirect page if you arrive there by clicking the link from https://workspace.google.com/products/docs/

[Not sure if there are also other sub-issues to file or link this up to]

Comment 3

[Daniel Holbert [:dholbert]]

Also quite notable here...

(In reply to Daniel Holbert [:dholbert] from comment #1)

5. docs.new [...] redirects to a blank doc with a edit button. The edit button doesn't directly work in Firefox or Chrome - it spawns an in-content invitation to launch the external app, but you can't edit if you don't want to launch the app.

Let's say on the other hand you do want to launch the app -- if you go to docs.new (let's say you type that URL into your URL bar, for simplicity, since that's more consistent in Firefox & Chrome), and you end up looking at a blank google-doc with an edit icon, and you tap the edit icon and tap through the in-content "USE THE APP" button, and click through the launch-external-app prompt (you might have to force-quit Firefox at this point in order to get the prompt to appear, if you've previously declined a prompt, per bug 1847273): then the Google Docs app opens with just a prompt that says:

Oops
Document lookup failed. It is possible the document was deleted
[OK]

This is true regardless of whether I visited docs.new in Firefox or Chrome. So: the docs.new website isn't really usable at all (can't edit in the webapp, can't usefully spawn external app) regardless of which browser you're using. (Though this is still particularly unfortunate for us for us because docs.new happens to be where docs.google.com ultimately shuttles Firefox users if they decline its initial "launch external app" prompt as described in comment 1.)

Comment 4

[Roger Yang [:royang]]

We have a fix for Bug 1980753 and will land soon. However, I'm not sure if this is the same case. I'll retest after the fix is in. Thanks for reporting this.