1992436 - Firefox icon opens Firefox and then Google Play

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Firefox for Android :: Experimentation and Telemetry, defect, P1)

Description

[dotpointer]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Android 13; Mobile; rv:145.0) Gecko/145.0 Firefox/145.0

Steps to reproduce:

I tapped on the Firefox Nightly icon on the home screen on the phone. I have also tried to tap on the icon in the phones app list.

Below are system details from about:support since I found no fields for this.

Name Firefox Nightly
Version 145.0a1
Version-ID 20251002211313
Distribution-ID
User aragent Mozilla/5.0 (Android 13; Mobile; rv:145.0) Gecko/145.0 Firefox/145.0
OS Linux 33 #1 SMP PREEMPT Wed Jan 24 15:27:09 CST 2024

Actual results:

Firefox opened, then the Google Playstore app opened on top of Firefox and displayed the page for Firefox Nightly. This is now happing each time I open the app through the icon unless it is already running then it only shows Firefox. Please note that it is the Playstore app that launches above Firefox and not the web page inside Firefox.

Expected results:

Only Firefox should open not Google Playstore.

Comment 1

[Jason Johns]

144.0b9 (Build #2016118127) currently opens the Firefox beta google play store page as well anytime I open Firefox beta and it is not already running in the background. Its started after an update this morning.

The standard Firefox mobile version does not do this.

Comment 5

[Ryan VanderMeulen [:RyanVM]]

Tentatively setting bug 1992079 as the regressor given the timing and nature of the issue.

Comment 6

[BugBot [:suhaib / :marco/ :calixte]]

:mkozinski, since you are the author of the regressor, bug 1992079, could you take a look? Also, could you set the severity field?

For more information, please visit BugBot documentation.

Comment 9

[ugvq3d2ex]

On systems without Play Store but with alternative stores configured to handle play store links, there is a dialog window to launch e.g. F-Droid.

Firefox crashes in this case.

Comment 10

[ugvq3d2ex]

(In reply to ugvq3d2ex from comment #9)

On systems without Play Store but with alternative stores configured to handle play store links, there is a dialog window to launch e.g. F-Droid.

Firefox crashes in this case.
The crash also happens every time the address bar or the new tab button is tapped.

Comment 11

[twhite]

Sentry info https://mozilla.sentry.io/issues/?query=is%3Aunresolved%20PlayStoreReviewPromptController&referrer=issue-list&statsPeriod=90d

Comment 16

[m24uic]

If an active tab is still available to return to after closing Nightly and reopening, bug does not occur. If I then navigate to the homepage, the bug redirects me to the google play store.

Comment 18

[Quadriflax]

Also seeing this for the past few days on Samsung S9 FE and A36.

Comment 19

[Christopher Cooper]

Seeing this in Beta for a day or two.

I found that manually setting the Nimbus flag for Enable Custom Review Prompt seems to work around the issue.

Comment 20

[u666808]

Can confirm turning the Nimbus experiment Enable Custom Review Prompt Nimbus to control stopped the problem for me as well.

Comment 24

[BugBot [:suhaib / :marco/ :calixte]]

The bug is linked to a topcrash signature, which matches the following criterion:

• Top 10 AArch64 and ARM crashes on nightly

For more information, please visit BugBot documentation.

Comment 25

[BugBot [:suhaib / :marco/ :calixte]]

The bug is marked as blocking firefox144 (beta) and tracked for firefox145 (nightly). We have limited time to fix this, the soft freeze is in 3 days. However, the bug still isn't assigned.

:towhite, could you please find an assignee for this tracked bug? Given that it is a regression and we know the cause, we could also simply backout the regressor. If you disagree with the tracking decision, please talk with the release managers.

For more information, please visit BugBot documentation.

Comment 26

[dotpointer]

As previously commented, doing this fixed it:

1. Tap on ... menu
2. Tap on Settings
3. Scroll down to Nimbus Experiments
4. Scroll down to the bottom
5. Tap on Enable Custom Review Prompt
6. Tap on control control, a checked V will appear to the left and a reminder about that you can enable telemetry will popup up.
7. Back out, shut down the browser and reopen it, in case it did not work check that it still is checked, mine bugged a bit.

Comment 27

[Ryan VanderMeulen [:RyanVM]]

The regressing change was reverted from Nightly and for Beta 144.0b10. Builds with this change are available now from Google Play.

Comment 28

[Vasilica Tamas (Android QA) [:vtamas]]

Attachment: NoPlayStore.mp4

The QA team was not able to reproduce this issue on both 2 Firefox affected builds (Nightly 145, Beta 144) on Xiaomi Pad5 (Android 13), Asus Zenfone 9 ( Android 13), Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra (Android 15), Google Pixel 7 (Android 16), Pixel 6 (Android 16), Motorola Moto G30 (Android 12), Samsung S24 Ultra (Android 15), Google Pixel 8 (Android 16) and Oppo Find X3 Neo (Android 11).

Also the QA team confirms that the Play Store app is not displayed on top of Firefox 144 beta 10 on Xiaomi 12 T (Android 12), Samsung S24 Ultra (Android 15), Xiaomi Pad5 (Android 13), Google Pixel 7 (Android 16) and Motorola moto G30 (Android 12).

Comment 29

[Ryan VanderMeulen [:RyanVM]]

Actually, that signature appears to be a new one with the latest Nightly builds post-backout. I've filed bug 1992849 for that.

Comment 32

[Kestrel]

Seems to be finally fixed with latest Nightly 145.0a1 (2016119263) 2025-10-09.

Still reproducible on latest Beta 144.0b11 (2016118911) 2025-10-07.

Note that it only happens when set as the default browser.