Develop Reference

How do I launch a specific (explicit) activity of another app

I want to launch a specific activity of another app from my app. For example, on the onCreate of my app, I want to launch the activity named Rolling (not main) activity of com.pas.webcam.pro. I have heard that you must have control of both apps to do this because you must add an intent filter to the manifest of the second app. This is not true though, because activity launcher apps in the Google Play Store can launch the Rolling Activity of IP Webcam Pro.
The Activity Launcher app is open source, so I tried reviewing the source code here. It was too complicated though, so I could not figure out how this app magically launches this activity. There are many other questions like this on Stack Overflow, and I have read every one. I have also tried lots of the code from the answers too, like this:
Intent intent = new Intent(); intent.setComponent(new ComponentName("com.pas.webcam", "com.pas.webcam.RollingActivity")); startActivity(intent);
I have also tried variants of this code from other posts. My app always crashes and I get variants (depending on the code I use) of the following error:
An error occurred
Invalid intent operation. Unable to find explicit activity class {com.pas.webcam.pro/com.pas.webcam.pro.Rolling}; have you declared this activity in your AndroidManifest.xml?
I have put both of the following in my Android Manifest and the same thing happens:
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.GET_INSTALLED_PACKAGES" />
<activity android:name="com.pas.webcam.pro.RollingActivity"
Thanks in advance for any answers, I really appreciate it, as I have been working on this problem for a while.
Edit: Here is the activity of the app I want to launch: https://i.stack.imgur.com/Fa7Xq.jpg
Edit: David Wasser helped me solve the problem by giving me the code neccessary to solve the problem. It actually works! To anyone who wants to launch a specific activity of another app with code, please use this:
Intent intent = new Intent(); intent.setClassName("com.pas.webcam.pro", "com.pas.webcam.Rolling"); startActivity(intent);
You may replace com.pas.webcam.pro and Rolling with the app and activity of your choice, but this method truly works. Problem Solved!😀

Try this:
Intent intent = new Intent();
intent.setClassName("com.pas.webcam.pro", "com.pas.webcam.Rolling");
startActivity(intent);
Since you refer to the app as "IP webcam pro", I'm assuming the package name is "com.pas.webcam.pro" (found by Internet research).

Android wear: calling a "default fitness app" from java

I'm trying to have a function in my App for Android Wear to call the "default Fitness App"...
I already see in a WatchFace that it is possible tapping on an element to call the App to display a statistic of heart rate or steps count or similar.
If I change the App (for example from Google Fit to Moto Body), and I tap again on the element the new App will be started.
So it must be possible to call an action (Intent?) with some value and Android call the properly App.
I searched this "some value" but I didn't found anything. I'm sure, it exists...
Can someone help me?
Thanks a lot
Luca

After many trials and debugging other Apps, I found a solution...
I post it here in the case someone other needs it:
Intent intent = new Intent(Fitness.ACTION_VIEW, null);
intent.setType("vnd.google.fitness.data_type/com.google.heart_rate.bpm");
intent.setFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);
try
{
startActivity(intent);
}
catch(ActivityNotFoundException e)
{
Log.v(PROGRAM, "Unable to start Fitness App\n" + e.toString());
}
Regards
Luca

How Can I Implement Google Voice Typing In My Application?

I am trying to add a button in my application that starts Google Voice Typing (or the default speech recognition). I have tried following this tutorial. This tutorial is incredibly confusing to me. I imported the .jar, and added the necessary permissions, services, and activities to my Manifest. But I can't seem to figure out how to "put it all together". I'm wondering:
Am I supposed to call the inputMethodService from my button click in my Main Activity? Or does my inputMethodService essentially become my Main Activity?
What does IME mean? I tried to Google it, but the definitions it gave me didn't help my understanding.
When I try to copy and paste the whole DemoInputMethodService code into my current activity, I get an error saying I cannot extend InputMethodService inside of this activity. (Which leads back to to ask question one.)
How can I get this to work?

