Develop Reference

Does SharedPreferences name need to be unique?

Probably a dumb question, but I"m using a SharedPreference with a few different names "MyPrefs1", "MyPrefs2" etc.
I'm assuming this is restricted to my app. i.e. if some other app tries to use the same name, it won't overwrite my values
I pretty much believe my understanding is correct, but the name "SharedPreferences" seem to indicate that it can be shared between apps? (is it for Sharing between activities?)

That's correct, the SharedPreferences are stored in your app's private folder (to be exact, in /data/data/your package name/shared_prefs).
You can give them whatever name you want.

SharedPreferences represent the preferences which can be shared between different components of your application. The SharedPreferences you create in your application is never exposed with other applications.
Whether you use PreferenceManager.getDefaultSharedPreferences() or Context.getSharedPreferences("file_name", Context.MODE_PRIVATE); both are particular to your application only.
Note - SharedPreferences or Preferences is not exposed to other applications.

Although you assumption is right that the SharedPreferences are not shared between apps and thus names cannot clash, it's a good practice (besides of put a specific name to your shared preferences file) to add the package of your application as a prefix. This is useful if you have different flavours and you don't want to overwrite your preferences among them, especially when you're testing an app and don't want to screw up the original values of the shared preferences files.

How to create sharedpref shared by few apps?

I have 4-5 different apps and I want to keep their settings parameters common. I want to do it through sharedpref.
Please suggest how to share sharedpref among different apps without making it public for all app.

using following function:
getSharedPreference(String name, int mode)
retrieves and holds content of file path with particular name.
MODE_PRIVATE: File creation mode: the default mode, where the created
file can only be accessed by the calling application (or all
applications sharing the same user ID).
MODE_WORLD_READABLE: File creation mode: allow all other applications
to have read access to the created file.
MODE_WORLD_WRITEABLE : File creation mode: allow all other
applications to have write access to the created file.
To access World Readable/Writeable from different app:
Context myContext = createPackageContext("com.example.app",
Context.MODE_WORLD_READABLE); // where com.example.app is the app containing the preferences
SharedPreferences testPrefs = myContext.getSharedPreferences
("test_prefs", Context.MODE_WORLD_READABLE); //test_prefs is the name in getSharePreference's argument

You could create a service that will be used by those applications, it will be managing your preferences. For service you can specify which applications can use it.

Use same key to read and write shared preference in all your apps you will get the same result as you get in app1 and in app2 ...

SharedPreferences: What are they shared with?

I find the name of stored preferences on Android (SharedPreferences) to be a tad confusing. It was probably chosen with a purpose, so how exactly are these preferences shared? e.g. I don't want other applications accessing my app's information willy-nilly.
What is the difference between preferences from getPreferences() and preferences from getSharedPreferences(), and what is the difference between the different modes? How should I choose which to use? (Heck, if I have a multi-activity program, will using just the regular getPreferences be detrimental?)
My imagination regarding the use of these things is still pretty limited.

It was probably chosen with a purpose, so how exactly are these preferences shared?
They are shared among all components of your application (e.g., all of your activities).
e.g. I don't want other applications accessing my app's information willy-nilly.
SharedPreferences are private to your application by default.
What is the difference between preferences from getPreferences() and preferences from getSharedPreferences(), and what is the difference between the different modes? How should I choose which to use? (Heck, if I have a multi-activity program, will using just the regular getPreferences be detrimental?)
I am not quite certain what you are referring to, since you provided just bare method names with no classes. If you are intending on collecting preference values from the user via the preference screen system, use PreferenceManager.getDefaultSharedPreferences(). I generally use that for everything.

Sharedprefernce are basically key,value pairs with can are saved in an xml and is accessible by an application. You can use it to save some setting value or default values or any other form of key value pairs.
So a key,value pair can be saved in one activity can be accessed in other activity.
Different modes means that whether the data saved can be used by other application or not. You should not worry about all modes. As MODE_WORLD_READABLE & MODE_WORLD_WRITEABLE are deprecated now.
For the difference:-
Difference between getShared/get preference

Android: Cannot access other app's SharedPreference

I've been searching for days to solve this, but with no success.
I want to get the shared preference settings from my old app and put it on to my new app.
but I've encounter some security issue (suspect).
my code:
Context c = createPackageContext("my.app.pkg", Context.CONTEXT_IGNORE_SECURITY);
SharedPreferences sp = c.getSharedPreferences("my.app.pkg", Context.CONTEXT_IGNORE_SECURITY);
Running the code above giving me this:
Attempt to read preferences file /data/data/my.app.pkg/shared_prefs/my.app.pkg_preferences.xml without permission
even thought the object sp is not null, but it does not retrieve anything from my old app.
I tried googling around and seems like most people can run the code above with no errors.
Is there anything I've missed out?

We've done exactly this for our Android book Android in Practice. The key is to use the same process and user ID for both apps. The sample code and sample apps are on Google Code (SharedProcessApp1 and SharedProcessApp2). You can go from there.

You can indeed share preferences across applications. That's why it's called SharedPreferences.
What you need to do is make sure both application are signed with the same certificate and they both share the same SharedUserId in the AndroidManifest.xml file: read here.
This is because the SharedPreferences you get from
PreferenceManager.getDefaultSharedPreferences(context)
has always MODE_PRIVATE.
However in an application you can also get a SharedPreferences object within a Context with the following:
SharedPreferences prefs = getSharedPreferences("my_public_shared_prefs", MODE_WORLD_READABLE);
which you can freely retreive from another app with the following:
Context context = createPackageContext("my_target_app_package", Context.CONTEXT_IGNORE_SECURITY);
SharedPreferences prefs = context.getSharedPreferences("my_public_shared_prefs", MODE_WORLD_READABLE);
Make sure you don't store any private information there because it's WORLD readable, which means you and anyone else can read that data.
To finish, if you want to retrieve the SharedPreferences of your old app you will need to update the old application with a SharedUserId in the Manifest file.

Android APplications runs in their own sandbox, so one application can not access data of other activity. BUt If an application want to share some of its data, this can be achieved by ContentProvider.
See Content Provider: http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/providers/content-providers.html

Android Default Shared Preferences File Readable By Multiple Apps?

How can I have a shared preferences file that can be read by more than one app. In particular by an admin app and the app it is administrating?

Have you tried getSharedPreferences() with MODE_WORLD_WRITEABLE (assuming that both apps are supposed to be able to write to it)? One of the apps will have to create a context using the package of the other app.