Select multiple images from android gallery

Question

The EXTRA_ALLOW_MULTIPLE option is set on the intent through the Intent.putExtra() method:

intent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_ALLOW_MULTIPLE, true);

Your code above should look like this:

Intent intent = new Intent();
intent.setType("image/*");
intent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_ALLOW_MULTIPLE, true);
intent.setAction(Intent.ACTION_GET_CONTENT);
startActivityForResult(Intent.createChooser(intent,"Select Picture"), 1);

Note: the EXTRA_ALLOW_MULTIPLE option is only available in Android API 18 and higher.

Define these variables in the class:

int PICK_IMAGE_MULTIPLE = 1; 
String imageEncoded;    
List<String> imagesEncodedList;

Let's Assume that onClick on a button it should open gallery to select images

 Intent intent = new Intent();
 intent.setType("image/*");
 intent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_ALLOW_MULTIPLE, true);
 intent.setAction(Intent.ACTION_GET_CONTENT);
 startActivityForResult(Intent.createChooser(intent,"Select Picture"), PICK_IMAGE_MULTIPLE);

Then you should override onActivityResult Method

@Override
protected void onActivityResult(int requestCode, int resultCode, Intent data) {
    try {
        // When an Image is picked
        if (requestCode == PICK_IMAGE_MULTIPLE && resultCode == RESULT_OK
                    && null != data) {
            // Get the Image from data

            String[] filePathColumn = { MediaStore.Images.Media.DATA };
            imagesEncodedList = new ArrayList<String>();
            if(data.getData()!=null){

                Uri mImageUri=data.getData();

                // Get the cursor
                Cursor cursor = getContentResolver().query(mImageUri,
                            filePathColumn, null, null, null);
                // Move to first row
                cursor.moveToFirst();

                int columnIndex = cursor.getColumnIndex(filePathColumn[0]);
                imageEncoded  = cursor.getString(columnIndex);
                cursor.close();

            } else {
                if (data.getClipData() != null) {
                    ClipData mClipData = data.getClipData();
                    ArrayList<Uri> mArrayUri = new ArrayList<Uri>();
                    for (int i = 0; i < mClipData.getItemCount(); i++) {

                        ClipData.Item item = mClipData.getItemAt(i);
                        Uri uri = item.getUri();
                        mArrayUri.add(uri);
                        // Get the cursor
                        Cursor cursor = getContentResolver().query(uri, filePathColumn, null, null, null);
                        // Move to first row
                        cursor.moveToFirst();

                        int columnIndex = cursor.getColumnIndex(filePathColumn[0]);
                        imageEncoded  = cursor.getString(columnIndex);
                        imagesEncodedList.add(imageEncoded);
                        cursor.close();

                    }
                    Log.v("LOG_TAG", "Selected Images" + mArrayUri.size());
                }
            }
        } else {
            Toast.makeText(this, "You haven't picked Image",
                        Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
        }
    } catch (Exception e) {
        Toast.makeText(this, "Something went wrong", Toast.LENGTH_LONG)
                    .show();
    }

    super.onActivityResult(requestCode, resultCode, data);
}

NOTE THAT: the gallery doesn't give you the ability to select multi-images so we here open all images studio that you can select multi-images from them. and don't forget to add the permissions to your manifest

VERY IMPORTANT: getData(); to get one single image and I've stored it here in imageEncoded String if the user select multi-images then they should be stored in the list

So you have to check which is null to use the other

Wish you have a nice try and to others

A lot of these answers have similarities but are all missing the most important part which is in onActivityResult, check if data.getClipData is null before checking data.getData

The code to call the file chooser:

Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_GET_CONTENT);
intent.setType("image/*"); //allows any image file type. Change * to specific extension to limit it
//**The following line is the important one!
intent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_ALLOW_MULTIPLE, true);
startActivityForResult(Intent.createChooser(intent, "Select Picture"), SELECT_PICTURES); //SELECT_PICTURES is simply a global int used to check the calling intent in onActivityResult

The code to get all of the images selected:

