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

Here's a cleaner way using the packageManager

final PackageManager pm = getPackageManager();
//get a list of installed apps.
List<ApplicationInfo> packages = pm.getInstalledApplications(PackageManager.GET_META_DATA);

for (ApplicationInfo packageInfo : packages) {
    Log.d(TAG, "Installed package :" + packageInfo.packageName);
    Log.d(TAG, "Source dir : " + packageInfo.sourceDir);
    Log.d(TAG, "Launch Activity :" + pm.getLaunchIntentForPackage(packageInfo.packageName)); 
}
// the getLaunchIntentForPackage returns an intent that you can use with startActivity() 

More info here http://qtcstation.com/2011/02/how-to-launch-another-app-from-your-app/

Answer 2

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 3

private static boolean isThisASystemPackage(Context context, PackageInfo  packageInfo ) {
        try {
            PackageInfo sys = context.getPackageManager().getPackageInfo("android", PackageManager.GET_SIGNATURES);
            return (packageInfo != null && packageInfo.signatures != null &&
                    sys.signatures[0].equals(packageInfo.signatures[0]));
        } catch (NameNotFoundException e) {
            return false;
        }
    }

Answer 4

You can Find the List of installed apps in Android Device by using below code, "packageInfo" Contains Installed Application Information in Device. we can retrive Intent for the application installed from the packageinfo object and by using startactivity(intent), can start application. it is up to you how you organize the UI either Listview or Gridview. so on click event based on position, you can retrive intent object and start activity intent.

final PackageManager pm = getPackageManager();

List<ApplicationInfo> packages = pm.getInstalledApplications(PackageManager.GET_META_DATA);


for (ApplicationInfo packageInfo : packages) 

{
 if(pm.getLaunchIntentForPackage(packageInfo.packageName)!= null &&   

                   !pm.getLaunchIntentForPackage(packageInfo.packageName).equals(""))


{

    System.out.println("Package Name :" + packageInfo.packageName);

    System.out.println("Launch Intent For Package :"   +  
                  pm.getLaunchIntentForPackage(packageInfo.packageName));

    System.out.println("Application Label :"   + pm.getApplicationLabel(packageInfo));

    System.out.println("Application Label :"   + 
                           pm.getApplicationIcon(packageInfo.packageName).toString());

    System.out.println("i : "+i);

    /*if(i==2)

    {
         startActivity(pm.getLaunchIntentForPackage(packageInfo.packageName));

     break;

    }*/

    i++;

}
}

Answer 5

I have another solution:

ArrayList<AppInfo> myAppsToUpdate;

    // How to get the system and the user apps.
    public ArrayList<AppInfo> getAppsToUpdate() {

        PackageManager pm = App.getContext().getPackageManager();
        List<ApplicationInfo> installedApps = pm.getInstalledApplications(0);
        myAppsToUpdate = new ArrayList<AppInfo>();
        for (ApplicationInfo aInfo : installedApps) {

            if ((aInfo.flags & ApplicationInfo.FLAG_SYSTEM) != 0) {
                // System apps 
            } else {
                // Users apps
                AppInfo appInfo = new AppInfo();
                appInfo.setAppName(aInfo.loadLabel(pm).toString());
                appInfo.setPackageName(aInfo.packageName);
                appInfo.setLaunchActivity(pm.getLaunchIntentForPackage(aInfo.packageName).toString());
                try {
                    PackageInfo info = pm.getPackageInfo(aInfo.packageName, 0);
                    appInfo.setVersionName(info.versionName.toString());
                    appInfo.setVersionCode("" + info.versionCode);
                    myAppsToUpdate.add(appInfo);
                } catch (NameNotFoundException e) {
                    Log.e("ERROR", "we could not get the user's apps");
                }

            }
        }
        return myAppsToUpdate;
    }