Android: How to get a list of installed activities, as they appear in launcher, without duplicates

Question

I am writing an app that allows user to view the list of installed apps, select one of them and then start it on schedule. Using tutorials from stackoverflow i managed to figure out how to get a list of installed activities, their package names and icons(i.e. here - several ways to do it). Just in case, this is how i start activities, it works flawlessly, no problem here:

Intent launchIntent = packageManager.getLaunchIntentForPackage(packageName);
launchIntent.setAction(Intent.ACTION_MAIN);
launchIntent.addCategory(Intent.CATEGORY_LAUNCHER);
launchIntent.setFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);
startActivity(launchIntent);

The problem is with retrieving a list of installed apps. I've found two ways to get a list of installed applications:

1) use

PackageManager pm = getPackageManager();
List<ApplicationInfo> apps = pm.getInstalledApplication(PackageManager.GET_META_DATA) 

and from each element from apps you can get it's package name and package label(app names).

2) use

PackageManager pm = getPackageManager();    
Intent mainIntent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_MAIN, null);
mainIntent.addCategory(Intent.CATEGORY_LAUNCHER);
List<ResolveInfo> resolveInfos = packageManager.queryIntentActivities(mainIntent, 0);
for(ResolveInfo info : resolveInfos) {
    ApplicationInfo applicationInfo = info.activityInfo.applicationInfo;
    //...
    //get package name, icon and label from applicationInfo object    
}

There is a problem with first method: it returns all installed packages, including system services, which may not contain any activity and are therefore not launchable. Here's a screenshot with an example:

All the items above that have no icons are not launchable.

There is a problem with the second approach as well: Several items in the list have duplicates:

When i set up a breakpoint in debugger i see, that these "Maps" items have different activity names ("com.google.android.maps.MapsActivity", "com.google.android.maps.LatitudeActivity", "com.google.android.maps.PlacesActivity" etc.).

I decided to use the second approach, because it gives a list that is more suitable for my needs, but i can't find a way to filter out the duplicates and only show the default activity for the app, as they appear in the Launcher(you only see one 'Maps' in your phone's list of apps, not four). I've tried filtering out system apps through ApplicationInfo.FLAG_SYSTEM, but this removes many apps that i want to have, including Maps and other preinstalled apps. I've tried using PackageManager.MATCH_DEFAULT_ONLY flag when executing queryIntentActivities, but this also filters out many apps, leaving just a few.

I'm kinda lost here, and i don't know what to do. I've read all the questions on stackoverflow about retrieving a list of installed apps, but this issue has never been brought up. Please, help anyone? How do i retrieve a list of installed launchable apps that has no duplicates?

Flaggy

You say that "this issue has never been brought up". Please check this, maybe it helps: https://mcmap.net/q/453345/-how-to-get-the-list-of-apps-that-have-been-installed-by-a-user-on-an-android-device/… – Showalter

I meant duplicates in the list, i haven't seen anyone mentioning this. Yes, i've seen that comment, I've tried skipping apps with ApplicationInfo.FLAG_SYSTEM, but for some reason this removes many valid apps, including games and such. – Flaggy

Answer 1

Intent localIntent2 = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_PICK_ACTIVITY);
Intent localIntent3 = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_MAIN, null);
localIntent3.addCategory(Intent.CATEGORY_LAUNCHER); 
localIntent2.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_INTENT, localIntent3);
startActivityForResult(localIntent2, 1);

Try this code. It will list out only the applications which are all installed in your device.

Skinhead

it works but this will be more effective if you can manage to run the selected app. Because as of now when you select an app, nothing happened. – Pincus

good answer but avoid ussing hardcoded strings, instead use constants, like Intent.EXTRA_INTENT for "android.intent.extra.INTENT". – Outstation

Answer 2

I might be late, but i just found a perfect way of getting all apps having launcher & no duplicate apps (including system apps like contacts, maps, etc.). Although, Satheesh's answer might be working (haven't checked myself), but I wanted to pick multiple activities so I used below code to get installed apps.

