We are trying to build a branded firmware for specific Android tablet (Nexus 9). The devices will be used by people waiting for flights / trains / etc and therefore have to be locked down to only allow specific apps to be opened.
Is there any way to restrict specific apps (or password-protected them) from launch? I.e. we can hide Settings app by implementing our custom Launcher, but there are still other ways to launch Settings (i.e. from top drawer). Do we have to modify the source code of Cyanogenmod and rebuild it or there is a cleaner way of configuring such stuff?
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I am writing multiple android applications. I want to have my screen divided in two or more places so that the user can view 3 or more apps simultaneously.
In other operating systems like Linux or Windows, one can view as many applications as one wants by dynamically resizing the application window.
Is it possible to have this in android?
I tried opening apps with multi-window support introduced from API level 24, but it seems to only support 2 apps simultaneously. Can this functionality be extended to 3 or more apps?
I tried forcing my app activity to fixed dimensions, so that I could hard code the dimensions of each app in order to fit them all on screen, but when the app launched it utilized the whole screen. Is there a way around this?
Yes you can do it in Samsung 9 (Android version 9). You open "Edge" menu and drag and drop window in screen. If you have different device you can try to use Samsung device farm: https://program.developer.samsung.com/cloud-device-farm-lp/
I have an customer project where I have to make single task android device. Customer isn't able to escape the application which my company have developed. Also customer isn't able to start any other application and our application is started when the device is booted. Overall all the customer is able to do with the device is run our application.
Is there any other way to make this work than rooting the device, disabling all system buttons and making our application the launcher. I have something like 400 devices for this purpose so rooting all those would cost lot of time.
I also read Google's tutorial about COSU devices but found it very confucing https://developer.android.com/work/cosu.html#testing-plan
Androids own screen pinning is not good enough because customer can escape the app. Some may suggest to use some kiosk application like SureLock but my company's goal is to find clear solution for this without using any third party apps. Also running our app via some kiosk application is not our goal.
I found some posts on the Stack Overflow with similar question, but not the answer I'm looking for.
If someone has some tips for this question I would be very grateful.
Single purpose devices built on top of Android can get difficult to implement. There are a few different options, but each have trade-offs.
As you mentioned, rooting devices will functionally get you what you want - however it will be time consuming with hundreds of devices to root, difficult to maintain, and you will (potentially) introduce security issues to your devices and app.
Another option is using Google's Lock Task Mode for COSU devices[1]. The link there has a nice graphic showing the features of lock task mode:
1 app pinned to the home screen
only apps white-listed by the DPC (device policy controller) can be locked
Home and Recent buttons hidden
exit by calling stopLockTask()
There are some downsides to using Google's solution for this. First Google recommends creating (and therefor maintaining) an entirely separate DPC app to run as a device owner and set policies[2]. You'll also be dependent on Google Play to manage application updates and be required to have Play accounts associated with each device which "are used to identify a single device that is not tied to a single user for simplified, per-device app distribution rules in COSU-style scenarios"[3]. To automatically get your DPC app on devices your "DPC must be publicly availble on Google Play, and the end user can install the DPC from the device setup wizard by entering the DPC-specific identifier."[3] You'll also need to upload the user application to Google Play[4], which may be an issue for some who don't want their apps on Play. Going this route gives you features you need, but can be complicated and also ties you and your customer pretty tightly with Google/Play services and their workflow.
You can also look at enterprise mobile deployment platforms like Mason[5]. In your case, you can create a custom Android OS in a few minutes with your app locked in kiosk mode (+ other features like disable camera/sms, remove apps and hide settings, etc.) and then deploy it to all of your devices remotely. Mason also supports OS and app updates controlled by you if your requirements change.
DISCLAIMER: I work for Mason
[1] https://developer.android.com/work/cosu.html
[2] https://developer.android.com/work/cosu.html#create-dpc
[3] https://developers.google.com/android/work/requirements/cosu
[4] https://developers.google.com/android/work/play/emm-api/samples#push_install_an_app_on_a_device
[5] https://bymason.com/
I went to the same problem before. I spent at least 3 days doing research. I tried to find many solutions but I found zero.
