How to add Twitter Login button to your Android app using Kotlin

Creating an App on Twitter

Go to https://developer.twitter.com/apps, log in with your Twitter account, and press Create an app

On the new page, fill all the required fields.

As a Callback URL, add the name of your app (in lowercase) with :// , for example, twittersigninexample://

Also, add the Terms of Service and Privacy policy URLs of your app if you want to get the user’s email too.

After you created the app successfully, go to the Permissions tab.

In the Permissions tab, select Read-only, for Access permissions, and check the box Request email address from users if you want to get the user’s email.

Then press Save

Now go to Keys and tokens tab and copy the API key and API secret key somewhere, we’re going to need them later.

Creating the Twitter Login Button

Go to your build.gradle of your app and add the following dependencies

We use Coroutines to do the asynchronous tasks and twitter4j for the Twitter API.

dependencies {
    // ...

    implementation 'org.twitter4j:twitter4j-core:4.0.7'
    implementation 'org.jetbrains.kotlinx:kotlinx-coroutines-android:1.3.5'

    // ...
}

In your AndroidManifest.xml (manifests > AndroidManifest.xml) add the following permission:

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET" />

Go to your layout XML and add a button

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:background="@color/colorPrimary"
    tools:context=".MainActivity">


    <Button
        android:id="@+id/twitter_login_btn"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_centerInParent="true"
        android:background="@drawable/rounded_corners"
        android:drawableStart="@drawable/twitter_icon"
        android:drawablePadding="8dp"
        android:padding="8dp"
        android:text="Log in with Twitter"
        android:textAllCaps="false"
        android:textColor="@android:color/white" />

</RelativeLayout>

In your project create a new Kotlin object by right-clicking on your project’s package name and then press New > Kotlin File/Class

Give the name TwitterConstants and select Object

Inside the file, paste the following code:

object TwitterConstants {

    var CONSUMER_KEY = "MY_CONSUMER_KEY"
    var CONSUMER_SECRET = "MY_CONSUMER_SECRET"
    var CALLBACK_URL = "MY_CALLBACK_URL"

}

Replace the MY_CONSUMER_KEY with your API key, the MY_CONSUMER_SECRET with your API secret key, and the MY_CALLBACK_URL with your callback URL you added before on the Twitter dashboard.

Go to your Activity (or Fragment) file and create a click listener for your button that calls the getRequestToken() method.

class MainActivity : AppCompatActivity() {

    override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main)

        twitter_login_btn.setOnClickListener {
            getRequestToken()
        }
        
    }
}

Before we ask the user to permit us to use their data, we have to get a request token from Twitter that we’ll use later to do the authorization.

lateinit var twitter: Twitter

private fun getRequestToken() {
        GlobalScope.launch(Dispatchers.Default) {
            val builder = ConfigurationBuilder()
                .setDebugEnabled(true)
                .setOAuthConsumerKey(TwitterConstants.CONSUMER_KEY)
                .setOAuthConsumerSecret(TwitterConstants.CONSUMER_SECRET)
                .setIncludeEmailEnabled(true)
            val config = builder.build()
            val factory = TwitterFactory(config)
            twitter = factory.instance
            try {
                val requestToken = twitter.oAuthRequestToken
                withContext(Dispatchers.Main) {
                    setupTwitterWebviewDialog(requestToken.authorizationURL)
                }
            } catch (e: IllegalStateException) {
                Log.e("ERROR: ", e.toString())
            }
        }
    }

After you successfully got the request token, we have to open a Dialog with a WebView in it to ask them if they want our app to get their profile data (authorize).

If they accept it, we get back a URL of the form:

MY_CALLBACK_URL?oauth_token=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX&oauth_verifier=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

From that URL we take the oauth_verifier, and we use it to get the access token

lateinit var twitterDialog: Dialog
var accToken: AccessToken? = null

// Show twitter login page in a dialog
    @SuppressLint("SetJavaScriptEnabled")
    fun setupTwitterWebviewDialog(url: String) {
        twitterDialog = Dialog(this)
        val webView = WebView(this)
        webView.isVerticalScrollBarEnabled = false
        webView.isHorizontalScrollBarEnabled = false
        webView.webViewClient = TwitterWebViewClient()
        webView.settings.javaScriptEnabled = true
        webView.loadUrl(url)
        twitterDialog.setContentView(webView)
        twitterDialog.show()
    }

    // A client to know about WebView navigations
    // For API 21 and above
    @Suppress("OverridingDeprecatedMember")
    inner class TwitterWebViewClient : WebViewClient() {
        @TargetApi(Build.VERSION_CODES.LOLLIPOP)
        override fun shouldOverrideUrlLoading(
            view: WebView?,
            request: WebResourceRequest?
        ): Boolean {
            if (request?.url.toString().startsWith(TwitterConstants.CALLBACK_URL)) {
                Log.d("Authorization URL: ", request?.url.toString())
                handleUrl(request?.url.toString())

