How to list all installed apps in the phone (with app name, icon and package name)

Android PackageManager class is used to retrieve information on the application packages that are currently installed on the device. You can get an instance of PackageManager class by calling getPackageManager(). PackageManager provides methods for querying and manipulating installed packages and related permissions, etc. In this Android example, we we get list of installed apps in Android.

PackageManager packageManager = getPackageManager();
List<ApplicationInfo> list = packageManager.getInstalledApplications(PackageManager.GET_META_DATA)

packageManager.getInstalledApplications() return a List of all application packages that are installed on the device. If we set the flag GET_UNINSTALLED_PACKAGES has been set, a list of all applications including those deleted with DONT_DELETE_DATA(partially installed apps with data directory) will be returned.

1. Creating application layout in xml

activity_main.xml

As you can see in the attached screenshot, we will be creating a ListView to show all of the installed applications in android.

 xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent"
    android:orientation="vertical" >

    
        android:id="@android:id/list"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content" />

snippet_list_row.xml

This layout is being used by the ListView Adapter for representing application details. It shows application icon, application name and application package.

xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
 xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content" >

    
        android:id="@+id/app_icon"
        android:layout_width="50dp"
        android:layout_height="50dp"
        android:padding="3dp"
        android:scaleType="centerCrop" />

    
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="fill_parent"
        android:gravity="center_vertical"
        android:orientation="vertical"
        android:paddingLeft="5dp" >

        
            android:id="@+id/app_name"
            android:layout_width="fill_parent"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:gravity="center_vertical"
            android:textStyle="bold" />

        
            android:id="@+id/app_paackage"
            android:layout_width="fill_parent"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:gravity="center_vertical" />
    

2. Writing Java class

AllAppsActivity.java

This is the main application class that is used to initialize and list the installed applications. As getting the list of application details from PackageManage is a long running task, we will do that in AsyncTask. Also, this class is using custom Adapter “ApplicationAdapter” for custom ListView.

package com.javatechig.listapps;

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;
import android.app.AlertDialog;
import android.app.ListActivity;
import android.app.ProgressDialog;
import android.content.ActivityNotFoundException;
import android.content.DialogInterface;
import android.content.Intent;
import android.content.pm.ApplicationInfo;
import android.content.pm.PackageManager;
import android.net.Uri;
import android.os.AsyncTask;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.view.Menu;
import android.view.MenuInflater;
import android.view.MenuItem;
import android.view.View;
import android.widget.ListView;
import android.widget.Toast;

public class AllAppsActivity extends ListActivity {
 private PackageManager packageManager = null;
 private List<ApplicationInfo> applist = null;
 private ApplicationAdapter listadaptor = null;

 @Override
 public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
  super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
  setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

  packageManager = getPackageManager();

  new LoadApplications().execute();
 }

 public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
  MenuInflater inflater = getMenuInflater();
  inflater.inflate(R.menu.menu, menu);

  return true;
 }

 public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item) {
  boolean result = true;

  switch (item.getItemId()) {
  case R.id.menu_about: {
   displayAboutDialog();

   break;
  }
  default: {
   result = super.onOptionsItemSelected(item);

   break;
  }
  }

  return result;
 }

 private void displayAboutDialog() {
  final AlertDialog.Builder builder = new AlertDialog.Builder(this);
  builder.setTitle(getString(R.string.about_title));
  builder.setMessage(getString(R.string.about_desc));

  builder.setPositiveButton("Know More", new DialogInterface.OnClickListener() {
         public void onClick(DialogInterface dialog, int id) {
          Intent browserIntent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW, Uri.parse("http://javatechig.com"));
          startActivity(browserIntent);
          dialog.cancel();
         }
     });
  builder.setNegativeButton("No Thanks!", new DialogInterface.OnClickListener() {
         public void onClick(DialogInterface dialog, int id) {
              dialog.cancel();
         }
  });

  builder.show();
 }

 @Override
 protected void onListItemClick(ListView l, View v, int position, long id) {
  super.onListItemClick(l, v, position, id);

  ApplicationInfo app = applist.get(position);
  try {
   Intent intent = packageManager
     .getLaunchIntentForPackage(app.packageName);

   if (null != intent) {
    startActivity(intent);
   }
  } catch (ActivityNotFoundException e) {
   Toast.makeText(AllAppsActivity.this, e.getMessage(),
     Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
  } catch (Exception e) {
   Toast.makeText(AllAppsActivity.this, e.getMessage(),
     Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
  }
 }

 private List<ApplicationInfo> checkForLaunchIntent(List<ApplicationInfo> list) {
  ArrayList<ApplicationInfo> applist = new ArrayList<ApplicationInfo>();
  for (ApplicationInfo info : list) {
   try {
    if (null != packageManager.getLaunchIntentForPackage(info.packageName)) {
     applist.add(info);
    }
   } catch (Exception e) {
    e.printStackTrace();
   }
  }

  return applist;
 }

 private class LoadApplications extends AsyncTask<Void, Void, Void> {
  private ProgressDialog progress = null;

  @Override
  protected Void doInBackground(Void... params) {
   applist = checkForLaunchIntent(packageManager.getInstalledApplications(PackageManager.GET_META_DATA));
   listadaptor = new ApplicationAdapter(AllAppsActivity.this,
     R.layout.snippet_list_row, applist);

   return null;
  }

  @Override
  protected void onCancelled() {
   super.onCancelled();
  }

  @Override
  protected void onPostExecute(Void result) {
   setListAdapter(listadaptor);
   progress.dismiss();
   super.onPostExecute(result);
  }

