Android App Startup Crash - customtabs.CustomTabsSession.validateRelationship

Question

I followed Googles guidelines for the recent Trusted Web Activities and my app has been working fine on my device and some select emulators.

However, on certain devices and emulators (such as Google Pixel 2) I get an immediate crash on startup.

The logcat outputs:

E/AndroidRuntime: FATAL EXCEPTION: main
    Process: com.ocdev.yu_gi_ohdatabase, PID: 5020
    java.lang.NullPointerException: Attempt to invoke virtual method 'boolean android.support.customtabs.CustomTabsSession.validateRelationship(int, android.net.Uri, android.os.Bundle)' on a null object reference
        at android.support.customtabs.TrustedWebUtils.launchAsTrustedWebActivity(TrustedWebUtils.java:134)
        at android.support.customtabs.trusted.LauncherActivity$TwaCustomTabsServiceConnection.onCustomTabsServiceConnected(LauncherActivity.java:199)
        at android.support.customtabs.CustomTabsServiceConnection.onServiceConnected(CustomTabsServiceConnection.java:44)
        at android.app.LoadedApk$ServiceDispatcher.doConnected(LoadedApk.java:1634)
        at android.app.LoadedApk$ServiceDispatcher$RunConnection.run(LoadedApk.java:1663)
        at android.os.Handler.handleCallback(Handler.java:789)
        at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:98)
        at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:164)
        at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:6541)
        at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Native Method)
        at com.android.internal.os.Zygote$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(Zygote.java:240)
        at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:767)

AndroidManifest.xml:

<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    package="com.ocdev.yu_gi_ohdatabase">

    <application
        android:allowBackup="true"
        android:icon="@mipmap/ygo_fore"
        android:label="@string/app_name"
        android:roundIcon="@mipmap/ygo_round"
        android:supportsRtl="true"
        android:theme="@style/AppTheme">
        <meta-data
            android:name="asset_statements"
            android:resource="@string/asset_statements" />
        <activity
            android:name="android.support.customtabs.trusted.LauncherActivity">

            <!-- Edit android:value to change the url opened by the TWA -->
            <meta-data
                android:name="android.support.customtabs.trusted.DEFAULT_URL"
                android:value="https://db.ygoprodeck.com" />

            <!-- This intent-filter adds the TWA to the Android Launcher -->
            <intent-filter>
                <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
                <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
            </intent-filter>

            <!--
              This intent-filter allows the TWA to handle Intents to open
              airhorner.com.
            -->
            <intent-filter>
                <action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW"/>
                <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
                <category android:name="android.intent.category.BROWSABLE"/>

                <!-- Edit android:host to handle links to the target URL-->
                <data
                    android:scheme="https"
                    android:host="db.ygoprodeck.com"/>
            </intent-filter>
        </activity>
    </application>
</manifest>

Module build.gradle:

apply plugin: 'com.android.application'

android {
    compileSdkVersion 28
    defaultConfig {
        applicationId "com.ocdev.yu_gi_ohdatabase"
        minSdkVersion 16
        targetSdkVersion 28
        versionCode 1
        versionName "1.0"
        testInstrumentationRunner "android.support.test.runner.AndroidJUnitRunner"
    }
    buildTypes {
        release {
            minifyEnabled false
            proguardFiles getDefaultProguardFile('proguard-android-optimize.txt'), 'proguard-rules.pro'
        }
    }
    compileOptions {
        sourceCompatibility JavaVersion.VERSION_1_8
        targetCompatibility JavaVersion.VERSION_1_8
    }
}

dependencies {
    implementation fileTree(dir: 'libs', include: ['*.jar'])
    implementation 'com.android.support:appcompat-v7:28.0.0'
    testImplementation 'junit:junit:4.12'
    androidTestImplementation 'com.android.support.test:runner:1.0.2'
    androidTestImplementation 'com.android.support.test.espresso:espresso-core:3.0.2'
    implementation 'com.github.GoogleChrome.custom-tabs-client:customtabs:3a71a75c9f'
    implementation 'com.android.support:support-media-compat:28.0.0'
    implementation 'com.android.support:animated-vector-drawable:28.0.0'
    implementation 'com.android.support:support-v4:28.0.0'
}

Project build.gradle:

// Top-level build file where you can add configuration options common to all sub-projects/modules.

buildscript {
    repositories {
        google()
        jcenter()

    }
    dependencies {
        classpath 'com.android.tools.build:gradle:3.3.1'

        // NOTE: Do not place your application dependencies here; they belong
        // in the individual module build.gradle files
    }
}

allprojects {
    repositories {
        google()
        jcenter()
        maven { url "https://jitpack.io" }
    }
}

task clean(type: Delete) {
    delete rootProject.buildDir
}

I also tested my release apk on Android Emulators via Browserstack and I receive the exact same issue. I also received the issue on some physical devices I test such as Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge but the strange thing is that I tested a different Galaxy S7 Edge and it worked without issues. From what I have tested so far, I'd guess it works on 50% of the devices I've tested. I'm not an inherit Android developer so I am struggling to find the cause of this issue and why it works fine and some devices and not on others.

Answer 1

I posted this question on the Chromium forums and got redirected to a temporary fix listed here.

In short, they are aware of the issue and hope to have a permanent solution out soon so the temporary fix shouldn't be needed for long.

The answer given:

For the moment, you can change the last parameter to CustomTabsClient#getPackageName here to true. This parameter is 'ignoreDefault' and as you can probably guess will make the package selection ignore the user's default. Ideally though this won't be necessary for long.