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Launch Applications

This function allows your application to start another application on the device. It uses different methods on iOS and Android however both will allow you to specify start up parameters to an application:

  • On Android it uses an explicit Intent with a package, type, action and extras
  • On iOS it uses a custom url scheme with query parameters

The simplest example of launching another application if installed.

var app:Application = new Application( "com.instagram.android", "instagram://" );
 
if (Share.service.applications.isInstalled( app ))
{
    Share.service.applications.launch( app );
}

An example of launching Instagram and opening a specific user profile

var app:Application = new Application( "com.instagram.android", "instagram://" );

var options:ApplicationOptions = new ApplicationOptions();
options.action = ApplicationOptions.ACTION_VIEW;
options.data = "http://instagram.com/_u/distriqt";
options.parameters = "user?username=distriqt";
 
if (Share.service.applications.isInstalled( app ))
{
    Share.service.applications.launch( app, options );
}

iOS​

On iOS you must add the application schemes you wish to query or launch to your info additions. If you don't perform these additions you will always receive false from the isInstalled() and the launch functions.

You should add the LSApplicationQueriesSchemes value to your InfoAdditions in your application descriptor, and include the schemes for the applications you intend to query.

<key>LSApplicationQueriesSchemes</key>
<array>
    <string>instagram</string>
    <string>whatsapp</string>
</array>

For more information see Add the Extension

Android​

Android 11 introduces changes related to package visibility. These changes affect apps only if they target Android 11. In order for you to correctly query if an application is installed you will need to add the package names you wish to query to the manifest.

<queries>
    <package android:name="PACKAGENAME" />
</queries>

For example if you are querying whatsapp and instagram:

<queries>
    <package android:name="com.whatsapp" />
    <package android:name="com.instagram.android" />
</queries>

For more information see Add the Extension

Start Actvity​

Android only

This functionality allows you to use the Android Intent system to launch an Intent directly.

This is sometimes required when you need particular control over how the data is passed to an Intent.

Use the Intent class to create an Intent and then pass it to the startActivity function.

For example to launch a url in the Chrome application

var intent:Intent = new Intent();
intent.action = "android.intent.action.VIEW";
intent.data = "https://distriqt.com";
intent.packageName = "com.android.chrome";

var success:Boolean = Share.service.applications.startActivity( intent );

The return value of the startActivity function will be false if no activity could be launched matching the Intent and will be true if an activity was started.

You can also add extras to the intent through the extras property. This should be set to an Object containing simple data values (eg String, int, Number) that are passed to the activity. 

intent.extras = {
    extraName: "some value"
};