Must the main activity name be .MainActivity?

Question

My app has this main activity:

<activity
    android:name=".main.MainActivity"
    ...
    <intent-filter>
        <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
        <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
    </intent-filter>
</activity>

and it launches with no problem from the home launcher. However, when I try to launch it from Google's Gesture Search, I get a Gesture error message saying that the app does not have .MainActivity.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.gesturesearch

Do Android apps required to have the main activity called .MainActivity? If not, is it a soft recommendation or a convention or just a bad assumption on Gesture's part?

Answer 1

Android apps do not require any activity called .MainActivity. Furthermore, I'm not aware of any conventions like this. It sounds like you may be unknowingly telling Gesture that you want something called .MainActivity.

Perhaps it is because you put a package name before the actual name of the class. Try putting the fully qualified class name instead. Also try renaming the Activity, and see if you get any different results.

Answer 2

Android apps do not require an activity named MainActivity and you should not assume (and should certainly not rely) on any application implementing one.

Furthermore, I have never heard of any convention that recommends doing so. Most developers will name each activity to suit its behavior and/or purpose in the application.