  @Override
  protected void onPreExecute() {
   progress = ProgressDialog.show(AllAppsActivity.this, null,
     "Loading application info...");
   super.onPreExecute();
  }

  @Override
  protected void onProgressUpdate(Void... values) {
   super.onProgressUpdate(values);
  }
 }
}

ApplicationAdapter.java

package com.javatechig.listapps;

import java.util.List;

import android.content.Context;
import android.content.pm.ApplicationInfo;
import android.content.pm.PackageManager;
import android.view.LayoutInflater;
import android.view.View;
import android.view.ViewGroup;
import android.widget.ArrayAdapter;
import android.widget.ImageView;
import android.widget.TextView;

public class ApplicationAdapter extends ArrayAdapter<ApplicationInfo> {
 private List<ApplicationInfo> appsList = null;
 private Context context;
 private PackageManager packageManager;

 public ApplicationAdapter(Context context, int textViewResourceId,
   List<ApplicationInfo> appsList) {
  super(context, textViewResourceId, appsList);
  this.context = context;
  this.appsList = appsList;
  packageManager = context.getPackageManager();
 }

 @Override
 public int getCount() {
  return ((null != appsList) ? appsList.size() : 0);
 }

 @Override
 public ApplicationInfo getItem(int position) {
  return ((null != appsList) ? appsList.get(position) : null);
 }

 @Override
 public long getItemId(int position) {
  return position;
 }

 @Override
 public View getView(int position, View convertView, ViewGroup parent) {
  View view = convertView;
  if (null == view) {
   LayoutInflater layoutInflater = (LayoutInflater) context
     .getSystemService(Context.LAYOUT_INFLATER_SERVICE);
   view = layoutInflater.inflate(R.layout.snippet_list_row, null);
  }

  ApplicationInfo applicationInfo = appsList.get(position);
  if (null != applicationInfo) {
   TextView appName = (TextView) view.findViewById(R.id.app_name);
   TextView packageName = (TextView) view.findViewById(R.id.app_paackage);
   ImageView iconview = (ImageView) view.findViewById(R.id.app_icon);

   appName.setText(applicationInfo.loadLabel(packageManager));
   packageName.setText(applicationInfo.packageName);
   iconview.setImageDrawable(applicationInfo.loadIcon(packageManager));
  }
  return view;
 }
};

Download Complete Example

Download complete Eclipse project source code from GitHub.

How to add the ripple effect on any view

All you have to do is set your background to the ripple effect:

android:background="?attr/selectableItemBackground"

You can get the ripple effect on a TextView for example. (you can also try settings it on the android:foreground if background doesn't fit your use. If you do, the background has to be a solid color or @null though, so keep that in mind or using foreground won't work.)

Have fun !

Here's how to center a background image

To customize background image scaling create a resource like this:

<xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
 <xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:gravity="center"
    android:src="@drawable/my_bg_asset" />

Then it will be centered in the view if used as background. There are also other flags:http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/resources/drawable-resource.html

Android Studio (and intelliJ) supports Sublime style multiple selections

Here is how they work:

1. Add/remove a selection:
1. Alt + Shift + Mouse Click
2. Select/unselect the next occurrence:
1. Alt + J / Shift + Alt + J (Ctrl + G / Shift + Ctrl +G) for Mac OS X)
3. Select all occurrences:
1. Shift + Ctrl + Alt + J (Ctrl + Cmd + G for Mac OS X)
4. Clone caret above/below
1. The shortcuts are not mapped by default. Simply open studio's preferences and search for clone in the keyboard mappings. I personally mapped it to Ctrl + Alt + Cmd + up and down
5. Remove all selections:
1. Esc

Multiple selections work nicely together with features like Code completion,Select word at caret, Join lines, Copy/paste, and the others. Here’s a little demo:

Big thanks to  Andrey Cheptsov for this awesome bit of news! (source)

How to hide the TSB(nav bar - back, home, recent) no matter what version of Android you are using

You can do it with this:

   public void HideNavbar() {
        if(Build.VERSION.SDK_INT < 19) //API 18 or below
            View v = this.getWindow().getDecorView();
            v.setSystemUiVisibility(View.GONE);
        } else { //API 19 or above
            View decorView = getWindow().getDecorView(); 
            int uiOptions = View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_HIDE_NAVIGATION
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            decorView.setSystemUiVisibility(uiOptions);
        }
    }

How to start an Activity from within a Service

First, if you plan on doing this, please read this bit about interrupting the user: http://developer.android.com/guide/practices/seamlessness.html#interrupt

The trick is to set the intent's flag for FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK. Also, as you probably already know, all life cycle methods like onCreate are executed on the UI thread which is required to start an Activity.

Here's an example:
  public void onCreate(){
    super.onCreate();
    Intent intent = new Intent("com.example.email.compose");
    intent.setFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK); //This is necessary!
    intent.putExtra("Contacts_ID", 0);
    startActivity(intent);
  }

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Even if you use string formatting sometimes you still need white spaces at the beginning or the end. On these cases neither escaping with \ nor using   or the xml:space attribute helps.
You must use the UTF character \u0020 for white spaces. Just type this succession of characters and it will be interpreted as a space. The \u part tells android that the following number represents the character in the UTF table.