How to implement the SHARE function of a Android app?

Question

Sometimes we can see that after clicking some "share" button, a list of sharable ways displays. And that list seems generated dynamically and not hard-coded.

For example, I have SpringPad installed on my phone, and some apps' sharing function is able to share the content via SpringPad, but how could it know that I have SpringPad?

How to implement such a function? Thanks.

Answer 1

Here is the actual code from my Android app BBC News that does this. It shares the URL to the page. If the user has Facebook or Twitter apps installed they will be offered the opportunity to share to those services, as well as email etc.

        final Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_SEND);
        intent.setType("text/plain");
        intent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_TEXT, pageUrl);

        try {
          startActivity(Intent.createChooser(intent, "Select an action"));
        } catch (android.content.ActivityNotFoundException ex) {
          // (handle error)
        }