How to get a list of installed android applications and pick one to run

Question

I asked a similar question to this earlier this week but I\'m still not understanding how to get a list of all installed applications and then pick one to run.

I\'v

Answer 1

you can use this :

PackageManager pm = getApplicationContext().getPackageManager();
                List<ResolveInfo> activityList = pm.queryIntentActivities(shareIntent, 0);
                for (final ResolveInfo app : activityList) 
                {
                   if ((app.activityInfo.name).contains("facebook")) 
                   {
                     // facebook  
                   }

                   if ((app.activityInfo.name).contains("android.gm")) 
                   {
                     // gmail  
                   }

                   if ((app.activityInfo.name).contains("mms")) 
                   {
                     // android messaging app
                   }

                   if ((app.activityInfo.name).contains("com.android.bluetooth")) 
                   {
                     // android bluetooth  
                   }
                }

Answer 2

public static List<ApplicationInfo> getApplications(Context context) {
    return context.getPackageManager().getInstalledApplications(PackageManager.GET_META_DATA);
}

Answer 3

Since Android 11 (API level 30), most user-installed apps are not visible by default. You must either statically declare which apps and/or intent filters you are going to get info about in your manifest like this:

<manifest>
    <queries>
        <!-- Explicit apps you know in advance about: -->
        <package android:name="com.example.this.app"/>
        <package android:name="com.example.this.other.app"/>

        <!-- Intent filter signatures that you are going to query: -->
        <intent>
            <action android:name="android.intent.action.SEND" />
            <data android:mimeType="image/jpeg" />
        </intent>
    </queries>
    
    ...
</manifest>

Or require the QUERY_ALL_PACKAGES permission.

After doing the above, the other answers here still apply.

Learn more here:

• The migration documentation
• The dedicated documentation page (has more information)
• The official blog post

Answer 4

Following is the code to get the list of activities/applications installed on Android :

Intent mainIntent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_MAIN, null);
mainIntent.addCategory(Intent.CATEGORY_LAUNCHER);
List<ResolveInfo> pkgAppsList = context.getPackageManager().queryIntentActivities( mainIntent, 0);

You will get all the necessary data in the ResolveInfo to start a application. You can check ResolveInfo javadoc here.

Answer 5

I had a requirement to filter out the system apps which user do not really use(eg. "com.qualcomm.service", "update services", etc). Ultimately I added another condition to filter down the app list. I just checked whether the app has 'launcher intent'.

So, the resultant code looks like...

PackageManager pm = getPackageManager();
        List<ApplicationInfo> apps = pm.getInstalledApplications(PackageManager.GET_GIDS);

        for (ApplicationInfo app : apps) {
            if(pm.getLaunchIntentForPackage(app.packageName) != null) {
                // apps with launcher intent
                if((app.flags & ApplicationInfo.FLAG_UPDATED_SYSTEM_APP) != 0) {
                    // updated system apps

                } else if ((app.flags & ApplicationInfo.FLAG_SYSTEM) != 0) {
                    // system apps

                } else {
                    // user installed apps

                }
                appsList.add(app);
            }

        }

Answer 6

If there are multiple launchers in a one package above code has a problem. Eg: on LG Optimus Facebook for LG, MySpace for LG, Twitter for LG contains in a one package name SNS and if you use above SNS will repeat. After hours of research I came with below code. Seems to work well.

private List<String> getInstalledComponentList()
            throws NameNotFoundException {
        final Intent mainIntent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_MAIN, null);
        mainIntent.addCategory(Intent.CATEGORY_LAUNCHER);
        List<ResolveInfo> ril = getPackageManager().queryIntentActivities(mainIntent, 0);
        List<String> componentList = new ArrayList<String>();
        String name = null;

        for (ResolveInfo ri : ril) {
            if (ri.activityInfo != null) {
                Resources res = getPackageManager().getResourcesForApplication(ri.activityInfo.applicationInfo);
                if (ri.activityInfo.labelRes != 0) {
                    name = res.getString(ri.activityInfo.labelRes);
                } else {
                    name = ri.activityInfo.applicationInfo.loadLabel(
                            getPackageManager()).toString();
                }
                componentList.add(name);
            }
        }
        return componentList;
    }