Keep the Text accessibility delegate when the text has no links

packages/react-native/ReactAndroid/src/main/java/com/facebook/react/views/text/PreparedLayoutTextViewManager.kt

@@ -12,7 +12,6 @@ package com.facebook.react.views.text
 import android.text.Spannable
 import android.text.Spanned
 import android.view.View
-import com.facebook.react.R
 import com.facebook.react.bridge.Dynamic
 import com.facebook.react.internal.SystraceSection
 import com.facebook.react.module.annotations.ReactModule
@@ -33,7 +32,6 @@ import com.facebook.react.uimanager.style.BorderRadiusProp
 import com.facebook.react.uimanager.style.BorderStyle
 import com.facebook.react.uimanager.style.LogicalEdge
 import com.facebook.react.uimanager.style.Overflow
-import com.facebook.react.views.text.ReactTextViewAccessibilityDelegate.AccessibilityLinks
 import com.facebook.react.views.view.ImportantForInteractionHelper
 import java.util.HashMap
 
@@ -77,20 +75,9 @@ internal class PreparedLayoutTextViewManager :
       val preparedLayout = extraData as PreparedLayout
       view.preparedLayout = preparedLayout
 
-      // If this text view contains any clickable spans, set a view tag and reset the accessibility
-      // delegate so that these can be picked up by the accessibility system.
-      if (preparedLayout.layout.text is Spanned) {
-        val spannedText = preparedLayout.layout.text as Spanned
-        val accessibilityLinks = AccessibilityLinks(spannedText)
-        view.setTag(
-            R.id.accessibility_links,
-            if (accessibilityLinks.size() > 0) accessibilityLinks else null,
-        )
-        ReactTextViewAccessibilityDelegate.resetDelegate(
-            view,
-            view.isFocusable,
-            view.importantForAccessibility,
-        )
+      val text = preparedLayout.layout.text
+      if (text is Spanned) {
+        ReactTextViewAccessibilityDelegate.updateAccessibilityLinks(view, text)
       }
     }
   }

packages/react-native/ReactAndroid/src/main/java/com/facebook/react/views/text/ReactTextViewAccessibilityDelegate.kt

@@ -59,7 +59,11 @@ internal class ReactTextViewAccessibilityDelegate(
       }
     }
 
-    fun resetDelegate(view: View, originalFocus: Boolean, originalImportantForAccessibility: Int) {
+    private fun resetDelegate(
+        view: View,
+        originalFocus: Boolean,
+        originalImportantForAccessibility: Int,
+    ) {
       ViewCompat.setAccessibilityDelegate(
           view,
           ReactTextViewAccessibilityDelegate(
@@ -69,6 +73,33 @@ internal class ReactTextViewAccessibilityDelegate(
           ),
       )
     }
+
+    /**
+     * Stores the links among the clickable spans of [text] in a view tag and resets the
+     * accessibility delegate so that these can be picked up by the accessibility system. A view
+     * that already has this delegate keeps it when the text has no links, before or after the
+     * update, as the delegate only reads the links when it's created.
+     */
+    fun updateAccessibilityLinks(view: View, text: Spanned) {
+      val accessibilityLinks = AccessibilityLinks(text)
+      val hadLinks = view.getTag(R.id.accessibility_links) != null
+      view.setTag(
+          R.id.accessibility_links,
+          if (accessibilityLinks.size() > 0) accessibilityLinks else null,
+      )
+      if (
+          accessibilityLinks.size() == 0 &&
+              !hadLinks &&
+              ViewCompat.getAccessibilityDelegate(view) is ReactTextViewAccessibilityDelegate
+      ) {
+        // Like setting the delegate through ViewCompat, which makes an "auto" view important.
+        if (view.importantForAccessibility == View.IMPORTANT_FOR_ACCESSIBILITY_AUTO) {
+          view.importantForAccessibility = View.IMPORTANT_FOR_ACCESSIBILITY_YES
+        }
+        return
+      }
+      resetDelegate(view, view.isFocusable, view.importantForAccessibility)
+    }
   }
 
   override fun onVirtualViewKeyboardFocusChanged(virtualViewId: Int, hasFocus: Boolean) {

packages/react-native/ReactAndroid/src/main/java/com/facebook/react/views/text/ReactTextViewManager.kt

