How to get a list of installed android application

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've tried:

Intent intent = new Intent(ACTION_MAIN);
intent.addCategory(CATEGORY_LAUNCHER);

and this only shows application that are preinstalled or can run the ACTION_MAIN Intent type.

I also know I can use PackageManager to get all the installed applications, but how do I use this to run a specific application?

Answer 1

@Jas: I don't have that code anymore, but I've found something close. I've made this to search for "components" of my application, they are just activities with a given category.

private List<String> getInstalledComponentList() {
    Intent componentSearchIntent = new Intent();
    componentSearchIntent.addCategory(Constants.COMPONENTS_INTENT_CATEGORY);
    componentSearchIntent.setAction(Constants.COMPONENTS_INTENT_ACTION_DEFAULT);
    List<ResolveInfo> ril = getPackageManager().queryIntentActivities(componentSearchIntent, PackageManager.MATCH_DEFAULT_ONLY);
    List<String> componentList = new ArrayList<String>();
    Log.d(LOG_TAG, "Search for installed components found " + ril.size() + " matches.");
    for (ResolveInfo ri : ril) {
        if (ri.activityInfo != null) {
            componentList.add(ri.activityInfo.packageName);// + ri.activityInfo.name);
            Log.d(LOG_TAG, "Found installed: " + componentList.get(componentList.size()-1));
        }
    }
    return componentList;
}

I've commented the part where it gets the activity name, but it's pretty straightforward.

Answer 2

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 3

To get al installed apps you can use Package Manager..

    List<PackageInfo> apps = getPackageManager().getInstalledPackages(0);

To run you can use package name

Intent launchApp = getPackageManager().getLaunchIntentForPackage(“package name”)
startActivity(launchApp);

For more detail you can read this blog http://codebucket.co.in/android-get-list-of-all-installed-apps/

Answer 4

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;
    }

Answer 5

Here a good example:

class PInfo {
    private String appname = "";
    private String pname = "";
    private String versionName = "";
    private int versionCode = 0;
    private Drawable icon;
    private void prettyPrint() {
        Log.v(appname + "\t" + pname + "\t" + versionName + "\t" + versionCode);
    }
}

private ArrayList<PInfo> getPackages() {
    ArrayList<PInfo> apps = getInstalledApps(false); /* false = no system packages */
    final int max = apps.size();
    for (int i=0; i<max; i++) {
        apps.get(i).prettyPrint();
    }
    return apps;
}

private ArrayList<PInfo> getInstalledApps(boolean getSysPackages) {
    ArrayList<PInfo> res = new ArrayList<PInfo>();        
    List<PackageInfo> packs = getPackageManager().getInstalledPackages(0);
    for(int i=0;i<packs.size();i++) {
        PackageInfo p = packs.get(i);
        if ((!getSysPackages) && (p.versionName == null)) {
            continue ;
        }
        PInfo newInfo = new PInfo();
        newInfo.appname = p.applicationInfo.loadLabel(getPackageManager()).toString();
        newInfo.pname = p.packageName;
        newInfo.versionName = p.versionName;
        newInfo.versionCode = p.versionCode;
        newInfo.icon = p.applicationInfo.loadIcon(getPackageManager());
        res.add(newInfo);
    }
    return res; 
}

Answer 6

To filter on sytem based apps :

private boolean isSystemPackage(ResolveInfo ri) {
    return (ri.activityInfo.applicationInfo.flags & ApplicationInfo.FLAG_SYSTEM) != 0;
}