I used your second approach and discarded duplicate packages using HashSet. Here's the final code :

    final PackageManager packageManager = getPackageManager();
    Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_MAIN, null);
    intent.addCategory(Intent.CATEGORY_LAUNCHER);
    List<ResolveInfo> resInfos = packageManager.queryIntentActivities(intent, 0);
    //using hashset so that there will be no duplicate packages, 
    //if no duplicate packages then there will be no duplicate apps
    HashSet<String> packageNames = new HashSet<String>(0);
    List<ApplicationInfo> appInfos = new ArrayList<ApplicationInfo>(0);

    //getting package names and adding them to the hashset
    for(ResolveInfo resolveInfo : resInfos) {
        packageNames.add(resolveInfo.activityInfo.packageName);
    }

    //now we have unique packages in the hashset, so get their application infos
    //and add them to the arraylist
    for(String packageName : packageNames) {
        try {
            appInfos.add(packageManager.getApplicationInfo(packageName, PackageManager.GET_META_DATA));
        } catch (NameNotFoundException e) {
            //Do Nothing
        }
    }

    //to sort the list of apps by their names
    Collections.sort(appInfos, new ApplicationInfo.DisplayNameComparator(packageManager));

Pock

Answer 3

Try below code and let me know what happened.

PackageManager manager = getPackageManager();
Intent mainIntent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_MAIN, null);
mainIntent.addCategory(Intent.CATEGORY_LAUNCHER);

List<ResolveInfo> resolveInfos= manager.queryIntentActivities(mainIntent, 0);
// Below line is new code i added to your code
Collections.sort(resolveInfos, new ResolveInfo.DisplayNameComparator(manager));

for(ResolveInfo info : resolveInfos) {
     ApplicationInfo applicationInfo = info.activityInfo.applicationInfo;
     //...
     //get package name, icon and label from applicationInfo object    
}

Norty

Hi, here's a screenshot of what happened: i.sstatic.net/xCXqY.png There's still 4 'Maps' in the list, but now they are in random order. – Flaggy

Answer 4

Both @Ashish Tanna and jozze are right, but the performance maybe a little problem.

This is the best performance one.

Set<String> packageNameSet = new HashSet<>();
PackageManager pm = context.getPackageManager();
Intent mainIntent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_MAIN, null);
mainIntent.addCategory(Intent.CATEGORY_LAUNCHER);
List<ResolveInfo> resolveInfos = packageManager.queryIntentActivities(mainIntent, 0);
for(ResolveInfo info : resolveInfos) {
    // be added
    ApplicationInfo applicationInfo;
    if (info == null || (applicationInfo = info.activityInfo.applicationInfo) == null
            || !applicationInfo.enabled || packageNameSet.contains(applicationInfo.packageName)) {
        continue;
    }
    packageNameSet.add(applicationInfo.packageName);

    //...
    //get package name, icon and label from applicationInfo object
}

(1) Add a HashSet
(2) Judge whether application is enabled
(3) Judge whether has inside the hashset

Schellens

Answer 5

I had the same requirement. Ultimately I added another condition to filter down the app list. I just checked whether the app has 'launcher intent'.

So, the resultant code looks like...

PackageManager pm = getPackageManager();
List<ApplicationInfo> apps = pm.getInstalledApplications(PackageManager.GET_GIDS);

for (ApplicationInfo app : apps) {
    if(pm.getLaunchIntentForPackage(app.packageName) != null) {
        // apps with launcher intent
        if((app.flags & ApplicationInfo.FLAG_UPDATED_SYSTEM_APP) == 1) {
            // updated system apps
        } else if ((app.flags & ApplicationInfo.FLAG_SYSTEM) == 1) {
            // system apps
        } else {
            // user installed apps
        }
        appsList.add(app);
    }

}

Hillman