Launch an app from within another (iPhone)

Question

Is it possible to launch any arbitrary iPhone application from within another app?, For example in my application if I want the user to push a button and launch right into the Phone app (close the current app, open the Phone app).

would this be possible? I know this can be done for making phone calls with the tel URL link, but I want to instead just have the Phone app launch without dialing any specific number.

Answer 1

I found that it's easy to write an app that can open another app.

Let's assume that we have two apps called FirstApp and SecondApp. When we open the FirstApp, we want to be able to open the SecondApp by clicking a button. The solution to do this is:

1. In SecondApp

   Go to the plist file of SecondApp and you need to add a URL Schemes with a string iOSDevTips(of course you can write another string.it's up to you).

2 . In FirstApp

Create a button with the below action:

- (void)buttonPressed:(UIButton *)button
{
  NSString *customURL = @"iOSDevTips://";

  if ([[UIApplication sharedApplication] canOpenURL:[NSURL URLWithString:customURL]])
  {
    [[UIApplication sharedApplication] openURL:[NSURL URLWithString:customURL]];
  }
  else
  {
    UIAlertView *alert = [[UIAlertView alloc] initWithTitle:@"URL error"
                              message:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"No custom URL defined for %@", customURL]
                              delegate:self cancelButtonTitle:@"Ok" 
                              otherButtonTitles:nil];
    [alert show];
  }

}

That's it. Now when you can click the button in the FirstApp it should open the SecondApp.

Answer 2

To achieve this we need to add few line of Code in both App

App A: Which you want to open from another App.

App B: From App B you want to open App A

Code for App A

Add few tags into the Plist of App A Open Plist Source of App A and Past below XML

<key>CFBundleURLTypes</key>
<array>
    <dict>
        <key>CFBundleURLName</key>
        <string>com.TestApp</string>
        <key>CFBundleURLSchemes</key>
        <array>
            <string>testApp.linking</string>
        </array>
    </dict>
</array>

In App delegate of App A - Get Callback here

- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application openURL:(NSURL *)url
  sourceApplication:(NSString *)sourceApplication annotation:(id)annotation
{
// You we get the call back here when App B will try to Open 
// sourceApplication will have the bundle ID of the App B
// [url query] will provide you the whole URL 
// [url query] with the help of this you can also pass the value from App B and get that value here 
}

Now coming to App B code -

If you just want to open App A without any input parameter

-(IBAction)openApp_A:(id)sender{

    if(![[UIApplication sharedApplication] openURL:[NSURL URLWithString:@"testApp.linking://?"]]){
         UIAlertView *alert = [[UIAlertView alloc]initWithTitle:@"App is not available!" message:nil delegate:self cancelButtonTitle:@"Ok" otherButtonTitles:nil, nil];
            [alert show];

        }
}

If you want to pass parameter from App B to App A then use below Code

-(IBAction)openApp_A:(id)sender{
    if(![[UIApplication sharedApplication] openURL:[NSURL URLWithString:@"testApp.linking://?userName=abe&registered=1&Password=123abc"]]){
         UIAlertView *alert = [[UIAlertView alloc]initWithTitle:@"App is not available!" message:nil delegate:self cancelButtonTitle:@"Ok" otherButtonTitles:nil, nil];
            [alert show];

        }
}

Note: You can also open App with just type testApp.linking://? on safari browser

Answer 3

Try the following code will help you to Launch an application from your application

Note: Replace the name fantacy with actual application name

NSString *mystr=[[NSString alloc] initWithFormat:@"fantacy://location?id=1"];
NSURL *myurl=[[NSURL alloc] initWithString:mystr];
[[UIApplication sharedApplication] openURL:myurl];

Answer 4

I also tried this a while ago (Launch iPhone Application with Identifier), but there definitely is no DOCUMENTED way to do this. :)

Answer 5

In Swift 4.1 and Xcode 9.4.1

I have two apps 1)PageViewControllerExample and 2)DelegateExample. Now i want to open DelegateExample app with PageViewControllerExample app. When i click open button in PageViewControllerExample, DelegateExample app will be opened.

For this we need to make some changes in .plist files for both the apps.

Step 1

In DelegateExample app open .plist file and add URL Types and URL Schemes. Here we need to add our required name like "myapp".

Step 2

In PageViewControllerExample app open .plist file and add this code

<key>LSApplicationQueriesSchemes</key>
<array>
    <string>myapp</string>
</array>

Now we can open DelegateExample app when we click button in PageViewControllerExample.

//In PageViewControllerExample create IBAction
@IBAction func openapp(_ sender: UIButton) {

    let customURL = URL(string: "myapp://")
    if UIApplication.shared.canOpenURL(customURL!) {

        //let systemVersion = UIDevice.current.systemVersion//Get OS version
        //if Double(systemVersion)! >= 10.0 {//10 or above versions
            //print(systemVersion)
            //UIApplication.shared.open(customURL!, options: [:], completionHandler: nil)
        //} else {
            //UIApplication.shared.openURL(customURL!)
        //}

        //OR

        if #available(iOS 10.0, *) {
            UIApplication.shared.open(customURL!, options: [:], completionHandler: nil)
        } else {
            UIApplication.shared.openURL(customURL!)
        }
    } else {
         //Print alert here
    }
}

Answer 6

In Swift

Just incase someone was looking for a quick Swift copy and paste

if let url = NSURL(string: "app://") where UIApplication.sharedApplication().canOpenURL(url) {
            UIApplication.sharedApplication().openURL(url)
} else if let itunesUrl = NSURL(string: "https://itunes.apple.com/itunes-link-to-app") where UIApplication.sharedApplication().canOpenURL(itunesUrl) {
            UIApplication.sharedApplication().openURL(itunesUrl)      
}