Start Android application without launcher - android

How to start an application that has no launcher activity?
Story behind the problem:
I have an application that is basically a BroadcastReceiver that waits for a couple system intents like BOOT_COMPLETED. The problem is that as my application has no Activity, it doesn't get started and so it receives no intent.
Android 3.1 release notes mention that intent options can be overridden to start up applications but I assume it requires another active application to do so.
P.S. Write all the ways you know. ADB commands as well.

First piece of advice would be to make a very simple "Welcome to my App" Activity that could be run. Use it to show a splash screen, some advertising, or be a settings screen. That gets you around the "no Activity" problem.
As far as I know, you cannot have anything hooking into BOOT_COMPLETED until and Activity in your application has been run. So you need to have an Activity of some sort.

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android hidden app strategy

I'm trying to create an app "hidden" from applications list.
The way i though the user will start the app is through a Receiver listening for NEW_OUTGOING_CALL and intercept a particular number dialed.
The problem is that on new Android versions, this receiver will never be activated if the app never start once. (Starting the application from a BroadCastReceiver (NEW_OUTGOING_CALL doesn't always work)).
I can't figure out a workaround for this problem: the app launcher is totally hidden so the user cannot never launch the app, and the receiver would never be activated if the app will never start.
Is there any other strategy or workaround for hide and launch the app with some kind of secret action?
Create a activity with manifest file pointing it as the the Launcher activity and make it transparent and call its finish method in onCreate. User clicking on that icon will have no idea that the activity is opened. But why don't you show the About application kind of screen in the launcher activity?

Start my android application *in the background* on boot

I am successfully able to start my Android app automatically on boot using BroadcastReceiver with an intent-filter BOOT_COMPLETED. In my onReceive method, I start the launcher activity for my application.
However, I don't want this application to be in the foreground on boot, but I do want it to be on the activity stack. Is there a way to still have the home screen show up on boot, but also have my application starts up. (I don't think I want to use a Service, because my application has UI.)
Decision on weather you should or should not use Service in appliction is independent on weather it has UI or not. All "third party" apps have UI, there is little use of application without at least 1 activity.
So in your case, just use Service.

How to implement an app locker in android?

I am not satisfied with any of the app locker programs for Android that I have found and would like to create my own, but I am having trouble figuring out how to implement the actual lock. How does one go about implementing an app locker for Android?
There are two issues:
Detecting an Intent, usually from the launcher calling startActivity() or from an ad launching the market app (I'm not talking about broadcast intents -- I need to handle explicit Activity Intents).
The permissions for the locker apps I have seen all have "read system log files" and/or "retrieve running applications" which suggests they might use polling to look for app launches. I think I could do this, but I would like to find a better solution if possible.
Preventing the locked app from processing the Intent. I would prefer not to allow the locked app to run at all until the passcode is entered since it is impossible to tell what it might do when it starts up.
When running my current app locker, logcat shows "ActivityManager: Starting activity" first with the Intent for the locked app, then again with the Intent for the app locker, with nothing in between (separated by 10-20ms). If I enter the correct passcode then I see "ActivityManager: moveTaskToBack".
I have experimented with a test app which demonstrates that, using my current app locker, none of the Activity callbacks are invoked if the app is locked and I do not enter the correct passcode. So it appears to be preventing the app from starting (but I don't know how).
I could use ActivityManager.killBackgroundProcesses() to stop an app, but I have no guarantee that the app hasn't already started running by the time it gets "killed".
I might be able to use PackageManager.setApplicationEnabledSetting() to prevent an app from being instantiated, but I don't think that will take care of apps that are already running (which shouldn't be allowed to process new Intents or come to the foreground). I might be able to use killBackgroundProcesses() to stop all running locked processes so they would have to be re-instantiated. But I don't like this approach because other apps could mess with the Enabled settings and defeat the lock.
Optimally, the system would send every Intent to my app for inspection and allow me to stop or let it pass through, but I'm pretty sure that's not possible (at least, not for explicit intents to start activities from a launcher).
Does anyone know how app locker apps are implemented, or have any bright ideas on how it could be done?
I would look into the lifecycle. Once the app in question begins to load, some activity from that package will be added to the forefront activity.
A scan of the changes in forefront activities might do the trick.
http://developer.android.com/reference/android/app/Activity.html#ProcessLifecycle

simple app which sends one sms without gui required

I want to write an app to send an sms from a shortcut on a home screen. That is all.
I just can't understand within the framework how I can write such an app. Here's what I've tried so far and what my ideas are:
I wrote an activity that sends an sms using SmsManager within the onCreate() however, this just keeps on sending messages even though the code is not in a loop. I realise I must be not be using an activity the way it's designed to be used. The android application fundamentals article says an activity is for displaying a screen or gui, but I don't need a gui. I just don't know what component I need to to use.
A service? no, because I don't need something running forever in the background.
An activity? I guess no because I don't need a gui.
I had an idea to create a broadcast receiver which would respond to a broadcast, so my sens smsm code would be in there ready to send when it receives the signal. But how do i send the signal from an app shortcut on the home screen? What would be the entry point of the app.
I'm just really confused, I've read the tutorials and the app fundamentals and searched forums and not found the answer. There's is just a big gap in my knowledge of the android framework that needs filling I guess, once it clicks I'll be fine but I'm just stuck right now.
Thanks people.
Service does not have to run forever. You can control how long it works in the background, you can even create Service that will shoot once and disappear. Suggestion:
from your shortcut (app icon) start Activity. That will be activity with translucent background. To achieve that skip line setContentView() and define theme
#android:style/Theme.Translucent
in your AndroidManifest.xml. This way you will avoid black screen flash at Activity startup.
from that Activity start Service and call finish() on that Activity
perform SMS sending (you already know how) from Service. Maybe, you do not even need Service, you can send SMS from the translucent Activity.
call stopSelf() from your Service immediatelly or after some short timeout (wait for SMS sending result).
All described can be done smoothly through Widget framework. In that case you can even have custom button user may press on. So, that would be another approach.

How to start android service on installation

I have a device management application, which essentially runs as a service in the background from boot. I'd like to start this application immediately after installation. How do I achieve this?
You cannot do this -- there is no way to automatically start your service merely because it was installed.
The application must first be invoked by the user through some sort of activity. Or, you are going to need to hook into some relevant broadcast Intent via the manifest, so you can get control when one of those events occur and kick off your service that way. Or, you are going to need to ask the user to reboot so your BOOT_COMPLETED Intent filter can get control.
There was a hole - the Android Analytics SDK used to send an intent right after installation - but that got closed (producing lots of confusion, of course).
But the final answer, I believe, is here:
http://developer.android.com/about/versions/android-3.1.html#launchcontrols
This seems to suggest that, as of 3.1, Google made the decision that apps are in a stopped state until the user explicitly activates them, e.g. by launching app or placing widget.
This means that the strategy of listening of a common broadcast (i.e. to get your app launched surreptitiously) won't work either.

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