Capacitor Plugin Bridge Timeout Configuration Lacking Per‑Plugin Override

Bridge Timeout Constraints

The Capacitor JavaScript-to-native bridge does not currently provide a native mechanism to specify timeouts on a per-plugin or per-invocation basis. The bridge is designed as an asynchronous request-response system where the JavaScript Promise remains pending until the native side explicitly invokes a success or error callback.

Analysis of Bridge Behavior

Based on the current architecture of the Capacitor core (iOS and Android), the following constraints apply:

• No Per-Plugin Override: The capacitor.config.ts plugin configuration map does not support a bridge-level timeout key. Configuration passed here is delivered to the plugin's native initialization, not the bridge's transport layer.
• No Invocation-Level API: The Plugin.method({ options }) signature does not include a reserved field for bridge timeouts that the core bridge recognizes.
• Global Configuration: There is no documented global configuration setting to adjust the bridge's internal timeout without modifying the Capacitor source code.

Recommended Implementation: The Wrapper Pattern

Since the bridge does not support native timeouts, the standard resolution is to implement a timeout wrapper at the JavaScript layer. This ensures the application remains responsive even if a native plugin fails to return a result.

async function withTimeout(promise, ms) {
  const timeout = new Promise((_, reject) =>
    setTimeout(() => reject(new Error(`Plugin call timed out after ${ms}ms`)), ms)
  );
  return Promise.race([promise, timeout]);
}

Usage:

try {
  const result = await withTimeout(MyPlugin.longRunningTask(), 10000);
} catch (e) {
  console.error(e.message);
}

Verification Steps

To determine if your specific Capacitor version has a hardcoded timeout or remains pending indefinitely, you can perform the following test:

1. Create a dummy native plugin method that does not call call.resolve() or call.reject().
2. Invoke this method from JavaScript.
3. Observe if the Promise rejects after a fixed interval or stays pending. If it stays pending, the bridge has no hardcoded timeout, and the wrapper pattern above is mandatory for reliability.

Diagnostic Detail Needed: Please specify the Capacitor version (e.g., v5.x, v6.x) and the target platform (iOS/Android), as bridge behavior can vary slightly between major version releases.