App Open State Bug: Popups Cause Detection Failures

Hey there, fellow developers and Minitap AI enthusiasts! We've stumbled upon a rather peculiar bug affecting the mobile-use functionality, specifically with our Minitap AI application. It seems that when a popup appears right as the application is launching, our system isn't quite catching that the app has, in fact, opened successfully. This leads to a frustrating loop where the system keeps trying, with a "Timeout waiting" message, until it exhausts all three available retries. Let's dive into what's happening, what we expect, and how we can get to the bottom of this.

💥 The Bug: When Popups Disrupt App Detection

The core of the issue lies in how our system handles the initial launch of the Minitap AI application on mobile devices. Normally, when an app is launched, our system is designed to detect this successful launch and proceed with its operations. However, we've discovered a critical scenario where this detection mechanism fails. This failure occurs specifically when a popup window appears simultaneously with the application opening. Instead of recognizing that the application is open, even with the popup overlay, the system gets stuck. It initiates a waiting sequence, assuming the app hasn't loaded properly, and repeatedly throws a "Timeout waiting" error. This cycle continues until the system has used up its allocated retries, ultimately resulting in a failed attempt to interact with or utilize the application. This is a significant roadblock, especially for automated testing and workflows that rely on seamless app detection. The inability to confirm the app is open, even when it visually is, halts any further progress and can lead to failed test cases or interrupted user experiences in automated scenarios. We need to ensure that our detection logic is robust enough to handle these common UI elements like popups.

🤔 Expected Behavior: Seamless Detection, Popups or Not

What we expect to happen is quite straightforward, yet crucial for reliable automation. Ideally, even if a popup appears right at the moment the Minitap AI application is launched, the system should still be able to correctly identify that the application has been opened successfully. The presence of a popup should not be a blocker for confirming the app's ready state. Think of it this way: a user sees the app, and potentially a popup, and they know the app is open and ready for interaction. Our system should mirror this understanding. The popup is just another layer on top of the already open application. Therefore, the underlying application's open state should be affirmatively detected. This means our detection logic needs to be sophisticated enough to differentiate between the application not being open and the application being open but displaying an overlaid modal or notification. The goal is to achieve a seamless transition from launch to readiness, regardless of temporary UI overlays. This expected behavior is fundamental for building reliable automation scripts and ensuring that our Minitap AI features can be tested and deployed with confidence on various Android devices and emulators. We're aiming for a system that's not easily fooled by common UI patterns.

💻 Your Environment: Understanding the Testing Ground

To help us pinpoint this bug effectively, it's important to understand the environment where this issue is occurring. We are currently running our tests on a Linux host operating system. The mobile operating system in question is Android 15, which is quite new and could potentially have some unique behaviors or API changes that might be contributing to this bug. The device being used is a Pixel 14, a modern device known for its stock Android experience. Importantly, we are using an Emulator for this testing. Emulators, while incredibly useful, can sometimes exhibit subtle differences in behavior compared to physical devices, and understanding this context is key. The specific Git Commit SHA associated with the code exhibiting this bug is 4f8c104. This SHA allows us to precisely track the version of the code being tested. Finally, the method through which we are running our tests is via the CLI (Command Line Interface). This indicates that the bug is likely happening in an automated, non-interactive setting, which is common for CI/CD pipelines and automated testing frameworks. By detailing this environment, we provide a clear picture of the conditions under which the "Timeout waiting" issue arises, helping to narrow down potential causes related to OS versions, emulator specifics, or CLI execution.

🙏 Anything Else? The Technical Deep Dive

Let's get a bit more technical and explore the underlying reason for this detection failure. The function get_current_foreground_package is where the magic (or in this case, the mishap) happens. Currently, this function only considers the detection successful if the returned value exactly matches the target package name of our Minitap AI application. However, the problem arises because popup windows, especially system-level ones or those generated by the Android framework itself, are often treated as independent windows. When such a popup is active, the mCurrentFocus (a crucial Android component that indicates which window has user input focus) might not include the application's package name. Instead, it might point to the popup window's identifier. Because get_current_foreground_package strictly checks for an exact match of the application's package name, it misinterprets this situation. It sees that mCurrentFocus doesn't directly reflect the app's package and incorrectly concludes that the app isn't in focus or even open. This leads to the erroneous "Timeout waiting" behavior we're observing. To resolve this, we need to adjust the logic. Instead of a strict equality check, we should consider the application as open if mCurrentFocus is related to our application or if a popup belonging to our application is currently displayed. This might involve checking if the focused window's package name is our target application's package, or if the focused window is a known type of popup associated with our application. Understanding this nuance of Android window focus and popup handling is critical for fixing this bug and ensuring our Minitap AI application state is detected reliably.