How to open another application from current application on Android? – Different Approach

Posted by Ercan in Android, BLOG Comments

Sep
13

Opening an application from your own application is simple and you can find the solution everywhere like this :

Intent i = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_MAIN);
i.setComponent(new ComponentName("app package name", "app launch activity's classname"));
i.addCategory(Intent.CATEGORY_LAUNCHER);
startActivity(i);

The problem here is that if you do not know the application’s launch activity’s classname, you can not open the application. Of course one can say that: “I can access this file from Package Manager – Application Info”. My answer will be : “Try and see :)”. ApplicationInfo sometimes returns null values which makes the developer crazy.

Here is my approach to this situation (getLaunchIntentForPackage) :

Intent i = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_MAIN);
PackageManager manager = getPackageManager();
i = manager.getLaunchIntentForPackage("app package name");
i.addCategory(Intent.CATEGORY_LAUNCHER);
startActivity(i);

Hope this also will help to you!

1 Comment to “How to open another application from current application on Android? – Different Approach”

April 21, 2012 at 20:52
Aidan says:

Thank you so much! Heres the code i made from this:
Button bClock = (Button) findViewById(R.id.bOpenClock);
bClock.setOnClickListener(new OnClickListener() {
public void onClick(View v) {
Intent i = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_MAIN);
PackageManager managerclock = getPackageManager();
i = managerclock.getLaunchIntentForPackage(“com.android.deskclock”);
i.addCategory(Intent.CATEGORY_LAUNCHER);
startActivity(i);
}
});

One Question: Is there a way to failsafe if the application dosent exist??