v0.14.0 remaining: Play Store unblock + ChromeWatcher crash fix

[TimeToBuildBob]

Follow-up to #176. Context rebuilt from full thread read.

Current state (as of 2026-07-12)

• v0.14.0dev20260712: GitHub release published ✅, Play Store upload blocked (see item 1 below)
• Top crash driver: ChromeWatcher NPE (item 2) — dominant crash cluster, ~791 reports
• All SDK/build/fastlane blockers from Elevated crash/ANR rate (8.17% user-perceived crashes) and declining Play Store rating #176 are resolved

Open items

1. Remove FOREGROUND_SERVICE_DATA_SYNC permission (Play Store release blocker)

The v0.14.0 fastlane upload fails with:

Google Api Error: Invalid request - You must let us know whether your app uses any Foreground Service permissions.

Google Play Console requires a declaration form + demo video for FOREGROUND_SERVICE_DATA_SYNC. Since sync is disabled by default (#184) and not demo-able, we should remove it for now.

Fix: Two-line removal from AndroidManifest.xml:

• <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.FOREGROUND_SERVICE_DATA_SYNC" />
• android:foregroundServiceType="dataSync" from the SyncAlarmReceiver service entry (or just drop the uses-permission and leave the type — the type without the permission is inert)

Re-add when sync is actually shippable and a demo video can be recorded.

2. ChromeWatcher NPE (top crash cluster — ~791 reports)

From vitals.py errors:

• Investigate using aw-server-rust as backend #1: 791 reports — NullPointerException in ChromeWatcher.onAccessibilityEvent at ChromeWatcher.kt:76
• Put up beta on Google Play Store #2: 26 reports — NotImplementedError in ChromeWatcher.onInterrupt (not implemented)

This is the dominant driver of the ~8% user-perceived crash rate. Needs a null-check guard at ChromeWatcher.kt:76 and a stub onInterrupt implementation.

3. Hostname validation in aw-server-rust (enhancement, not blocker)

Erik requested a server-side guard to reject bucket creation with space-containing hostnames (so a misconfigured Android client can't create a broken bucket). Fix location: aw-server-rust bucket creation path.

4. Native OOM in sync (tracked upstream)

The Scudo ERROR: Out of memory crash during syncBoth is tracked in ActivityWatch/aw-server-rust#630 (unbounded event fetch). Short-term mitigation already merged (#184 — disabled auto-sync by default). Long-term fix is batch/stream processing in aw-server-rust.

Done in #176

• targetSdkVersion 34→35 (build: bump targetSdkVersion/compileSdk to 35 (Android 15) #179 ✅)
• Build.DEVICE hostname fallback in both RustInterface.kt and SyncInterface.kt (fix: use Build.DEVICE instead of Build.MODEL for hostname fallback #183 ✅)
• Auto-sync disabled by default (feat(sync): disable automatic sync by default #184 ✅)
• Pre-release version workflow (ci: support pre-release versions in Release workflow (0.14.0b1, 0.14.0dev20260712) #178 ✅)
• SUPPLY_TRACK routing fix for Play Store (fix(ci): use version regex for SUPPLY_TRACK instead of semver is_stable #182 ✅)
• aw-webui Android device detection runtime fix (aw-webui#903 ✅)
• RubyGems/fastlane fix (fix(ci): add rubygems.org source before fastlane release step #180 ✅)
• Hallucinated 'Related issues' section removed from Elevated crash/ANR rate (8.17% user-perceived crashes) and declining Play Store rating #176 body

Priority order

1. Investigate using aw-server-rust as backend #1 (FOREGROUND_SERVICE_DATA_SYNC removal) — unblocks the v0.14.0 production Play Store upload; 2-line change
2. Put up beta on Google Play Store #2 (ChromeWatcher NPE) — dominant crash cluster, directly driving the rating decline
3. Include building of aw-server-rust and run instrumented tests in CI #4 (upstream OOM) — mitigated already, long-term fix in aw-server-rust#630
4. Added basic working version of calling aw-server-rust code #3 (hostname validation) — enhancement, doesn't block release

[TimeToBuildBob]

Item 2 — ChromeWatcher NPE: already fixed in current codebase

TL;DR: ChromeWatcher.kt no longer exists. It was replaced by WebWatcher.kt (generic multi-browser URL watcher) in the commit "feat: implemented generic web watcher with support of multiple web browsers". The 791 crash reports are from users on old app versions — this item resolves automatically once v0.14.0 ships via PR #190.

What changed

Old (ChromeWatcher.kt)	New (WebWatcher.kt)
Single-browser (Chrome only)	Chrome, Firefox, Samsung Browser, Opera, Edge
NPE at line 76 (bare event.source access)	Null-safe: event.source?.let { source -> ... }
Missing/broken onInterrupt	override fun onInterrupt() {} already present
No exception guard	Whole onAccessibilityEvent wrapped in try-catch(ex: Exception)

Current WebWatcher.kt null-safety pattern

override fun onAccessibilityEvent(event: AccessibilityEvent) {
    // ...
    try {
        event.source?.let { source ->    // ← null-safe, no NPE possible
            try {
                // ... extract URL, handle session
            } finally {
                source.recycle()
            }
        }
    } catch(ex : Exception) {
        Log.e(TAG, ex.message ?: ex.toString())
    }
}

Action needed

None for item 2. The crash driver disappears for users who update to v0.14.0. The remaining blocker is PR #190 (FOREGROUND_SERVICE_DATA_SYNC removal) to unblock the Play Store upload.