Custom filtering of intent chooser based on installed Android package name

Question

I'd like to leverage the built-in intent chooser to display a custom filtered list of apps for user to select from and launch.

I know how to get a list of installed packages:

final Intent myIntent = new Intent(android.content.Intent.ACTION_MAIN);  
List<ResolveInfo> resInfoList = getPackageManager().queryIntentActivities(myIntent, 0);

At this point I want to filter the list based on a specific string (or variation of strings) contained within the package name, which I can figure out how to do as well.

But here's where I get stuck. As far as I know, Intent.createChooser() takes only a single target Intent as a parameter. I was hoping there was an overload that took a list of intents based on package and class names or something. But I don't see anything like that. Did I miss that somewhere?

So the question is, is this possible to do with a built-in chooser, or do I have to construct my own with AlertDialog Builder? I'm hoping to avoid the later.

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Here is a solution i whipped up. I use it to have different intent data for each selection in the chooser, but you can easily remove an intent from the list as well. Hope this helps:

List<Intent> targetedShareIntents = new ArrayList<Intent>();
Intent shareIntent = new Intent(android.content.Intent.ACTION_SEND);
shareIntent.setType("text/plain");
List<ResolveInfo> resInfo = getPackageManager().queryIntentActivities(shareIntent, 0);
if (!resInfo.isEmpty()) {
    for (ResolveInfo resolveInfo : resInfo) {
        String packageName = resolveInfo.activityInfo.packageName;
        Intent targetedShareIntent = new Intent(android.content.Intent.ACTION_SEND);
        targetedShareIntent.setType("text/plain");
        targetedShareIntent.putExtra(android.content.Intent.EXTRA_SUBJECT, "subject to be shared");
        if (TextUtils.equals(packageName, "com.facebook.katana")) {
            targetedShareIntent.putExtra(android.content.Intent.EXTRA_TEXT, "http://link-to-be-shared.com");
        } else {
            targetedShareIntent.putExtra(android.content.Intent.EXTRA_TEXT, "text message to shared");
        }
        targetedShareIntent.setPackage(packageName);
        targetedShareIntents.add(targetedShareIntent);
    }
    Intent chooserIntent = Intent.createChooser(targetedShareIntents.remove(0), "Select app to share");
    chooserIntent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_INITIAL_INTENTS, targetedShareIntents.toArray(new Parcelable[targetedShareIntents.size()]));
    startActivity(chooserIntent);
}

EDIT

While using this method i get names of some apps as android system. If anybody get this error pls add below lines before targetedShareIntents.add(targetedShareIntent);

 targetedShareIntent.setClassName(
                        resolveInfo.activityInfo.packageName,
                        resolveInfo.activityInfo.name);

source : Android share intent Twitter: How to share only by Tweet or Direct Message?

Answer 2

The only one additional parameter for the chooser is Intent.EXTRA_INITIAL_INTENTS. Its description is:

A Parcelable[] of Intent or LabeledIntent objects as set with putExtra(String, Parcelable[]) of additional activities to place a the front of the list of choices, when shown to the user with a ACTION_CHOOSER.

I haven't found any way in Android sources to exclude other activities from the list, so it seems there's no way to do what you want to do using the chooser.

EDIT: That's really easy to find out. Just check ChooserActivity and ResolverActivity source code. These classes are rather small.

Answer 3

I did an small modification to have a list of the apps that you want to share with by name. It is almost what you already posted but adding the apps to share by name

String[] nameOfAppsToShareWith = new String[] { "facebook", "twitter", "gmail" };
String[] blacklist = new String[]{"com.any.package", "net.other.package"};
// your share intent
Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_SEND);
intent.setType("text/plain");
intent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_TEXT, "some text");
intent.putExtra(android.content.Intent.EXTRA_SUBJECT, "a subject");
// ... anything else you want to add invoke custom chooser
startActivity(generateCustomChooserIntent(intent, blacklist));

private Intent generateCustomChooserIntent(Intent prototype,
            String[] forbiddenChoices)
    {
        List<Intent> targetedShareIntents = new ArrayList<Intent>();
        List<HashMap<String, String>> intentMetaInfo = new ArrayList<HashMap<String, String>>();
        Intent chooserIntent;

        Intent dummy = new Intent(prototype.getAction());
        dummy.setType(prototype.getType());
        List<ResolveInfo> resInfo = getPackageManager().queryIntentActivities(dummy,0);

        if (!resInfo.isEmpty())
        {
            for (ResolveInfo resolveInfo : resInfo)
            {
                if (resolveInfo.activityInfo == null
                        || Arrays.asList(forbiddenChoices).contains(
                                resolveInfo.activityInfo.packageName))
                    continue;
                //Get all the posible sharers
                HashMap<String, String> info = new HashMap<String, String>();
                info.put("packageName", resolveInfo.activityInfo.packageName);
                info.put("className", resolveInfo.activityInfo.name);
                String appName = String.valueOf(resolveInfo.activityInfo
                        .loadLabel(getPackageManager()));
                info.put("simpleName", appName);
                //Add only what we want
                if (Arrays.asList(nameOfAppsToShareWith).contains(
                        appName.toLowerCase()))
                {
                    intentMetaInfo.add(info);
                }
            }

            if (!intentMetaInfo.isEmpty())
            {
                // sorting for nice readability
                Collections.sort(intentMetaInfo,
                        new Comparator<HashMap<String, String>>()
                        {
                            @Override public int compare(
                                    HashMap<String, String> map,
                                    HashMap<String, String> map2)
                            {
                                return map.get("simpleName").compareTo(
                                        map2.get("simpleName"));
                            }
                        });

                // create the custom intent list
                for (HashMap<String, String> metaInfo : intentMetaInfo)
                {
                    Intent targetedShareIntent = (Intent) prototype.clone();
                    targetedShareIntent.setPackage(metaInfo.get("packageName"));
                    targetedShareIntent.setClassName(
                            metaInfo.get("packageName"),
                            metaInfo.get("className"));
                    targetedShareIntents.add(targetedShareIntent);
                }
                String shareVia = getString(R.string.offer_share_via);
                String shareTitle = shareVia.substring(0, 1).toUpperCase()
                        + shareVia.substring(1);
                chooserIntent = Intent.createChooser(targetedShareIntents
                        .remove(targetedShareIntents.size() - 1), shareTitle);
                chooserIntent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_INITIAL_INTENTS,
                        targetedShareIntents.toArray(new Parcelable[] {}));
                return chooserIntent;
            }
        }

        return Intent.createChooser(prototype,
                getString(R.string.offer_share_via));
    }

It almost the same solution that Makibo posted but with a little add to make an easy form of picking the apps you want to share with just by adding the name so you won't have any problem in case they change the package name or something like this. As long as they don't change the name.