How to start an Android application from the command line?

Question

There are similar question asked, but I can not find good any answers.

score 110 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 07 '11 at 16:30

110

adb shell
am start -n com.package.name/com.package.name.ActivityName

Or you can use this directly:

adb shell am start -n com.package.name/com.package.name.ActivityName

You can also specify actions to be filter by your intent-filters:

am start -a com.example.ACTION_NAME -n com.package.name/com.package.name.ActivityName

answered Jul 07 '11 at 16:30

Cristian

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Is activity name compulsory ?? – Code_Life May 09 '14 at 08:58
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Yes, it is mandatory. – Cristian May 09 '14 at 18:12
Calling the main activity is enough nah ? @Cristian – Vinoth Vino Oct 14 '16 at 13:30
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If you want to know the activities in an apk, see: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12698814/get-launchable-activity-name-of-package-from-adb – lepe May 16 '17 at 03:24
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It's worth mentioning the official docs for the `am start` command: https://developer.android.com/tools/adb#am – jj. May 11 '23 at 17:32

score 30 · Answer 2 · edited Jan 25 '16 at 06:19

30

You can use:

adb shell monkey -p com.package.name -c android.intent.category.LAUNCHER 1

This will start the LAUNCHER Activity of the application using monkeyrunner test tool.

edited Jan 25 '16 at 06:19

Vinay W

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answered Oct 08 '15 at 12:00

AliSh

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This does not require an activity name like `am`. – Matej Snoha Aug 10 '16 at 22:02
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What does an category specify here and how `monkey` helps to identify and start main activitu – Krishna Oza Jan 30 '17 at 10:54

John Leehey · Answer 3 · 2011-07-08T18:00:22.753

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Example here.

Pasted below:

This is about how to launch android application from the adb shell.

Command: am

Look for invoking path in AndroidManifest.xml

Browser app::

# am start -a android.intent.action.MAIN -n com.android.browser/.BrowserActivity
Starting: Intent { action=android.intent.action.MAIN comp={com.android.browser/com.android.browser.BrowserActivity} }
Warning: Activity not started, its current task has been brought to the front

Settings app::

# am start -a android.intent.action.MAIN -n com.android.settings/.Settings
Starting: Intent { action=android.intent.action.MAIN comp={com.android.settings/com.android.settings.Settings} }

edited Jul 08 '11 at 18:00

answered Jul 07 '11 at 16:31

John Leehey

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Is activity name compulsory ?? – Code_Life May 09 '14 at 08:59
Yes, it's irremissible – Colin Oct 22 '14 at 15:55

How to start an Android application from the command line?

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