Angular2 canActivate() calling async function

canActivate needs to return an Observable that completes:

@Injectable()
export class AuthGuard implements CanActivate {

    constructor(private auth: AngularFireAuth, private router: Router) {}

    canActivate(route:ActivatedRouteSnapshot, state:RouterStateSnapshot):Observable<boolean>|boolean {
        return this.auth.map((auth) => {
            if (auth) {
                console.log('authenticated');
                return true;
            }
            console.log('not authenticated');
            this.router.navigateByUrl('/login');
            return false;
        }).first(); // this might not be necessary - ensure `first` is imported if you use it
    }
}

There is a return missing and I use map() instead of subscribe() because subscribe() returns a Subscription not an Observable

canActivate can return a Promise that resolves a boolean too

You might use Observable to handle the async logic part. Here is the code I test for example:

import { Injectable } from '@angular/core';
import { CanActivate } from '@angular/router';
import { Observable } from 'rxjs/Observable';
import { DetailService } from './detail.service';

@Injectable()
export class DetailGuard implements CanActivate {

  constructor(
    private detailService: DetailService
  ) {}

  public canActivate(): boolean|Observable<boolean> {
    if (this.detailService.tempData) {
      return true;
    } else {
      console.log('loading...');
      return new Observable<boolean>((observer) => {
        setTimeout(() => {
          console.log('done!');
          this.detailService.tempData = [1, 2, 3];
          observer.next(true);
          observer.complete();
        }, 1000 * 5);
      });
    }
  }
}