Deep link shares to Google+, but link does nothing

Question

I'm trying to use deep-linking from Google+ into an Android app, following http://developers.google.com/+/mobile/android/share/deep-link.

I can share to Google+. The link in the post is "clickable" (it highlights during touch), but does nothing on release. Also, the post contains a suspicious "undefined" line of text.

sample http://raw.github.com/concreterose/TestDeepLink/master/README_ASSETS/sample_share.png

I have enabled deep linking in Google Developers Console project credentials.

I'm using a signed-in PlusClient created with Scopes.PLUS_LOGIN, posting via:

Intent shareIntent = new PlusShare.Builder(this, plusClient)
    .setText("Testing deep link")
    .setType("text/plain")
    .setContentDeepLinkId("deeplink",
         "title",
         "description",
         Uri.parse(thumbnailUrl))
    .getIntent();
startActivityForResult(shareIntent, 0);

I'm not sure if I need all of these, while trying to get things working I have:

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.USE_CREDENTIALS" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.GET_ACCOUNTS" />

The handling activity (given as the first activity in the manifest):

    <activity android:name=".ParseDeepLinkActivity">
        <intent-filter>
            <action android:name="com.google.android.apps.plus.VIEW_DEEP_LINK" />
            <data android:scheme="vnd.google.deeplink" />
            <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
            <category android:name="android.intent.category.BROWSABLE" />
        </intent-filter>
    </activity>

is:

public class ParseDeepLinkActivity extends Activity {
    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        Log.i(TAG, "onCreate");
        throw new RuntimeException("got here");
    }
}

I'm building with the release keystore and testing on a several real devices running 4.4.

I've tried:

• Using the PlusShare.Builder(activity) constructor (without plusClient), no change.

• Using addCallToAction(label, uri, deeplink) instead of setContentDeepLinkId. There is no call to action button, and clicking the post goes to uri and not the deep link.

• Triple checking "Deep linking: Enabled" is set correctly in the developers console.

• Building without proguard, no change.

• Uninstalling the app then clicking the link (supposed to open the play store entry), does nothing.

• Signing with a different key. Plus sign in fails (as expected).

• Using different versions of play services (4.0.30 vs 3.2.+).

• adb shell setprop log.tag.GooglePlusPlatform VERBOSE does not generate any log messages.

• Fetching my API access token and verifying it has auth/plus.login, it does.

Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong? Thanks!!

Update: This is now working, apparently fixed by a Google Play Services update.

Answer 1

It turns out this a known issue that will be fixed with the next Google+ update:

Google+ Interactive shares on android are broken in version 4.2.4.58179886

Answer 2

Its generally best to share a URL marked up with schema.org rather than passing the title, description and image. Because there is no URL, the link will never be clickable on web (you need to use setContentURL to have that) - but it should open the application on Android.

That said, the undefined does indeed look suspicious. There are two concerning things there, the first being that the link doesn't work, and the second that description is no longer generally shown in regular shares. There is a known issue with interactive posts to Android, which hopefully should be resolved early in the new year, and I am wondering if that is also effecting the sharing of deeplinks.

To narrow it down, could you try testing with schema.org marked up URL in setContentURL (e.g. https://developers.google.com/+/web/snippet/examples/thing), and passing null for title, image and description on the setContentDeeplink call?