Android launch app inside view

Question

Alright so I have an app that I would like to have utilize other apps. For example I have an app that does quite a number of things except for a directory look up since there is already an app that does that for my school. I know I can launch the application with intents, but that also brings them away from the navigation menu for my application. Is there anyway that I could run an app inside a view layout. I am not hopeful for this but I figured I would chance asking it anyway.

Answer 1

This is technically possible by using widgets. You can implement an AppWidgetHost, and other applications can create App Widgets to use inside your own app. This is how the launcher screen in Android works.

This, of course, will only work if other applications in question implement widgets. So, the general answer to your question would be no, it is not possible to host arbitrary applications or Views/Activities from other applications inside your own.

Answer 2

This not the Android design philosophy. You should send an Intent to the directory app, which I hope is designed to look up a result and then return it to you. The mechanism is startActivityForResult() in your app, and setResult() in the directory app.