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I've come across this app, which as one of the functionalities, can scan your phone to retrieve a list of installed apps. I have read the thread on SO here concerning retrieving a list of installed apps by accessing private folders, private APIs, etc. but the answers only apply to jailbroken/sandbox-free applications, which can't be put on the App Store. But this app has been approved and is available now on the store.

How is it that they are retrieving a list of the users installed applications without the use of private APIs?

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Milo
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After further analysis, I've discovered that they aren't retrieving a list of every installed application per se, rather they are most likely looping over a database of known popular app URLs (in the app's case, 17,000 urls, probably retrieved from a server somewhere), by calling [[UIApplication sharedApplication] canOpenURL:url] repeatedly for each URL and adding it to an array when it returns YES.

Milo
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