Appium 1.8.0 does not use specified Android appActivity to bring application to front

The problem

Appium does not use appActivity I specified in desired caps to bring application from background, always uses .activity.MainActivity instead.

Environment

• Appium version (or git revision) that exhibits the issue: 1.8.0
• Desktop OS/version used to run Appium: Linux x86-64
• Mobile platform/version under test: Android 6.0.1
• Real device or emulator/simulator: Samsung Galaxy S5
• Appium CLI or Appium.app|exe: Appium Desktop 1.6.0

Details

The application I am testing has specified different activity as launcher. I already specified appActivity: .activity.setup.WelcomeActivity in desired capabilities and indeed this activity is properly used when starting application. But calling driver.background_app() I get “The permission to start ‘.activity.MainActivity’ activity has been denied.Make sure the activity/package names are correct.” error when driver tries to bring application back to front (I am using Python client but this should not be relevant here).

Link to Appium logs

https://gist.github.com/zgoda-mobica/bb8e158a9db003de6e6ad4134fa2c942

[mykola-mokhnach]

the improvement has been merged to appium@beta

[mykola-mokhnach]

Actually, yoy can try a workaround even with the current build. Just call background with -1 duration to leave the app there and then call activateApp with the actual application id in order to restore it.