Chrome 141: TWA intermittently stuck on splash screen; occurs on both cold and warm starts (not seen on 140) #560
Description
Describe the bug
When launching a Trusted Web Activity, the app intermittently gets stuck on the splash screen and never transitions to the web content.
The issue occurs on Chrome 141 regardless of whether Chrome was already running (warm start) or not (cold start). Frequency may vary, but it is not limited to cold starts.
The same app and URL do not exhibit this problem on Chrome 140 or earlier, suggesting a regression in 141 affecting TWA/Custom Tabs.
Steps to reproduce
- Launch the Android app that opens the TWA.
- Observe the splash screen.
- Repeat several times; in a fraction of runs (e.g., 1 in 5–10), the splash never disappears.
- Optional: Try with Chrome already running in the background (warm start) and after force-stopping Chrome (cold start). The issue reproduces in both cases.
Expected behavior
After TWA launch, initial navigation and first paint occur.
The splash screen is dismissed upon [onPageCommitVisible/NAVIGATION_FINISHED/Web “ready” message], and the web content is shown.
Smartphone (please complete the following information):
- OS: Android 14,15,16
- Browsers Installed Chrome
- Browser Versions 141
- android-browser-helper library version latest on Oct 24
Additional context
Not observed on Chrome 140 or earlier.
Occurs on both cold and warm starts; pre-warming Chrome does not reliably avoid the issue.