If you want to follow the tutorial that you mention then you need to implement an IME (input method editor) first, see http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/text/creating-input-method.html
This IME can have a regular keyboard look-and-feel or contain just a microphone button.
The user of your app will first have to click on a text field to launch the IME. (Note that there can be several IMEs installed on the device and they have to be explicitly enabled in the Settings.) Then the user will have to click on the microphone button to trigger the speech recognition.
The tutorial provides a jar that lets you directly call Google's recognizer. It would be nicer if instead you called the recognizer via the SpeechRecognizer-interface (http://developer.android.com/reference/android/speech/SpeechRecognizer.html), this way the user can decide whether to use Google's or something else.
The SpeechRecognizer is given a listener which supports the method onPartialResults, which allows you to monitor the recognition hypotheses while the user is speaking. It's up to you how you display them. Note however that the specification of SpeechRecognizer does not promise that this method gets called. This depends on the implementation of the recognizer service. Regarding Google's implementation: what it supports keeps changing unannounced, it does not have a public API nor even release notes.
You might be able to reuse my project Kõnele (http://kaljurand.github.io/K6nele/about/), which contains two implementations of SpeechRecognizer and an IME that uses them. One of the implementations offers continuous recognition of arbitrarily long audio input, using the Kaldi GStreamer server (https://github.com/alumae/kaldi-gstreamer-server). You would need to set up your own instance of the server porting it to the language that you want to recognize (unless you want to use the Estonian server that Kõnele uses by default).

Voice recognition samples are found where you have the android SDK..
example:
$ find $SDK_ROOT/samples -name *recogni*
./android-19/legacy/VoiceRecognitionService/res/xml/recognizer.xml
./android-19/legacy/VoiceRecognitionService/src/com/example/android/voicerecognitionservice
./android-19/legacy/ApiDemos/res/layout/voice_recognition.xml
./android-18/legacy/VoiceRecognitionService/res/xml/recognizer.xml
./android-18/legacy/VoiceRecognitionService/src/com/example/android/voicerecognitionservice
./android-18/legacy/ApiDemos/res/layout/voice_recognition.xml
./android-21/legacy/VoiceRecognitionService/res/xml/recognizer.xml
./android-21/legacy/VoiceRecognitionService/src/com/example/android/voicerecognitionservice
./android-21/legacy/ApiDemos/res/layout/voice_recognition.xml
any one of the services should help show how to do a RecognizerIntent
The "APIDemo" seems to include use of a RecognizerIntent. check the source for that one. Otherwise look into the services and carve them up into an intent.

I had the same issue, but after a long time looking for continuous voice dictation on an activity, I solved that problem using pocketsphinx.
I couldn't find the way to integrate Google Voice Typing on an activity, just on an input method by following that tutorial. If it confuse you, just download this demo and modify it.
Good Luck!

You can trigger an intent from a button listener
Intent checkIntent = new Intent();
checkIntent.setAction(TextToSpeech.Engine.ACTION_CHECK_TTS_DATA);
startActivityForResult(checkIntent, MY_DATA_CHECK_CODE);
And the result can be get from
private TextToSpeech mTts;
protected void onActivityResult(
int requestCode, int resultCode, Intent data) {
if (requestCode == MY_DATA_CHECK_CODE) {
if (resultCode == TextToSpeech.Engine.CHECK_VOICE_DATA_PASS) {
// success, create the TTS instance
mTts = new TextToSpeech(this, this);
} else {
// missing data, install it
Intent installIntent = new Intent();
installIntent.setAction(
TextToSpeech.Engine.ACTION_INSTALL_TTS_DATA);
startActivity(installIntent);
}
}
}
Refer this link for more info.

How does Facebook add badge numbers on app icon in Android?

I know there are several Qs here that ask if its possible to add badges to an android app and they all end up with a NO answer...
But somehow the latest Facebook beta version for Android seems to do something which at least look like a badge even if it is not technically exactly that.
In that post one of the commenters says that it is somehow related to TouchWiz.
And also here they mention it as a feature of the "S3 TouchWiz Jelly Bean Addon".
I still would appreciate information on how does this can be done and if there is some API for this that I can use in my own app (when running in an appropriate environment - i.e. the same device where FB demonstrates this behavior) ?

Hi you can use this lib simply.
Support : Sony,Samsung,LG,HTC,Xiaomi,ASUS,ADW,APEX,NOVA,Huawei,ZUK,OPPO
ShortcutBadger
Add :
int badgeCount = 1;
ShortcutBadger.applyCount(context, badgeCount);
Remove :
ShortcutBadger.applyCount(context, 0);

