Last updated: November 16, 2024

Dear Customer,

Report on Sign-In Issues (from around September 19, 2024) for Some Users

(Some users are affected, while others are not, and we have observed both affected and unaffected cases within our own development environment.)

Latest Updates / Progress

  • 2024/09/19 First user reports received. Initially considered an isolated issue.
  • 2024/09/20 Investigation commenced.
  • 2024/09/21 Discovered that an unannounced specification change by Google may be the cause, but unable to reproduce the issue in our environment.
  • 2024/09/24 Successfully reproduced the issue in our environment, analysis began.
  • 2024/09/30 Confirmed that the same issue is affecting other Android TV apps using Google services.
  • 2024/10/03 Analysis confirmed that an unannounced specification change by Google is almost certainly the cause (details below).
  • 2024/10/04 Google appears to have ended support for Google Drive on TV operating systems. We are considering workarounds via custom implementation.
  • 2024/10/09 Began testing custom implementations to bypass the issue.
  • 2024/10/15 The first prototype version has passed Google Play's authentication. Verification process has commenced.
  • 2024/10/19 The first version (V.2.7.1) with custom sign-in implementation has been released.
  • After about a month of observation, it has been confirmed that the custom sign-in implementation seems to be working without any problems.

The Issue

Users on Android TV are seeing "Sign-In Failed" messages, and the app fails to launch. outage_singin@202409v2.6.4

Affected Environments

Based on user reports and our internal investigations, the issue seems to affect:

  • Android TV version 11 or earlier (Smartphones and tablets do not appear to be affected).
  • Google may have internally switched affected accounts to use only the "Credential Manager *" authentication method.
  • It is difficult for end-users to determine if their account is affected. Furthermore, Google appears to have prematurely ended support for current authentication methods without announcement, which were expected to be deprecated in 2025.

Additionally, this issue is not exclusive to our app but has been observed across all Android TV apps that use Google services such as Google Drive.

* Credential Manager is Google's new authentication method, released in 2023. The current method is set to be deprecated and removed from Android (Play Services Auth SDK) in 2025.

Temporary User Workaround

In rare cases, resetting Android TV to its factory settings may temporarily resolve the issue (although this is not guaranteed).

Our Response

Our products rely on Android OS and Google's cloud API services for functionality, and they comply with Google's guidelines, passing all necessary reviews and certifications.

If this issue is indeed caused by Google's sudden, unannounced specification change, we will be required to redevelop a large portion of our application, making a quick resolution unlikely.

Google’s Authentication Platform Lead, Ali Naddaf, has confirmed in a developer community discussion that "Sign-in using CredentialManager should work. Authorization, however, is not supported on the TV platform." This statement implies that Google has prematurely ended support for current authentication methods on the TV platform without notice, which has led to this issue. More details here.

We are prioritizing our customers' interests and are in the process of redeveloping the affected portions of the app. Unfortunately, we cannot yet provide an estimate for when the app will be functional again. We will continue to provide updates on this page.

In the meantime, we encourage users to submit feedback directly to Google’s Android TV Help, detailing this issue and urging them to take action. Your voices can help bring attention to this issue and prevent similar occurrences in the future.

Future Plans and Roadmap

We initially developed this app to provide an affordable and user-friendly digital signage solution by combining Android (TV) with Google Drive, both of which are Google services. We never imagined that Google would betray its users by cutting off support in this manner.

The lack of official announcement from Google and the varying impact on different accounts and environments led to significant delays in identifying and reproducing the issue, causing further inconvenience to our users. We sincerely apologize for any disruption this has caused.

First, we are working on redeveloping the app to restore functionality for users who have already purchased it.

Moving forward, we plan to reduce our dependence on Google services by expanding compatibility with other cloud platforms (e.g., Dropbox) and potentially offering versions of the app for platforms like Kindle Fire, to prevent a repeat of this issue.

Our mission has always been to "democratize digital signage," and we deeply appreciate the support we have received from so many of our users. We apologize for the inconvenience, and we are committed to facing this challenge together with our customers.

Please stay tuned for further updates.
Sincerely,

hapicom Inc.
Cloud Signage Team