This is strange - ShortcutInfo is the struct carrying the URL which is added to homescreen. That struct is explicitly initialised with an empty URL and only has its URL updated to be the manifest start_url, so the original (deep) URL should never make it into the homescreen shortcut - only the manifest start_url should.

I also tried triggering this bug on boardom.io on tip of tree, but the homescreen shortcut added pointed to the boardio.io home page, not the deep page. Can you confirm that this issue is happening?

It happened to me, but I also reported it to matt@boardom.io who stated he would implement a work-around on boardom.io.

matt@boardom.io, did you?

I'm fairly sure the only way you could have triggered this is if the manifest previously set its start_url to the deep link, rather than the home page. But more details would be great to try and narrow down all of the variables.

Hello all. Thanks for reporting this Vincent. I have not implemented the workaround, nor am I able to reproduce the issue myself.

I'm certain that the start_url has only been "/". It would not make sense for me to set the start_url to a specific game.

I also have notifications that open deep links into the app, eg: "https://boardom.io/game/3C2F6De1Ce102". The most unique case to my app that I can think of is the user receives a notification to a game, opens that, and then is prompted with the install banner.

I was not able to reproduce the app with the following steps:
1: ensure Boardom is not on home screen
2: clear all tabs/instances of Boardom
3: restart device
4: connect via USB debugging
5: fire notification which opens deep link
6: click on notification via app which allows service worker to open deep link through a browser tab
7: prompt device to show install banner via chrome://inspect from connected computer
8: install app
9: press home and launch the installed app

This opened the correct short_url "/"

I tried a few other things such as simply triggering the install banner without a notification.


In the past I've had users complain that notifications open chrome tabs instead of the installed PWA instance, but that's because my service worker doesn't differentiate between chrome tabs or installed instances, and eagerly picks an open window. I don't see how that confusion could be possible here though, since Vincent's bug report says he launched the app via the icon on the home screen.

Chrome 51.0.2704.81
Android 6.0.1

If we can't repro- then I suppose close.

It is most likely that I had clicked a notification to enter a specific game, and then was presented the app install promo. It's likely that I had an existing tab open when I later used the home screen icon.

Please re-open if you run into anything strange - we definitely want to track it down. :)