InstallReferrerClient.startConnection() throwing error

Question

Some of my users ared getting the following error while using InstallReferrerClient.startConnection()

i'm following android-developer's tutorial

Unable to start activity ComponentInfo{.MyActivity}: java.lang.SecurityException: Not allowed to bind to service Intent { act=com.google.android.finsky.BIND_GET_INSTALL_REFERRER_SERVICE cmp=com.android.vending/com.google.android.finsky.externalreferrer.GetInstallReferrerService }

Does anybody know the cause?

Answer 1

The permission com.google.android.finsky.permission.BIND_GET_INSTALL_REFERRER_SERVICE already existed in our code base but there was a property tools:node="remove" that was removing it from the merged manifest. After deleting tools:node="remove" the error didn't happen anymore and I was able to start a connection.

The documentation doesn't mention this permission, but I found a comment about it being a "requirement from Play Install Referrer API": https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/78380811#comment22