I have figured out how this is done for Sony devices.
I've blogged about it here. I've also posted a seperate SO question about this here.
Sony devices use a class named BadgeReciever.
Declare the com.sonyericsson.home.permission.BROADCAST_BADGE permission in your manifest file:
Broadcast an Intent to the BadgeReceiver:
Intent intent = new Intent();
intent.setAction("com.sonyericsson.home.action.UPDATE_BADGE");
intent.putExtra("com.sonyericsson.home.intent.extra.badge.ACTIVITY_NAME", "com.yourdomain.yourapp.MainActivity");
intent.putExtra("com.sonyericsson.home.intent.extra.badge.SHOW_MESSAGE", true);
intent.putExtra("com.sonyericsson.home.intent.extra.badge.MESSAGE", "99");
intent.putExtra("com.sonyericsson.home.intent.extra.badge.PACKAGE_NAME", "com.yourdomain.yourapp");
sendBroadcast(intent);
Done. Once this Intent is broadcast the launcher should show a badge on your application icon.
To remove the badge again, simply send a new broadcast, this time with SHOW_MESSAGE set to false:
intent.putExtra("com.sonyericsson.home.intent.extra.badge.SHOW_MESSAGE", false);
I've excluded details on how I found this to keep the answer short, but it's all available in the blog. Might be an interesting read for someone.

There is not a standard way to achieve this; Many makers such as Sony or Samsung have implemented it in their own Android customization.
For example in Samsung, you have to broadcast an intent with BADGE_COUNT_UPDATE action, let MainActivity be your main activity class and count be the number you want to display in your app icon, note that 0 will hide the badge:
Intent intent = new Intent("android.intent.action.BADGE_COUNT_UPDATE");
intent.putExtra("badge_count", count);
intent.putExtra("badge_count_package_name", context.getPackageName());
intent.putExtra("badge_count_class_name", MainActivity.class.getName());
context.sendBroadcast(intent);
Sony devices uses "com.sonyericsson.home.action.UPDATE_BADGE" action with their custom extras as #Marcus Answered, so you have to add "com.sonyericsson.home.permission.BROADCAST_BADGE" permission to your app manifest and:
Intent intent = new Intent("com.sonyericsson.home.action.UPDATE_BADGE");
intent.putExtra("com.sonyericsson.home.intent.extra.badge.ACTIVITY_NAME", MainActivity.class.getName());
intent.putExtra("com.sonyericsson.home.intent.extra.badge.SHOW_MESSAGE", true);
intent.putExtra("com.sonyericsson.home.intent.extra.badge.MESSAGE", String.valueOf(count));
intent.putExtra("com.sonyericsson.home.intent.extra.badge.PACKAGE_NAME", context.getPackageName());
context.sendBroadcast(intent);
Note: it's desirable to query your app's data (context.getPackageName(), MainActivity.class.getName()) rather than hardcode it just in case you do some refactoring in the future.

But somehow the latest Facebook beta version for android does just that...
Not according to the forum thread that contains the screenshot that you linked to. Quoting vakama94:
Well, that's actually TouchWiz and not just the app. I have a Galaxy S II running JellyBean 4.1.2 and it makes the same thing but with some other applications
Whether Samsung has a public API to allow apps to publish numbers to be used as badges, I cannot say. This could be something that they did privately with a few firms.
You are welcome to provide evidence of seeing these badges on a stock Android home screen, such as one of the Nexus series devices.

I answer to this assuming that some flutter dev can search this...
In Flutter, you can achieve this by using
Flutter app badger library.
It is as simple as
FlutterAppBadger.updateBadgeCount(1); // show
FlutterAppBadger.removeBadge(); // hide

Android: How to launch call intent using google voice?

How to launch specific intent (such as call) using google voice? How to pass phone number using intent? Following code launches google voice but what value to be passed for making call using google voice as intent extras?
final Intent intent = new Intent();
intent.setComponent(new ComponentName("com.google.android.apps.googlevoice", "com.google.android.apps.googlevoice.activity.conversationlist.ConversationListActivity"));
intent.putExtra("label", "<phone number>");
startActivity(intent);
Here what should i put in label to start the intent that launches a call using google voice?
Any help is appreciated... Thanks in Advance...

NEVER target applications directly like that UNLESS it is in your package. You should be using the Intent filter to catch that particular application. Sometimes you have to target an application like this, but this brings up the risk of change in package name errors.
To handle your particular application, you need to look at how information is being passed into Google voice. this will give you insight and how to target it WITHOUT targeting the exact package name.

What #JoxTraex said makes sense. However some clients need funny features like this, so we have no way but to implement this:
try {
Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_DIAL,Uri.parse("tel:" + mobile));
intent.setPackage("com.google.android.apps.googlevoice");
intent.setFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);
context.startActivity(intent);
} catch (ActivityNotFoundException anfe) {
GMHintManager.getInstance().showError(context, "Google Voice not installed");
}
Yes, you should try-catch ActivityNotFoundException.