Is there an approach to reuse the same Chrome custom tab that holds the same URL?

I am using the following lib: androidx.browser:browser:1.5.0

• Current scenario:

  My app contains a button that, when clicked, launches a URL using a Chrome custom tab. The issue is that when the user is navigated to that custom tab, they may navigate to the Recent Screens, and then return back to my app. Each time this scenario is repeated, a new Chrome custom tab is launched, so the Recent Screens becomes filled with multiple Chrome tabs and my app.

• What I am trying to implement:

  Whenever the user is in my app and clicks the button that launches the URL using a Chrome custom tab, and then returns back to my app from the Recent Screens view, trying to re-launch the same URL, no new custom tab is created, but the one created the first time is reused (moved from background to foreground). So, the result in the Recent Screens will contain only: two apps (my app and a single Chrome tab).

I tried using a CustomTabsSession and adding it to the CustomTabsIntent, so that each time I launch the URL, I will check if the session is null or not. If so, I will reuse the previously created custom tab. But unfortunately, it didn't work! Check my code below (when the button that's supposed to launch the URL is clicked, the below method is called):

NOTE: My MainActivity in the manifest is marked as singleInstance.

private void initCustomTabs() {
    if (customTabsSession == null) {
        customTabsServiceConnection = new CustomTabsServiceConnection() {
            @Override
            public void onCustomTabsServiceConnected(@NonNull ComponentName name, @NonNull CustomTabsClient client) {
                customTabsClient = client;
                customTabsSession = customTabsClient.newSession(null);
                launchCustomTab(myURL);
            }

            @Override
            public void onServiceDisconnected(ComponentName name) {
                customTabsClient = null;
                customTabsSession = null;
            }
        };
        CustomTabsClient.bindCustomTabsService(MainActivity.this, "com.android.chrome", customTabsServiceConnection);
    } else {
        launchCustomTab(myURL);
    }
}

private void launchCustomTab(String url) {
    CustomTabsIntent.Builder builder = new CustomTabsIntent.Builder();
    builder.setSession(customTabsSession);
    CustomTabsIntent customTabsIntent = builder.build();
    customTabsIntent.intent.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_SINGLE_TOP);
    customTabsIntent.launchUrl(MainActivity.this, Uri.parse(url));
}

Don't create a new session on every connect, but only once and furthermore (when knowing the CustomTabsSessionToken sessionToken) use method postMessage(). The method's signature shows, how it is supposed to be used:

@CustomTabsService.Result
protected abstract int postMessage(
    @NonNull CustomTabsSessionToken sessionToken,
    @NonNull String message,
    @Nullable Bundle extras
)

While your code does not seem to consider any CustomTabsSessionToken, which can be obtained with method getSessionTokenFromIntent(). Not to confuse with CustomTabsSession. Basically, the Custom Tabs Activity can be controlled with a session token. WebView would be the same instance of Activity and indeed easier to load this or that URL, without having to worry about opening too many Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_SINGLE_TOP, as you have it there.