Delete app intent not working on android pie

Question

This worked in the past but does not work on my android pie device anymore (worked until the recent pie update):

fun uninstallApp(packageName: String) {
    val packageURI = Uri.parse("package:$packageName")
    val intent = Intent(Intent.ACTION_DELETE, packageURI)
    intent .addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK)
    startActivity(intent )
}

I could not find any documentation that indicates that this intent is not working anymore.

Does anyone know if there is an alternative way to open the uninstall dialog on android pie?

Answer 1

The code will still work, supposedly the app is not requesting the permission to execute it.

Since Android Pie (Android 9), apps are required to declare that they request apps to be deleted. This can be done by adding this permission to the AndroidManifest.xml:

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.REQUEST_DELETE_PACKAGES"/>

* Note that it is not needed to request this permission at runtime. Declaring this in the Manifest is enough for it to work.

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Also, we could use the ACTION_UNINSTALL_PACKAGE action instead for the request of removing packages. For this action, the documentation is mentioning that the permission stated above is required for it to work since Android Pie.