Branch Deep Linking not working in Android

[razam217]

Cordova: v6.1.1
Plugin Version: 2.6.14
In Android app, every time I click a deep link, it always return me the following object:
{ "+clicked_branch_link": false, "+is_first_session": false }
Very sometime it works, but 90% of the time it does not work. Although it opens the app correctly, but due to inappropriate data, the right functionality cannot be achieved.

Can you please help me with this?

[sudhanshu-pantelwar]

I am getting the same error. I had it working once only.

[chang-brian]

Hi everyone, please make sure to call initSession in two places—onDeviceReady and onDeviceResume: https://docs.branch.io/pages/apps/cordova-phonegap-ionic/#initialize-branch

I also recorded a video of my results: https://vimeo.com/240220208

When I monitored the traffic via Charles Proxy, I saw the link data go through every time (cold launch and warm launch) with this response:

{
	"session_id": "452548038150529018",
	"identity_id": "452541413092231107",
	"link": "https://btcmonkref.test-app.link?%24identity_id=452541413092231107",
	"data": "{\"+match_guaranteed\":true,\"$marketing_title\":\"Branch Test\",\"~creation_source\":1,\"~marketing\":true,\"+clicked_branch_link\":true,\"+click_timestamp\":1509134086,\"$one_time_use\":false,\"~id\":452542007165073544,\"+is_first_session\":false,\"~referring_link\":\"https://btcmonkref.test-app.link/KkahBYhOAH\",\"~feature\":\"marketing\"}",
	"device_fingerprint_id": "452541413050152201"
}

[razam217]

Hi @chang-brian , I've been using branch.io for last two years. And I'm calling initSession in onDeviceReady and onDeviceResume.

It was working before smoothly in both Android and IOS, but after updating to latest branch.io version, Android is not working correctly.

[razam217]

<intent-filter android:name="io.branch.sdk.UriScheme">
- <action_ android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW"/>
- <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT"/>
- <category android:name="android.intent.category.BROWSABLE"/>
- <data android:scheme="appName"/>
</intent-filter>

<intent-filter android:name="io.branch.sdk.AppLink" android:autoVerify="true">
- <action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW"/>
- <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT"/>
- <category android:name="android.intent.category.BROWSABLE"/>
- <data android:host="appName.app.link" android:scheme="https"/>
- <data android:host="appName-alternate.link" android:scheme="https"/>
</intent-filter>

Here is my android manifest.xml file.

[gbelmm]

+1 please help , I am getting the same error

[santiagobenini]

Same here. Suddenly it has stopped working here. Help please.

[aaustin]

Hey guys - Thanks for letting us know about this issue. I've escalated it to engineering internally and we're looking into it. We believe it's related to a recent release on the core Android SDK that is not playing nice with Cordova. We'll keep you updated in this thread.

[Ziv-Barber]

Also not working here:
Cordova 7.10
Cordova Android 6.3.0
Plugin version 2.4.9

DeepLinkHandler not been called. It was working all the time and now no more deep links.

[santiagobenini]

@aaustin Hi Alex. Do you have any news or progress with this issue? thx

[ethanneff]

We are actively looking into the issue. We will update this thread once we have pinpointed the problem.

[ethanneff]

We have identified the issue with our underlying Android SDK. Data is being sent to the app, but the communication between our Branch Android SDK to our Branch Cordova SDK is not completing. For example:

Network Proxy:

{
	"device_fingerprint_id": "446348624952310946",
	"identity_id": "453626413799663885",
	"is_referrable": 1,
	"app_version": "1.0.0",
	"facebook_app_link_checked": false,
	"update": 1,
	"debug": false,
	"metadata": {},
	"hardware_id": "562fb61e9e7f03be",
	"is_hardware_id_real": true,
	"brand": "LGE",
	"model": "Nexus 5X",
	"screen_dpi": 420,
	"screen_height": 1794,
	"screen_width": 1080,
	"wifi": false,
	"ui_mode": "UI_MODE_TYPE_NORMAL",
	"os": "Android",
	"os_version": 23,
	"country": "US",
	"language": "en",
	"local_ip": "172.16.32.44",
	"environment": "FULL_APP",
	"android_app_link_url": "https:\/\/cordova.app.link\/LmZkxKZ0lE",
	"external_intent_uri": "https:\/\/cordova.app.link\/LmZkxKZ0lE",
	"cd": {
		"mv": "-1",
		"pn": "io.cordova.hellocordova"
	},
	"instrumentation": {
		"v1\/close-brtt": "373",
		"v1\/open-qwt": "0"
	},
	"sdk": "android2.13.0",
	"branch_key": "key_live_ndqptlgXNE4LHqIahH1WIpbiyFlb62J3",
	"retryNumber": 0
}

