Handling URIs in android webview to open apps or redirect to Playstore always shows ERR_UNKNOWN_URL_SCHEME

Question

I added a web view to my app to manage some web pages. Some of them may contain links to applications. But I got an error ERR_UNKNOWN_URL_SCHEME.

Sometimes the URL schemes will be intent:// or market:// etc. So how to handle this properly in webview?

I tried intercepting the request

binding.webView.setWebViewClient(new WebViewClient() {
                                         @Override
                                         public void onPageFinished(WebView view, String url) {
                                             enableUi();
                                         }

                                         @Override
                                         public boolean shouldOverrideUrlLoading(WebView view, WebResourceRequest request) {
                                             String url = request.getUrl().toString();
                                             if (url.isEmpty()) {
                                                 showMessage(R.string.something_wrong);
                                             } else {
                                                 if (URLUtil.isNetworkUrl(url)) {
                                                     return false;
                                                 } else {
                                                     try {
                                                         Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW, Uri.parse(url));
                                                         startActivity(intent);
                                                     } catch (ActivityNotFoundException ex) {
                                                         showMessage(getString(R.string.app_not_found));
                                                     }
                                                 }
                                             }
                                             finish();
                                             return true;
                                         }
                                     }
    );

But the above code always catches ActivityNotFoundException. Following is a sample link that triggers the error

intent://play.app.goo.gl/?link=https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id%3Dcom.dreamplug.androidapp#Intent;package=com.google.android.gms;scheme=https;S.browser_fallback_url=https://play.google.com/store/apps/details%3Fid%3Dcom.dreamplug.androidapp;end;

If I try from the chrome-browser the above link is able to open my playstore app. I wonder why I can't achieve the same with my webview.

Answer 1

Firstly, look at the url. The Url is starting with intent:// and not with http or https therefore it's an UNKNOWN_URL_SCHEME. These cases must be handled separately. For rectifying this, you can add an if in try-catch block like below.

@Override
public boolean shouldOverrideUrlLoading(WebView view, WebResourceRequest request) {
    String url = request.getUrl().toString();
    if (url.isEmpty()) {
        showMessage(R.string.something_wrong);
    } else {
        if (URLUtil.isNetworkUrl(url)) {
            return false;
        } else {
            try {
                if(url.startsWith("intent")){
                    // fetching the part that starts with http // https
                    int startIndex,endIndex;
                    startIndex=url.indexOf("=")+1;
                    endIndex=url.indexOf("#");
                    url=url.substring(startIndex,endIndex); // this url will open the playStore but wait !

                    // the url we formed still contains some problem at "details?id%3Dcom" bcoz it must be "details?id=com"
                    url=url.replace("%3D","=");
                }
                Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW, Uri.parse(url));
                startActivity(intent);
            } catch (ActivityNotFoundException ex) {
                showMessage(getString(R.string.app_not_found));
            }
        }
    }
    finish();
    return true;
}

This works completely fine acc. to your question. But, it can vary according to the formation of url.