How I solve is
1. Up To JellyBean
- Use System Alert Dialog (And make it transparent and small size like 2 * 2 And display in some corner(User can't see it)). User can't press home button If there is system Alert dialog
2. After JellyBean, This method doesn't work. The user can press the home button even though there is System Alert Dialog.
so what I did is, start the service on stop and start the same activity again and again(within sec). So user can't see any difference.Don't forget to make activity as single task so that even though you start same activity from service, again and again, new activity will not create (So Ugly way )
- You can simple make screen full screen. make sure in kiosk mode try to check if the screen is in full-screen mode. if not make it full-screen mode(its not hard to do)
- other way is to make launcher app but when ever you pressed home button it always asked to choose launcher app. if user mistakenly choose default/ other launcher app, this solution doesnt work
Good luck
Make your application as a launcher application by defining in manifest file.
After that go to setting of your mobile device and change default launcher application to your application.
This question already has answers here:
Closed 10 years ago.
Possible Duplicate:
Is it possible to configure an Android install to run a single app?
So, basically, I'm currently working on an android application that is intended for use on dedicated tablets inside of classsrooms. While using this app, we don't want the students to back out and go messing around, ignoring what they're supposed to be doing. Is there a way to:
a) Have an app launch on startup, so there's no initial access to the home screen
b) Lock the app so it can't be backed out of, and will be the only thing to run
The only way to achieve what you're looking for is:
Modify Android at the firmware level
Make your app the homescreen replacement.
Option 2 is considerably easier. Basically, you tell Android that your app is the replacement home screen, and then set it as the default on each device. That way, whenever the device is unlocked, your app will be shown, and pressing the home button will only launch your app. This essentially stops the device from opening up any other apps, unless it is done via notifications, which you can take away by making your app full screen. The only possibility left to leave your app now is via recent apps, or a service that launched apps on a device shake or something. You can get around this by making sure that no other app was launched prior to yours, or clearing the recent apps manually. The service can be gotten around by simple not installing any app that does that.
You can look into the default home screen app, which is open source and available at:
https://android.googlesource.com/platform/packages/apps/Launcher2.git
I've done a fair amount of research on this and the options are not pretty:
1) Write your own Android home screen
This one is involved but seems doable. Theoretically you could choose to write a home screen that only includes a link to your app and doesn't allow any other icons.
Try this link
2) Create you own lock screen
This may give you more control over the device, but the only options historically have been to use unpublished APIs that have been now been changed to disallow this.
I'm developing a tablet app on a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 (Android 3.2). The tablet will be dedicated to running this app, which is used in an industrial environment. Our app will "own" the tablet and users can only access device features via our software. We already have a successful app like this running on phone-sized devices running Gingerbread.
On the bottom of the tablet screen Samsung has placed a "System Bar" (N.B.- NOT the Action Bar) and all kinds of other apps and widgets can be accessed from this bar. Is there any way to programmatically access this System Bar, to either modify (depopulate it of all its apps and clutter and just keep the Home and Back buttons), or to hide it altogether?
Thanks in advance.
You can hide the bar programmatically, but it requires root access to do so. This guy wrote an app to do it, and published the source code.
It is possible to remove the mini-apps, but it requires root - remove the APKs that the "mini apps" refer to, and they will disappear from the bar. There is no way to easily or programmatically do this, and your best option is to write a custom ROM with those apps removed. It's a giant pain in the ass.
If you don't need anything specifically from 3.2, then you should be able to track down a stock android 3.1 image that shipped on the galaxy Tab before touchwiz was ready. This will not have the "mini apps" or the screenshot button on the system bar. If you flash that, you won't need to root, as it's a signed image.
Im develping an app using apk 12 for 10.1 inch galaxy tablet. I would like to design a home screen only with my apps icon so that user will not be able to access anything else. Can I do that ? If yes, how ??
I would like to design a home screen only with my apps icon so that user will not be able to access anything else. Can I do that ?
Yes, it is possible to create a home screen application.
If yes, how ??
There is a Home sample app in your Android SDK installation (assuming you installed the samples from the SDK Manager). It largely boils down to having an activity with an <intent-filter> using CATEGORY_HOME.
Note that the user who installs your app will have the option of choosing between your home screen and the built-in one. Even if they make your home screen the default one, they will still be able to revert that decision by removing your app:
by booting in safe mode
via the Android SDK (e.g., adb uninstall)
by getting into Settings through notifications and the like
possibly other means
For ur knowledge lot many thing are diff for honeycomb.
For your knowledge, nothing changed in this area with Android 3.0.