How to make dedicated turnkey apps on Android tablet

Question

I would like to use an XOOM tablet as a dedicated application for registering participants at a conference. This means the application should always be active and not allow the casual user to exit the application or access the underlying OS. Is it possible to do something like this with Android 3.0?

the term you're looking for is "kiosk" if that helps your google efforts — Chris McCall, Mar 01 '11 at 18:21

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 01 '11 at 18:39

2

This is not possible without editing the underlying OS. An application cannot prevent the user from hitting the home key to exit the app.

answered Mar 01 '11 at 18:39

Cheryl Simon

46,552
15
93
82

jakebasile · Answer 2 · 2011-03-02T14:25:09.110

2

This is probably a pretty hacky thing to do, but you could declare the activity you want to always be shown with the intent filter:

    <intent-filter>
        <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
        <category android:name="android.intent.category.HOME"/>
        <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
    </intent-filter>

And then press home once. When Android asks what app to use, select your app and set it as default.

You can also override the default onBackPressed method in your activity to just do nothing.

More info from this example app. I have no idea if this will actually work in practice, just a thought I had.

edited Mar 02 '11 at 14:25

answered Mar 01 '11 at 20:05

jakebasile

8,084
3
28
34

This might make it slightly harder, but you can still return to the default home screen by holding the back button. – Cheryl Simon Mar 01 '11 at 22:11
You can intercept the back button though. – alexanderblom Mar 01 '11 at 22:39

How to make dedicated turnkey apps on Android tablet

2 Answers2