Opening an Android application within another

Question

I am trying to open a different, already installed android application within another, on click of a button. The new application should be opened in a part of the screen within the calling application.

Currently, my code creates a new intent and runs the called application in that. the calling application disappears. Here's my code:

        b.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
        @Override
        public void onClick(View v) {
            // TODO Auto-generated method stub
            PackageManager pm = getPackageManager();
            Intent intent = pm.getLaunchIntentForPackage("com.ritwik.camera");
            startActivity(intent);
        }

    });

Ideally, it should open as a part of the same screen, without sidelining the parent(calling) application. How do I do that?

Answer 1

When you start an Intent to execute another application (i.e. because you are implementing a launcher or a main menu replacement) you are actually asking android to execute the application identified with a specific package (or the one satisfying some specific constraints, like the ability to handle images, videos, etc), without any clue or reference about the Activities it contains (nor the ability to get any...).

Therefore I don't think that what you are trying to achieve is possible with the current version of the OS (unless some vendor is providing extensions to do just that, see the comment by Pratik).