How to add shortcut to Home screen in android programmatically

Question

This issue has arisen when I was developing an android application. I thought of sharing the knowledge I gathered during my development.

to the mods that marked as duplicate: pls note that the answers on your duplicate do not fully address the question. Hence the OP decided to [ask a new question](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/ask), as advised. You will see that his self answer contains very different info to the accepted answer on the duplicate. Pls consider for reopening. — Richard Le Mesurier, Nov 17 '13 at 09:35
This seems like an easy way to gain reputation as he's almost reproducing an older article without even giving credits:http://viralpatel.net/blogs/android-install-uninstall-shortcu t-example/ — igorsantos07, Sep 10 '14 at 13:48

score 72 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 18 '18 at 04:43

72

Android provide us an intent class com.android.launcher.action.INSTALL_SHORTCUT which can be used to add shortcuts to home screen. In following code snippet we create a shortcut of activity MainActivity with the name HelloWorldShortcut.

First we need to add permission INSTALL_SHORTCUT to android manifest xml.

<uses-permission
        android:name="com.android.launcher.permission.INSTALL_SHORTCUT" />

The addShortcut() method creates a new shortcut on Home screen.

private void addShortcut() {
    //Adding shortcut for MainActivity 
    //on Home screen
    Intent shortcutIntent = new Intent(getApplicationContext(),
            MainActivity.class);

    shortcutIntent.setAction(Intent.ACTION_MAIN);

    Intent addIntent = new Intent();
    addIntent
            .putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_SHORTCUT_INTENT, shortcutIntent);
    addIntent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_SHORTCUT_NAME, "HelloWorldShortcut");
    addIntent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_SHORTCUT_ICON_RESOURCE,
            Intent.ShortcutIconResource.fromContext(getApplicationContext(),
                    R.drawable.ic_launcher));

    addIntent
            .setAction("com.android.launcher.action.INSTALL_SHORTCUT");
    addIntent.putExtra("duplicate", false);  //may it's already there so don't duplicate
    getApplicationContext().sendBroadcast(addIntent);
}

Note how we create shortcutIntent object which holds our target activity. This intent object is added into another intent as EXTRA_SHORTCUT_INTENT.

Finally we broadcast the new intent. This adds a shortcut with name mentioned as EXTRA_SHORTCUT_NAME and icon defined by EXTRA_SHORTCUT_ICON_RESOURCE.

Also put this code to avoid multiple shortcuts :

  if(!getSharedPreferences(Utils.APP_PREFERENCE, Activity.MODE_PRIVATE).getBoolean(Utils.IS_ICON_CREATED, false)){
          addShortcut();
          getSharedPreferences(Utils.APP_PREFERENCE, Activity.MODE_PRIVATE).edit().putBoolean(Utils.IS_ICON_CREATED, true);
      }

edited Apr 18 '18 at 04:43

SMR

6,628
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answered Jun 01 '13 at 13:31

Chanaka udaya

5,134
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thanks for the well investigated answer on undocumented functionality – Richard Le Mesurier Nov 17 '13 at 09:36
8

Don´t worked for me – David Feb 21 '14 at 04:08
2

I think that now the play store automatically does that for the user. (Can be changed in the settings) so this would only make 2 icons on the desktop. – Gal Bracha Jul 20 '14 at 09:05
7

Add this `addIntent.putExtra("duplicate", false)` To stop being creating multiple shortcuts – Elshan Feb 27 '15 at 11:38
Play store does it automaticlly – Aniruddha K.M May 21 '15 at 08:40
Where is the class Utils ? – Oct 13 '15 at 09:39
@Chanaka Where should this code be added ? The short cut should appear on the home screen before the app is opened. – Vinay Feb 23 '16 at 11:00
11

I think you need a `.commit()` at the end – Jason John Apr 27 '16 at 11:43
1

can not resolve symbol "Utils" I am getting this error. – Rahul Sonone Jun 06 '16 at 12:10
It works for me. Make sure activity exported, otherwise the launcher has no permission to start the activity. – Weiyi Jun 21 '16 at 07:05
This doesn't work in all devices. – Manikanta Mar 21 '17 at 10:44
1

What is utils ? I am getting "cannot resolve symbol utils" – user3304007 Aug 07 '17 at 22:20
this issue is not work on android 8.0 or oreo and newer – AminRah Nov 13 '18 at 15:15
i'm looking for oreo and above – Syed Hussain Mehdi Nov 15 '18 at 06:28
Please update the answer – Yogesh Rathi Dec 07 '18 at 18:42
1

In android oreo and above, try the pinned shortcuts - https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/ui/shortcuts/ – Ajit Feb 04 '19 at 12:19
note: this only seems to work pre API 26 – DarkPh03n1X Dec 16 '21 at 11:51

How to add shortcut to Home screen in android programmatically

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