                // Close the dialog after getting the oauth_verifier
                if (request?.url.toString().contains(TwitterConstants.CALLBACK_URL)) {
                    twitterDialog.dismiss()
                }
                return true
            }
            return false
        }

        // For API 19 and below
        override fun shouldOverrideUrlLoading(view: WebView, url: String): Boolean {
            if (url.startsWith(TwitterConstants.CALLBACK_URL)) {
                Log.d("Authorization URL: ", url)
                handleUrl(url)

                // Close the dialog after getting the oauth_verifier
                if (url.contains(TwitterConstants.CALLBACK_URL)) {
                    twitterDialog.dismiss()
                }
                return true
            }
            return false
        }

        // Get the oauth_verifier
        private fun handleUrl(url: String) {
            val uri = Uri.parse(url)
            val oauthVerifier = uri.getQueryParameter("oauth_verifier") ?: ""
            GlobalScope.launch(Dispatchers.Main) {
                accToken = withContext(Dispatchers.IO) { twitter.getOAuthAccessToken(oauthVerifier) }
                getUserProfile()
            }
        }
    }

Getting User’s Profile Info

To get the user’s data, we’re using the .verifyCredentials() from the twitter4j

suspend fun getUserProfile() {
        val usr = withContext(Dispatchers.IO) { twitter.verifyCredentials() }

        //Twitter Id
        val twitterId = usr.id.toString()
        Log.d("Twitter Id: ", twitterId)
        
        //Twitter Handle
        val twitterHandle = usr.screenName
        Log.d("Twitter Handle: ", twitterHandle)

        //Twitter Name
        val twitterName = usr.name
        Log.d("Twitter Name: ", twitterName)

        //Twitter Email
        val twitterEmail = usr.email
        Log.d("Twitter Email: ", twitterEmail ?: "'Request email address from users' on the Twitter dashboard is disabled")

        // Twitter Profile Pic URL
        val twitterProfilePic = usr.profileImageURLHttps.replace("_normal", "")
        Log.d("Twitter Profile URL: ", twitterProfilePic)

        // Twitter Access Token
        Log.d("Twitter Access Token", accToken?.token ?: "")
        
    }

Checking User’s Logging state

To check the user’s logging state, we use the .verifyCredentials().

Using the .verifyCredentials(), we verify if the access token is valid or not.

Twitter’s access tokens never expire (only in some cases), they just become invalidate when the user revokes your app from their Twitter account (Settings and privacy > Account > Apps and sessions)

To do the .verifyCredentials(), we need the oauth token and the oauth token secret.

These two can be saved on your app, using SharedPreferences, when you are getting the user’s profile data.

suspend fun getUserProfile() {
        // ...Getting Profile Data

        // Save the Access Token (accToken.token) and Access Token Secret (accToken.tokenSecret) using SharedPreferences
        // This will allow us to check user's logging state every time they open the app after cold start.
        val sharedPref = this.getPreferences(Context.MODE_PRIVATE)
        sharedPref.edit().putString("oauth_token",accToken?.token ?: "").apply()
        sharedPref.edit().putString("oauth_token_secret",accToken?.tokenSecret ?: "").apply()

    }

So every time the user opens the app, we check if the access token is valid, and we send them to the right Activity (or Fragment).

class MainActivity : AppCompatActivity() {

    override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main)

        GlobalScope.launch {
            val results = GlobalScope.async { isLoggedIn() }
            val result = results.await()
            if (result) {
                // Show the Activity with the logged in user
                Log.d("LoggedIn?: ", "YES")
            } else {
                // Show the Home Activity
                Log.d("LoggedIn?: ", "NO")
            }
        }
        
        // ...

    }

    suspend fun isLoggedIn(): Boolean {
        val sharedPref = this.getPreferences(Context.MODE_PRIVATE)
        val accessToken = sharedPref.getString("oauth_token","")
        val accessTokenSecret = sharedPref.getString("oauth_token_secret", "")

        val builder = ConfigurationBuilder()
        builder.setOAuthConsumerKey(TwitterConstants.CONSUMER_KEY)
            .setOAuthConsumerSecret(TwitterConstants.CONSUMER_SECRET)
            .setOAuthAccessToken(accessToken)
            .setOAuthAccessTokenSecret(accessTokenSecret)
        val config = builder.build()
        val factory = TwitterFactory(config)
        val twitter = factory.instance
        try {
            withContext(Dispatchers.IO) { twitter.verifyCredentials() }
            return true
        } catch (e: Exception) {
            return false
        }
    }
}

You can find the final project here

If you have any questions feel free to DM me on Twitter @johncodeos or leave a comment below!