Android create shortcuts on the home screen

Question

What I want to do is:

1) I'm inside an activity, there are 2 buttons. If I click the first one a shortcut is created in my home screen. The shortcut open an html page that has been previously downloaded, so I want it to use the default browser but I don't want to use internet cause I already have the page.

2)The second button create another shortcut that starts an activity. And i want to pass to the activity some extra arguments (As strings for example)...........

Are those things possible? I found some link and some similar questions like Android: Is there a programming way to create a web shortcut on home screen

They seem to be the answer to my question but someone told me that this code is not gonna work on all devices and that is deprecated and that what i want to do is not possible.......

This technique is not recommended. This is an internal implementation, not part of the Android SDK. It will not work on all home screen implementations. It may not work on all past versions of Android. It may not work in future versions of Android, as Google is not obligated to maintain internal undocumented interfaces. Please do not use this

What means internal implementation? Is that code trustable or not.....help me pls.....

Answer 1

final Intent shortcutIntent = new Intent(this, SomeActivity.class);

final Intent intent = new Intent();
intent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_SHORTCUT_INTENT, shortcutIntent);
// Sets the custom shortcut's title
intent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_SHORTCUT_NAME, getString(R.string.app_name));
// Set the custom shortcut icon
intent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_SHORTCUT_ICON_RESOURCE, Intent.ShortcutIconResource.fromContext(this, R.drawable.icon));
// add the shortcut
intent.setAction("com.android.launcher.action.INSTALL_SHORTCUT");
sendBroadcast(intent);

Answer 2

Starting from Android O, this is the way to create a shortcut:

            if (ShortcutManagerCompat.isRequestPinShortcutSupported(context)) {
                final ShortcutManager shortcutManager = getSystemService(ShortcutManager.class);

                ShortcutInfo pinShortcutInfo = new ShortcutInfo.Builder(context, shortcutId)
                        .setIcon(Icon.createWithResource(context, R.mipmap.ic_launcher))
                        .setShortLabel(label)
                        .setIntent(new Intent(context, MainActivity.class).setAction(Intent.ACTION_MAIN))
                        .build();
                shortcutManager.requestPinShortcut(pinShortcutInfo, null);
            }

It has a lot of limitations, sadly:

1. Requires the user to accept adding it.
2. Can't be added/removed in the background.
3. You are supposed to be able to update it, but to me it didn't work.
4. Won't be removed if the targeted app is removed. Only the one which created it.
5. Can't create the icon based on a resource of the targeted app, except if it's of the current app. You can do it from a bitmap though.

For pre-Android O, you can use ShortcutManagerCompat to create new shortcuts too, without any of those limitations.

Answer 3

I improved a little bit a solution above. Now it saves in preferences whether a shortcut was already added and doesn't add it in new launches of an app if user deleted it. This also saves a little bit time, since the code to add an existing shortcut doesn't run anymore.

final static public String PREFS_NAME = "PREFS_NAME";
final static private String PREF_KEY_SHORTCUT_ADDED = "PREF_KEY_SHORTCUT_ADDED";


// Creates shortcut on Android widget screen
private void createShortcutIcon(){

    // Checking if ShortCut was already added
    SharedPreferences sharedPreferences = getPreferences(MODE_PRIVATE);
    boolean shortCutWasAlreadyAdded = sharedPreferences.getBoolean(PREF_KEY_SHORTCUT_ADDED, false);
    if (shortCutWasAlreadyAdded) return;

    Intent shortcutIntent = new Intent(getApplicationContext(), IntroActivity.class);
    shortcutIntent.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);
    shortcutIntent.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TOP);

    Intent addIntent = new Intent();
    addIntent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_SHORTCUT_INTENT, shortcutIntent);
    addIntent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_SHORTCUT_NAME, "YourAppName");
    addIntent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_SHORTCUT_ICON_RESOURCE, Intent.ShortcutIconResource.fromContext(getApplicationContext(), R.drawable.ic_launcher));
    addIntent.setAction("com.android.launcher.action.INSTALL_SHORTCUT");
    getApplicationContext().sendBroadcast(addIntent);

    // Remembering that ShortCut was already added
    SharedPreferences.Editor editor = sharedPreferences.edit();
    editor.putBoolean(PREF_KEY_SHORTCUT_ADDED, true);
    editor.commit();
}

Answer 4

Since API level 26, using com.android.launcher.action.INSTALL_SHORTCUT is deprecated. The new way of creating shortcuts are using ShortcutManager.

It mentions that there are 3 kinds of shortcuts, static, dynamic and pinned. Based on your requirements, you can choose to create them.

Answer 5

The com.android.launcher.action.INSTALL_SHORTCUT broadcast no longer has any effect since android oreo. LINK

If you want to support all android versions, especially android 8.0 or oreo and newer, use the code below to create shortcut:

public static void addShortcutToHomeScreen(Context context)
{
    if (ShortcutManagerCompat.isRequestPinShortcutSupported(context))
    {
        ShortcutInfoCompat shortcutInfo = new ShortcutInfoCompat.Builder(context, "#1")
                .setIntent(new Intent(context, YourActivity.class).setAction(Intent.ACTION_MAIN)) // !!! intent's action must be set on oreo
                .setShortLabel("Test")
                .setIcon(IconCompat.createWithResource(context, R.drawable.ic_launcher))
                .build();
        ShortcutManagerCompat.requestPinShortcut(context, shortcutInfo, null);
    }
    else
    {
        // Shortcut is not supported by your launcher
    }
}

Add permission in manifest file:

<uses-permission android:name="com.android.launcher.permission.INSTALL_SHORTCUT"/>

Answer 6

I have developed one method below for creating the shortcut icon on android Homescreen [Tested on my own app]. Just call it.

private void ShortcutIcon(){

    Intent shortcutIntent = new Intent(getApplicationContext(), MainActivity.class);
    shortcutIntent.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);
    shortcutIntent.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TOP);

    Intent addIntent = new Intent();
    addIntent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_SHORTCUT_INTENT, shortcutIntent);
    addIntent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_SHORTCUT_NAME, "Test");
    addIntent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_SHORTCUT_ICON_RESOURCE, Intent.ShortcutIconResource.fromContext(getApplicationContext(), R.drawable.ic_launcher));
    addIntent.setAction("com.android.launcher.action.INSTALL_SHORTCUT");
    getApplicationContext().sendBroadcast(addIntent);
}

Don't forget to change your activity name, icon resource & permission.

<uses-permission android:name="com.android.launcher.permission.INSTALL_SHORTCUT" />

Happy coding !!!

Edit:

For Duplicate Issue, First Option is to add below line in the code otherwise it creates new one every time.

addIntent.putExtra("duplicate", false);

Second Option is to First uninstall The App Shortcut Icon and then Install It Again If the First Option Didn't Work.