@@ -18,7 +18,6 @@ import android.text.TextUtils
 import android.text.util.Linkify
 import android.view.Gravity
 import com.facebook.common.logging.FLog
-import com.facebook.react.R
 import com.facebook.react.bridge.Dynamic
 import com.facebook.react.common.ReactConstants
 import com.facebook.react.common.annotations.UnstableReactNativeAPI
@@ -99,20 +98,7 @@ public constructor(
       val update = extraData as ReactTextUpdate
       val spanned: Spanned = update.text
       view.setText(update)
-
-      // If this text view contains any clickable spans, set a view tag and reset the accessibility
-      // delegate so that these can be picked up by the accessibility system.
-      val accessibilityLinks: ReactTextViewAccessibilityDelegate.AccessibilityLinks =
-          ReactTextViewAccessibilityDelegate.AccessibilityLinks(spanned)
-      view.setTag(
-          R.id.accessibility_links,
-          if (accessibilityLinks.size() > 0) accessibilityLinks else null,
-      )
-      ReactTextViewAccessibilityDelegate.resetDelegate(
-          view,
-          view.isFocusable,
-          view.importantForAccessibility,
-      )
+      ReactTextViewAccessibilityDelegate.updateAccessibilityLinks(view, spanned)
     }
   }
 

packages/react-native/ReactAndroid/src/test/java/com/facebook/react/views/text/ReactTextViewAccessibilityDelegateTest.kt

@@ -0,0 +1,84 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright (c) Meta Platforms, Inc. and affiliates.
+ *
+ * This source code is licensed under the MIT license found in the
+ * LICENSE file in the root directory of this source tree.
+ */
+
+package com.facebook.react.views.text
+
+import android.text.SpannableString
+import android.text.Spanned
+import android.text.style.ClickableSpan
+import android.view.View
+import androidx.core.view.AccessibilityDelegateCompat
+import androidx.core.view.ViewCompat
+import com.facebook.react.R
+import org.assertj.core.api.Assertions.assertThat
+import org.junit.Test
+import org.junit.runner.RunWith
+import org.robolectric.RobolectricTestRunner
+import org.robolectric.RuntimeEnvironment
+
+@RunWith(RobolectricTestRunner::class)
+class ReactTextViewAccessibilityDelegateTest {
+
+  private val view = PreparedLayoutTextView(RuntimeEnvironment.getApplication())
+
+  @Test
+  fun `the first update installs the text delegate`() {
+    ReactTextViewAccessibilityDelegate.updateAccessibilityLinks(view, SpannableString("Hello"))
+
+    assertThat(delegate()).isInstanceOf(ReactTextViewAccessibilityDelegate::class.java)
+    assertThat(view.getTag(R.id.accessibility_links)).isNull()
+  }
+
+  @Test
+  fun `updates without links keep the delegate`() {
+    ReactTextViewAccessibilityDelegate.updateAccessibilityLinks(view, SpannableString("Hello"))
+    val first = delegate()
+
+    ReactTextViewAccessibilityDelegate.updateAccessibilityLinks(view, SpannableString("World"))
+
+    assertThat(delegate()).isSameAs(first)
+  }
+
+  @Test
+  fun `adding and removing links resets the delegate`() {
+    ReactTextViewAccessibilityDelegate.updateAccessibilityLinks(view, SpannableString("Hello"))
+    val plain = delegate()
+
+    ReactTextViewAccessibilityDelegate.updateAccessibilityLinks(view, textWithLink())
+    val withLink = delegate()
+    assertThat(withLink).isNotSameAs(plain)
+    assertThat(view.getTag(R.id.accessibility_links)).isNotNull()
+
+    ReactTextViewAccessibilityDelegate.updateAccessibilityLinks(view, SpannableString("Hello"))
+    assertThat(delegate()).isNotSameAs(withLink)
+    assertThat(view.getTag(R.id.accessibility_links)).isNull()
+  }
+
+  @Test
+  fun `a view set back to auto is important for accessibility after an update`() {
+    ReactTextViewAccessibilityDelegate.updateAccessibilityLinks(view, SpannableString("Hello"))
+    view.importantForAccessibility = View.IMPORTANT_FOR_ACCESSIBILITY_AUTO
+
+    ReactTextViewAccessibilityDelegate.updateAccessibilityLinks(view, SpannableString("World"))
+
+    assertThat(view.importantForAccessibility).isEqualTo(View.IMPORTANT_FOR_ACCESSIBILITY_YES)
+  }
+
+  private fun delegate(): AccessibilityDelegateCompat? = ViewCompat.getAccessibilityDelegate(view)
+
+  private fun textWithLink(): Spanned =
+      SpannableString("Read the docs here").apply {
+        setSpan(
+            object : ClickableSpan() {
+              override fun onClick(widget: View) = Unit
+            },
+            9,
+            13,
+            Spanned.SPAN_EXCLUSIVE_EXCLUSIVE,
+        )
+      }
+}