So this happens due to a combination of factors. 

• racing between which application starts first, in this case alexa-viewer is the last one
• missing activate_by_default policy hook for other types of surfaces (we only have the desktop one, and it allows all of them by default)
• QML file as explicitly stated visible: false

Not really sure how to solve this, I can address the second point, and in the default policy I explicitly check for alexa-viewer and will deny it – meaning that only a explicit request to activate it will actually display the surface and its content. Maybe a better approach in that hook would be go from labels to config.xml attributes (alexa-viewer has that "urn:AGL:permission::public:hidden" one), much like we've discussed about doing it when checking if the client is allowed to bind to agl-shell-desktop. 

Would like to get some thoughts on the matter. CC scottm jsmoeller what do you think?