opening brave ad notifications that use itms-appss:// opens tabs that can't resolve and stay opened

[kjozwiak]

Description:

When you receive certain ad notifications that open the App Store, we open a new tab as well that never ends up resolving as itms-appss:// is being used. I'm not sure if that's being done on purpose or it's the only way to open the App Store. But it would be a lot better if we just opened the App Store rather than creating new tabs that don't resolve due to the URL not being a valid URL. In this particular case, the following URL was being used:

• itms-appss://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id1546049391?mt=8

Steps to Reproduce

Quick note - this is going to pretty hard to reproduce until you receive an ad notifications from Brave that opens the AppStore.

1. install any version of Brave via TF (or via the AppStore)
2. ensure that you have Brave Rewards enabled
3. once you receive an ad notification, tap on the notification and notice that a new tab is opened before the AppStore opens

Actual result:

Example	Example

Expected result:

If possible, we shouldn't be opening new tabs when an ad notification opens the AppStore. Users who use ad notifications might end up with several unresolved tabs after a while. For example, I noticed ~3-4 tabs within my Tab View that looked unresolved and couldn't resolve which were related to the above issue.

Reproduces how often: [Easily reproduced, Intermittent Issue]

100% reproducible once you get an ad notification that opens the AppStore

Brave Version:

• Can you reproduce this issue with the most recent build from TestFlight? Yes
• Can you reproduce this issue with the previous version of the current build from TestFlight? Yes
• Can you reproduce this issue with the current build from AppStore? Yes

Device details:

• iPhone 12 running iOS 16.2 using 1.46.2 (23.1.10.20) - Reproduced

Website problems only:

• did you check with Brave Shields down? N/A
• did you check in Safari/Firefox (WkWebView-based browsers)? N/A

Additional Information

CCing @kylehickinson as we discussed this one in the iOS meeting ~2 weeks or so ago.

[Uni-verse]

Verified on iPhone X running iOS 16.3.1 & iPad (7th Gen) running iPadOS 16.4 using version 1.49 (23.3.31.9)

• Ensured that opening ad notifications that use itms-appss:// does not open tabs that dont get resolved.
• Ensured that tapping on apple store related ads opens apple store webpage for Tablets

iOS Example	iOS Example	iOS Example

iPad Example