The new Android app crashes without further information if Chrome is not installed on the device. I’m running 4.4 and I had seen the same issue with the beta app, which is why I tried the same with the release from Google Play.

From the Android app thread: [image]Beta testing the Android mobile app The app normalizes on Chrome stable for all browsing. If you do not have Chrome stable installed you can not use the app. Chrome beta and canary are not supported. Built in browser or custom browsers are not supported. This is entirely by design and a great normalizer.

Surely though it shouldn’t just crash though @sam ? Couldn’t it pop up a message saying “Chrome is required?”

This is now fixed in 1.0.7 which was just released. We will display a proper warning if Chrome is missing. https://github.com/discourse/DiscourseMobile/commit/24e4eda3e94f257eea803a9c5df1ba939596eba5

Why the bump in minimum API version? Perhaps I’m missing something, but Chrome Stable is supported on API level 16. Why require 18?

This is @codinghorror’s call take it up with management :slight_smile: I think it is kind of correct, you should not be running 4.3 or earlier cause you are under a bus. https://www.extremetech.com/mobile/197346-google-throws-nearly-a-billion-android-users-under-the-bus-refuses-to-patch-os-vulnerability We should not be encouraging you to run an OS that has publicly disclosed unpatched security vulnerabilities.

[image] sam: take it up with management :slight_smile: I’d like to! [image] sam: We should not be encouraging you Releasing an app that supports an OS with known security vulnerabilities doesn’t mean you are encouraging usage of said OS. There are many reasons why people are still using said OS, and most are likely not doing so by choice. People buy a phone, and are stuck relying on the manufacturer to update it. Most people can’t just go out and buy a new phone because Motorola, LG, Samsung, or whatever manufacturer they have decided not to update it anymore. Even if Google backported the fix to Android 4.1, most of those devices would still never see the fix! Actively preventing people from using an app that would work perfectly well on their phones/tablets seems like a bad way to make a statement. If you want to prevent people from using OS’s that have known security flaws, why does Discourse work on XP and earlier versions of Windows? Why support older browsers with vulnerabilities, and not just the newest ones? It just seems very specific that Android is being targetted here, and nothing else. I might be able to support this if the same stance was applied to everything, but targeting one OS is wrong.

[image] jomaxro: why does Discourse work on XP and earlier versions of Windows? It doesn’t. Try it. [image] jomaxro: Why support older browsers with vulnerabilities, and not just the newest ones? We don’t. Try it. You’ll get a page urging you to upgrade (unless we broke that recently). The requirements are listed on our http://www.discourse.org/faq/ as they always have been [image] Also requirements move UP over time, not down. We used to support IE9 until Jan 1 2017.

I don’t have a method of installing old browsers, so I’m relying on an online service to test (take it for what it’s worth). Looks like IE does say that an upgrade is neccessary, but Chrome and Firefox don’t: Chrome 10 [image] Firefox 10 [image] IE 9 [image] As for your comment that XP won’t work: are you saying that if I installed Chrome or Firefox on XP you would detect that somehow and not let Discourse sites load?

XP doesn’t support modern HTTPS. Note: No versions of Internet Explorer on Windows XP support SNI https://www.digicert.com/ssl-support/apache-secure-multiple-sites-sni.htm Sorry.

I see that. It also says Chrome supports it even on XP. I’m not suggesting XP should be supported, I’m simply trying to understand how you decide what to support. IE, Firefox, and Chrome have all have severe and critical vulnerabilities patched in most versions, but really old versions are still supported.

Android app crashes if Chrome is not installed

Product Support

KevinWorkman November 10, 2016, 2:36pm 2

From the Android app thread:

Topic		Replies	Views
DiscourseHub compatibility on older Android devices Feature	7	1237	November 18, 2020
Discourse Android app requires Chrome Stable Product Support	5	1252	May 8, 2018
Please release FLOSS version of Android App on F-Droid Feature	1	1402	May 1, 2017
Impact of Let's Encrypt changes in Discourse users on old Android versions Self-hosting hosting	9	1557	December 21, 2020
Support for older Android versions Feature	3	961	March 23, 2014

Android app crashes if Chrome is not installed

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