Android: change default Home Application

Question

for some specific requirement I am required to change Android Default Home application with my customized Home application ( a setting inside my app that will toggle default home = my application or previous home)

I don't want the user to travel android settings that are very complicated.

Can any one help me out like where it registers launcher.apk for default home application or how to change that

The only thing I could find was that old question: How to change default Android's Desktop application?

but no answers at all.

I have seen HomeSwitcher in the Market that do the trick, but no answer for the developer that might certainly be busy.

EDIT

I found this on the web http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/msg74167.html

But I got the same issue:

this is my code:

    private void makePreferred() {
            PackageManager pm = getPackageManager();
            IntentFilter f = new IntentFilter("android.intent.action.MAIN");
            f.addCategory("android.intent.category.HOME");
            f.addCategory("android.intent.category.DEFAULT");
            ComponentName cn = new ComponentName("com.example.android.home", "com.example.android.home.Home");
            pm.addPreferredActivity(f, IntentFilter.MATCH_CATEGORY_EMPTY, null, cn);

I have the android.permission.SET_PREFERRED_APPLICATIONS set in the manifest. After executing the code above, the logs claim things have been added like expected (same logs as when I tick off "Make default" from IntentResolver's list). However, when I proceed by clicking home, the list still shows up and the logs say:

INFO/PackageManager(52): Result set changed, dropping preferred
activity for Intent { act=android.intent.action.MAIN cat=
[android.intent.category.HOME] flg=0x10200000 } type null

So it seems the resolver deletes the default entry. Am I doing something wrong, or is this a security measure? What are the ideas behind this?

Answer 1

I did an extensive research on that and starting from 2.2 there is no way to do that. The only way is using some hacking that toddler lock app does but this app put samsung phones recently in the infinite loop, so it is a risky approach.

if you look at the froyo source code here of packagemanager class, you will see this small condition in the addPreferredActivity method:

if (getUidTargetSdkVersionLockedLP(Binder.getCallingUid())
                     < Build.VERSION_CODES.FROYO) {
                 Slog.w(TAG, "Ignoring addPreferredActivity() from uid"
                        + Binder.getCallingUid());
                 return;
             }

HomeSwitcher does not work properly on 2.2 since it uses this very method and developer made a comment on app page "Froyo(2.2) is not supported due to the API change"

Answer 2

"Result set changed" means that the set of packages matching that intent has changed from the set you specified when you created the default - - so the default is no longer valid. Your list of components (which you are currently setting to null) needs to contain all homescreen apps present on device, not just yours.

Here's example code that I have tested (using adb shell am start http://www.google.co.uk/ ) and used to set the default browser. XXX represents a customer name that I had to black out.

Note that in order to call addPreferredActivity you must have compiled against a minimum-sdk version of 8 (2.2) and you must have specified the SET_PREFERRED_APPLICATIONS permission. That permission is protection level 2, so you need to be signed with the same certificate as PackageManager.

IntentFilter filter = new IntentFilter();
filter.addAction("android.intent.action.VIEW");
filter.addCategory("android.intent.category.DEFAULT");
filter.addDataScheme("http");
Context context = getApplicationContext();
ComponentName component = new ComponentName("com.opera.mini.XXX", "com.opera.mini.XXX.CustomerBrowser");
ComponentName[] components = new ComponentName[] {new ComponentName("com.android.browser", "com.android.browser.BrowserActivity"),
                                                  component};
pm.addPreferredActivity(filter, IntentFilter.MATCH_CATEGORY_SCHEME, components, component);

ETA - if you marked this response down, could you let me know why. The code I posted above is tested and working...

Answer 3

startActivity(new Intent(Settings.ACTION_HOME_SETTINGS));