Develop Reference

Resetting default launcher to system factory default

I ran into the following issue: I have an app I want my user to be able to select it as the launcher app. So far, no issues there.
Clearing said selection programmatically also isnt an issue here. Where my issue occurs is the following:
When I my custom launcher programmatically I want to go back to default launcher app, e.g. the default on a samsung galaxy. clearing the launch settings over clearPackagePrefferedActivities clears all of it but once i press the home button I get the dialog to select a default launcher again.
Is there anyway to revert back programmatically to the default launcher?

The user always needs to confirm a change in the default settings. You can always trigger the "default launcher" dialog by
PackageManager pm = getPackageManager();
ComponentName cm = new ComponentName(this, FakeLauncherActivity.class);
pm.setComponentEnabledSetting(cm, PackageManager.COMPONENT_ENABLED_STATE_ENABLED, PackageManager.DONT_KILL_APP);
Intent homeIntent= new Intent(Intent.ACTION_MAIN);
homeIntent.addCategory(Intent.CATEGORY_HOME);
homeIntent.setFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);
startActivity(homeIntent);
pm.setComponentEnabledSetting(cm, PackageManager.COMPONENT_ENABLED_STATE_DISABLED, PackageManager.DONT_KILL_APP);
Where FakeLauncherActivity is just another Activity in your app with the intent-filter HOME/MAIN/DEFAULT (without LAUNCHER).
If you want to know the default system launcher you could query the intents answering the LAUNCHER Intent, but if the user has another Launcher installed, you will not know which one is the default system launcher.
Even if this is not a complete solution for your question, I hope it helps you in a useful direction.

How to hide an app and give it the right to be access from another app?

I hope anyone can help me or give me a clear solution,
I have an app that I don't want to be opened directly from the user, so I need to hide its icon.
and in the other hand, I want to access this application from another app (App2), so I wrote this code in the function of onClick of a certain button of App2:
Intent launchIntent = getPackageManager().getLaunchIntentForPackage(package name of the first app );
startActivity(launchIntent);
Before hiding the App1 , everything was working perfectly No errors but after hiding it using the following code, it crashes:
PackageManager packageManager = this.getPackageManager();
ComponentName componentName = new ComponentName(this,FingerActivity.class);
packageManager.setComponentEnabledSetting(componentName, PackageManager.COMPONENT_ENABLED_STATE_DISABLED,
PackageManager.DONT_KILL_APP);
and the following error appear in Android Studio:
Starting: Intent { act=android.intent.action.MAIN
cat=[android.intent.category.LAUNCHER]
cmp=com.neurotec.samples.multibiometric/.fingers.FingerActivity }
Error type 3 Error: Activity class
{com.neurotec.samples.multibiometric/com.neurotec.samples.multibiometric.fingers.FingerActivity}
does not exist.
any idea?

any idea?
You disabled the component. You cannot start the component from any other app.
I have an app that I don't want to be opened directly from the user, so I need to hide its icon.
The simplest way for it to not have an icon is for you to not give it an icon. Change your <intent-filter> for that activity to be something custom for you, rather than having it have the MAIN/LAUNCHER values that causes home screens to put an icon for it in the launcher.

set custom launcher as default launcher by code

I am able to reset the default launcher by code with the help of following link
How to reset default launcher/home screen replacement?
Now, I want to set my custom launcher as default launcher. But the following code is not working. It crashes
ComponentName componentName = new ComponentName("com.xxx.launcher", "com.xxx.launcher.LauncheActivity");
PackageManager pm = getPackageManager();
int flag = ((pm.getComponentEnabledSetting(componentName) == PackageManager.COMPONENT_ENABLED_STATE_ENABLED) ? PackageManager.COMPONENT_ENABLED_STATE_DISABLED
: PackageManager.COMPONENT_ENABLED_STATE_ENABLED);
pm.setComponentEnabledSetting(componentName, flag, PackageManager.DONT_KILL_APP); //crash at this line..

I want to set my custom launcher as default launcher
That is not possible. The user can set your home screen as the default home screen, such as by pressing HOME and choosing your app as the default. However, you cannot force the user to accept your home screen as the default.
But the following code is not working. It crashes
That code does not set your "custom launcher as default launcher". That simply controls whether or not you are even a potential option for being a home screen (if you are disabled, you cannot possibly be the home screen).
As to why it is crashing, without a stack trace, that will be difficult to determine.

Allow a USER to remove app icon from Launcher?

I'm trying to programatically allow the USER to decide when to remove my app (a theme which is called from another app) from the launcher.
Currently using a button:
getPackageManager().setComponentEnabledSetting(new ComponentName("com.package.name","Main"),PackageManager.COMPONENT_ENABLED_STATE_DISABLED,0);
Sorry I'm not a coder and I'm doing something wrong, the button shows but no effect even with a launcher or phone restart.
Ideas?

OK, I actually found some other similar code which worked.
I had kept intent.category.LAUNCHER and intent.action.MAIN in Main and moved the intent that calls my app from a parent app into a new class (duh).
Then I run the folowing on a button press by which the user can remove the icon from the launcher (requires launcher/phone restart):
PackageManager pm = getPackageManager(); ComponentName name = new ComponentName(this, Main.class);
pm.setComponentEnabledSetting(name, PackageManager.COMPONENT_ENABLED_STATE_DISABLED, 0);

Why is there even a launcher icon (necessary) in the first place? Does a theme need such an icon?
Apart from that: the same question was asked and answered here: you have to restart the launcher itself to update the icon-list.

re-prompt to choose default activity

is there a way to reprompt the user to choose a default activity for an intent? For example, user selects his default home apk and I want him to reconsider his choice once again.
I know how to do that on 2.1 and before, but is there a way to do that now on 2.2?
Famous Home Switcher, which did similar thing, does not work on 2.2 anymore thanks to google team

This is how I represent the Activity selection dialog:
It start the android default ResolverActivity for "HOME" Applications.
Intent selector = new Intent("android.intent.action.MAIN");
selector.addCategory("android.intent.category.HOME");
selector.setComponent(new ComponentName("android", "com.android.internal.app.ResolverActivity"));
startActivity(selector);
The above code is working for my 2.2 enabled tablets.
When executed, it displays the "Complete Actions with:" dialog with all possible Home applications in the list.
A way to detect which is currently set by default you could ask for all preferred activities. The lists "filters" and "comps" contain the data when calling .getPreferredActivities(...).
filters - contains the intent filter data, which you could query what type of data it is.
comps - contians the component which would be called if the intent filter matches
This way you could check if your application is the current "home" application set as preferred by the user.
List<IntentFilter> filters = new ArrayList<IntentFilter>();
List<ComponentName> comps= new ArrayList<ComponentName>();
getPackageManager().getPreferredActivities(filters, comps, null);

For example, user selects his default home apk and I want him to reconsider his choice once again.
That is no longer possible, unless your app is the preferred one. Then, I think you can use clearPackagePreferredActivities() to remove yourself as the preferred choice.
In other words, you are welcome to affect your own app, but you are not welcome to affect other apps.