Xamarin Android system browser considerations for using MSAL.NET
This article discusses what you should consider when you use the system browser on Xamarin Android with the Microsoft Authentication Library for .NET (MSAL.NET).
Note
MSAL.NET versions 4.61.0 and above do not provide support for Universal Windows Platform (UWP), Xamarin Android, and Xamarin iOS. We recommend you migrate your Xamarin applications to modern frameworks like MAUI. Read more about the deprecation in Announcing the Upcoming Deprecation of MSAL.NET for Xamarin and UWP.
Starting with MSAL.NET 2.4.0 Preview, MSAL.NET supports browsers other than Chrome. It no longer requires Chrome be installed on the Android device for authentication.
We recommend that you use browsers that support custom tabs. Here are some examples of these browsers:
| Browsers that have custom tabs support | Package name |
|---|---|
| Chrome | com.android.chrome |
| Microsoft Edge | com.microsoft.emmx |
| Firefox | org.mozilla.firefox |
| Ecosia | com.ecosia.android |
| Kiwi | com.kiwibrowser.browser |
| Brave | com.brave.browser |
In addition to identifying browsers that offer custom tabs support, our testing indicates that a few browsers that don't support custom tabs also work for authentication. These browsers include Opera, Opera Mini, InBrowser, and Maxthon.
Tested devices and browsers
The following table lists the devices and browsers that have been tested for authentication compatibility.
| Device | Browser | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Huawei/One+ | Chrome* | Pass |
| Huawei/One+ | Edge* | Pass |
| Huawei/One+ | Firefox* | Pass |
| Huawei/One+ | Brave* | Pass |
| One+ | Ecosia* | Pass |
| One+ | Kiwi* | Pass |
| Huawei/One+ | Opera | Pass |
| Huawei | OperaMini | Pass |
| Huawei/One+ | InBrowser | Pass |
| One+ | Maxthon | Pass |
| Huawei/One+ | DuckDuckGo | User canceled authentication |
| Huawei/One+ | UC Browser | User canceled authentication |
| One+ | Dolphin | User canceled authentication |
| One+ | CM Browser | User canceled authentication |
| Huawei/One+ | None installed | AndroidActivityNotFound exception |
* Supports custom tabs
Known issues
If the user has no browser enabled on the device, MSAL.NET will throw an AndroidActivityNotFound exception.
- Mitigation: Ask the user to enable a browser on their device. Recommend a browser that supports custom tabs.
If authentication fails (for example, if authentication launches with DuckDuckGo), MSAL.NET will return AuthenticationCanceled MsalClientException.
- Root problem: A browser that supports custom tabs wasn't enabled on the device. Authentication launched with a browser that couldn't complete authentication.
- Mitigation: Ask the user to enable a browser on their device. Recommend a browser that supports custom tabs.
Next steps
For more information and code examples, see Choosing between an embedded web browser and a system browser on Xamarin Android and Embedded versus system web UI.