Android apps that launch a browser (native) to do authentication, don't communicate back, eg TapKey

General
1

TapKey app asks to authenticate, you choose email, it launches a browser window, natively, and after you login there, it keeps spinning; i presume it tries to communicate back to the android app and failing due to the seperation between android and native apps.

Is there a way for android apps to launch a browser inside android subsystem? would this actually solve the problem?

Any other ideas? I donno why they insist on an app though, why can’t they have a html5 version? they need to communicate anyway… maybe it’d be possible to make one? or even make a native version?

2

You need to install a web browser inside the Android layer. Firefox Focus is a lightweight option:

After that, login works for Tapkey (see attached image)

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Make sure that inside Firefox Focus, Settings > Advanved > Open links in apps is enabled

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thanks, is there a way to download it somewhere from this google play, so i can transfer it, or do i need to go the route of suspicious downloaders? (not planning to have google play on device)

4

In F-Droid you can find various browsers (including some Firefox-based).

If you want to get the app for the App Store, try the Aurora Store which lets you download apps from there.

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I installed fennec from f-droid, that seemed to work.

However, it does warn me about being unsafe from being accessed without permission.

but also, it does complain about bluetooth being turned off, even though i have it on. Do i need to change some stuff in settings somewhere? (i have a C2)

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6

The Android subsystem has no access to the Bluetooth stack.

There is hope for change in the future:

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what would be a realistic expectation of this next update (whether BT would be in it or not)

are we talking like next month or more like 6 months?

what about the NFC? is that also not in the android subsystem?

I wonder if I would be able to use native bluetooth commands to do these lock/unlock signals, since this is security related, i feel like this might be near impossible to do.

8

The realistic option for you is to install an Android Browser and use that as suggested in this thread.

This is not known.

If you have some spare time, you can try this hack on your own (and at your own risk!) and share your experience and feedback in that thread:

There are no known plans for NFC support in the Android subsystem.

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ah, no i did install an android browser, i got the authentication part to work in TapKey, so, now that i am authenticated, i’ll need bluetooth to actually unlock the locks (i think).