Open chat links in regular browser tabs

[cbs228]

Content

Open web hyperlinks in chat messages in the user's regular, preferred web browser. Fixes bug introduced in v0.6.5.

Closes #3885

Motivation and context

In 5baefd4, a link to a "help" web page was added to the MessagesView. Since this page is essentially part of the app, it should and does open in an "in-app" Chrome Custom Tab, where supported.

Unfortunately, this change affects every link in the messages view, including links sent in chat messages. As of v0.6.5, links in chat messages now open in a Custom Tab instead of the user's configured "full" web browser. This is a UX nuisance.

Separate "regular" links from "custom tab" links with a new parameter onLinkClick(..., customTab). If true, the link opens in a custom tab.

Alternatively, the first patch in this PR removes the Custom Tab behavior from MessagesView entirely. This is likely not the preferred end result, however.

Screenshots / GIFs

Before	After

Tests

1. Build F-Droid version with

   export JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-21-openjdk-amd64/
   export GRADLE_OPTS="-Dorg.gradle.jvmargs=-Xmx9g -XX:MaxMetaspaceSize=512m -Dfile.encoding=UTF-8 -XX:+HeapDumpOnOutOfMemoryError -XX:+UseG1GC -Dkotlin.daemon.jvm.options=-Xmx4g"
   ./gradlew app:assembleFDroidDebug
   

2. Install on device.

3. Sign in to Element.

4. Open a chat room. Find a message which includes an https:// web link.

5. Tap on the link.

6. Observe that the link is opened in the "full" web browser with the full browser UI and other tabs. (See screenshots.)

I have not tried to force an identity change to test that the identity change help still loads in a Chrome Custom Tab. I'm not sure what the best way to test that is.

This PR should not introduce any new Android APIs. If API 24 emulator testing is required, can the project recommend an emulator?

Tested devices

• Physical: Android 14 / LineageOS 21, with f-droid build and the Fennec F-Droid web browser
• Emulator

Checklist

• Changes have been tested on an Android device or Android emulator with API 24
• UI change has been tested on both light and dark themes (N/A, but tested anyway)
• Accessibility has been taken into account. See https://github.com/element-hq/element-x-android/blob/develop/CONTRIBUTING.md#accessibility
• Pull request is based on the develop branch
• Pull request title will be used in the release note, it clearly define what will change for the user
• Pull request includes screenshots or videos if containing UI changes
• You've made a self review of your PR

[github-actions]

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• Your branch should be based on origin/develop, at least when it was created.
• The title of the PR will be used for release notes, so it needs to describe the change visible to the user.
• The test pass locally running ./gradlew test.
• The code quality check suite pass locally running ./gradlew runQualityChecks.
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[bmarty]

Thanks for the proposal. I think it makes sense to open links using the default browser since we do not have specific action like sharing like the X app may have.

Can you handle my remark about the lambda parameter? I believe it will do the same thing but with less change on the codebase.

[bmarty]

It was maybe simpler to add a Boolean parameter to the lambda onLinkClick: (String) -> Unit, to allow the usage of CustomTab if true.

[cbs228]

We definitely save a few lines of code this way. It might be more expressive to use an enum here—it's kind of hard to tell what the Boolean does when you're deep in the call tree—but that would definitely add complexity.

Ready for re-review.

[cbs228]

@bmarty, I think I've worked through all the comments and checklists. I don't have permission to run CI. Is there anything more I need to do for this PR?

[bmarty]

Thanks for the update, it looks good to me. I have triggered the CI.

[codecov]

Codecov Report

Attention: Patch coverage is 50.00000% with 1 line in your changes missing coverage. Please review.

Project coverage is 83.34%. Comparing base (3668e86) to head (ebdd945).
Report is 101 commits behind head on develop.

Files with missing lines	Patch %	Lines
...es/impl/crypto/identity/IdentityChangeStateView.kt	0.00%	1 Missing ⚠️

Additional details and impacted files

@@             Coverage Diff             @@
##           develop    #4198      +/-   ##
===========================================
- Coverage    83.35%   83.34%   -0.02%     
===========================================
  Files         1886     1886              
  Lines        49403    49403              
  Branches      5804     5804              
===========================================
- Hits         41180    41175       -5     
- Misses        6134     6135       +1     
- Partials      2089     2093       +4     

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