{
	"session_id": "453630463672698691",
	"identity_id": "453626413799663885",
	"link": "https://cordova.app.link?%24identity_id=453626413799663885",
	"data": "{\"custom_array\":\"[1,2,3,4,5]\",\"$og_title\":\"Content 123 Title\",\"$deeplink_path\":\"content/123\",\"source\":\"android\",\"$identity_id\":\"405804284757034548\",\"~stage\":\"new user\",\"~feature\":\"onboarding\",\"custom_object\":\"{\\\\\\\"random\\\\\\\":\\\\\\\"dictionary\\\\\\\"}\",\"$desktop_url\":\"http://www.example.com/desktop\",\"$canonical_identifier\":\"content/123\",\"~id\":408700391644095801,\"~campaign\":\"content 123 launch\",\"+is_first_session\":false,\"$android_url\":\"http://www.example.com/android\",\"~channel\":\"facebook\",\"$ios_url\":\"http://www.example.com/ios\",\"custom_boolean\":\"true\",\"$publicly_indexable\":\"false\",\"this_is\":\"true\",\"custom_integer\":\"1498679993676\",\"~creation_source\":2,\"$og_description\":\"Content 123 Description 1498679992450\",\"testing\":\"123\",\"custom\":\"data\",\"+click_timestamp\":1509392157,\"$match_duration\":\"2000\",\"$og_image_url\":\"http://lorempixel.com/400/400/\",\"custom_string\":\"data\",\"+match_guaranteed\":true,\"~tags\":[\"one\",\"two\",\"three\"],\"+clicked_branch_link\":true,\"$ipad_url\":\"http://www.example.com/ipad\",\"$one_time_use\":false,\"~referring_link\":\"https://cordova.app.link/LmZkxKZ0lE\"}",
	"referring_identity": "B Gyh",
	"device_fingerprint_id": "446348624952310946"
}

User Experience:

The app will still open via deep linking, analytics will be tracked, but deep link data will not pass through.

This issue is impacting different versions of the Branch Cordova SDK because our gradle file has a wildcard filter (compile 'io.branch.sdk.android:library:2+) (code). This wildcard also impacted our testing which is why this issue snuck into production. This is an oversight on our end, and we deeply apologize for the impact it has on your apps.

We will be submitting a new version with fix as soon as our testing is complete on our end.

Thank you for your patience,

[ethanneff]

Hello again,

Thank you all for reporting the issue.

We have narrowed the problem to our Android SDK v2.13.0. This was released 4 days ago (https://github.com/BranchMetrics/android-branch-deep-linking/releases). As long as you have not pushed a version of your app to the Google Play Store in the last 4 days, your users have not been affected.

If you have pushed a new version of your app to the Google Play Store, can you please:

• update your /plugins/branch-cordova-sdk/build.gradle
• from compile 'io.branch.sdk.android:library:2+'
• to compile 'io.branch.sdk.android:library:2.12.2'
• push a new version of your app to the Google Play Store
• (you might have to rebuild your platform with cordova platform rm android && cordova platform add android as well)

Furthermore, we will push a hotfix to the Branch Cordova SDK later today to mitigate this issue even further.

Again, I apologize for any inconvenience this has caused.

[gbelmm]

great, trying thanks

[santiagobenini]

Hello Ethan,

Thanks to you and the team for the quick response. We have just re-built our platform and it seems everything is working normal again. I will keep you updated if any new problem arises.

Thanks

[ethanneff]

I have updated the Branch Cordova SDK to downgrade the underlying Android SDK to the stable 2.12.2.

If you have not changed your /plugins/branch-cordova-sdk/build.gradle file, you can update your
Cordova Branch SDK to 2.6.16 to fix this issue. You can use this guide to update your Cordova Branch SDK.

We are still working on making the latest Android Cordova SDK (2.13.0) compatible with the Branch Cordova SDK. This will probably take a couple of days. In the meantime, the suggested solutions in this thread should fix your issues.

Thank you,

[razam217]

Thanks @ethanneff . I think the issue is fixed with the latest Branch SDK Release. Our QA team is testing it, if I find any issue again I'll let you know.
Thanks again for a quick help.

[sojanpr]

This was an issue with Android SDK version 2.13.0 . We have opened a PR BranchMetrics/android-branch-deep-linking-attribution#497 for this issue. Will be releasing shortly after QA pass