@Override
public void onActivityResult(int requestCode, int resultCode, Intent data) {
    super.onActivityResult(requestCode, resultCode, data);
    if(requestCode == SELECT_PICTURES) {
        if(resultCode == Activity.RESULT_OK) {
            if(data.getClipData() != null) {
                int count = data.getClipData().getItemCount(); //evaluate the count before the for loop --- otherwise, the count is evaluated every loop.
                for(int i = 0; i < count; i++) {
                    Uri imageUri = data.getClipData().getItemAt(i).getUri();
                    //do something with the image (save it to some directory or whatever you need to do with it here)
                } 
            }
        } else if(data.getData() != null) {
            String imagePath = data.getData().getPath();
            //do something with the image (save it to some directory or whatever you need to do with it here)
        }
    }
}

Note that Android's chooser has Photos and Gallery available on some devices. Photos allows multiple images to be selected. Gallery allows just one at a time.

I hope this answer isn't late. Because the gallery widget doesn't support multiple selection by default, but you can custom the gridview which accepted your multiselect intent. The other option is to extend the gallery view and add in your own code to allow multiple selection.
This is the simple library can do it: https://github.com/luminousman/MultipleImagePick

Update:
From @ilsy's comment, CustomGalleryActivity in this library use manageQuery, which is deprecated, so it should be changed to getContentResolver().query() and cursor.close() like this answer

Initialize instance:

private String imagePath;
private List<String> imagePathList;

In onActivityResult You have to write this, If-else 2 block. One for single image and another for multiple image.

if (requestCode == GALLERY_CODE && resultCode == RESULT_OK  && data != null) {

    imagePathList = new ArrayList<>();

    if (data.getClipData() != null) {

        int count = data.getClipData().getItemCount();
        for (int i=0; i<count; i++) {
            Uri imageUri = data.getClipData().getItemAt(i).getUri();
            getImageFilePath(imageUri);
        }
    }
    else if (data.getData() != null) {
        Uri imgUri = data.getData();
        getImageFilePath(imgUri);
    }
}

Most important part, Get Image Path from uri:

public void getImageFilePath(Uri uri) {

    File file = new File(uri.getPath());
    String[] filePath = file.getPath().split(":");
    String image_id = filePath[filePath.length - 1];

    Cursor cursor = getContentResolver().query(android.provider.MediaStore.Images.Media.EXTERNAL_CONTENT_URI, null, MediaStore.Images.Media._ID + " = ? ", new String[]{image_id}, null);
    if (cursor!=null) {
        cursor.moveToFirst();
        imagePath = cursor.getString(cursor.getColumnIndex(MediaStore.Images.Media.DATA));
        imagePathList.add(imagePath);
        cursor.close();
    }
}

Hope this can help you.

I got null from the Cursor. Then found a solution to convert the Uri into Bitmap that works perfectly.

Here is the solution that works for me:

@Override
public void onActivityResult(int requestCode, int resultCode, @Nullable Intent data) {
{

    if (resultCode == Activity.RESULT_OK) {

        if (requestCode == YOUR_REQUEST_CODE) {

            if (data != null) {

                if (data.getData() != null) {

                    Uri contentURI = data.getData();
                    ex_one.setImageURI(contentURI);

                    Log.d(TAG, "onActivityResult: " + contentURI.toString());
                    try {

                        Bitmap bitmap = MediaStore.Images.Media.getBitmap(context.getContentResolver(), contentURI);

                    } catch (IOException e) {
                        e.printStackTrace();
                    }

                } else {

                    if (data.getClipData() != null) {
                        ClipData mClipData = data.getClipData();
                        ArrayList<Uri> mArrayUri = new ArrayList<Uri>();
                        for (int i = 0; i < mClipData.getItemCount(); i++) {

                            ClipData.Item item = mClipData.getItemAt(i);
                            Uri uri = item.getUri();
                            try {
                                Bitmap bitmap = MediaStore.Images.Media.getBitmap(context.getContentResolver(), uri);
                            } catch (IOException e) {
                                e.printStackTrace();
                            }

                        }
                    }

                }

            }

        }

    }

}