Get a list of installed applications in android

Question

I'm trying to develop an application launcher application for android. I'm in the very beginning but I have a problem here: How do I get a list of all installed applications in android?

Exact duplicate: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2695746/how-to-get-a-list-of-installed-android-applications-and-pick-one-to-run — SERPRO, Feb 22 '12 at 11:15

score 3 · Accepted Answer · edited Feb 22 '12 at 11:19

Use these methods in your activty to get a list of installed applications.

  private ArrayList<PackageInfoStruct> getPackages() {
        ArrayList<PackageInfoStruct> apps = getInstalledApps(false);
        final int max = apps.size();
        for (int i=0; i < max; i++) {
            apps.get(i);
        }
        return apps;
    }

    private ArrayList<PackageInfoStruct> getInstalledApps(boolean getSysPackages) {

        List<PackageInfo> packs = getPackageManager().getInstalledPackages(0);
        try{
            app_labels = new String[packs.size()];
        }catch(Exception e){
            Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(),e.getMessage(),Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
        }
        for(int i=0;i < packs.size();i++) {
            PackageInfo p = packs.get(i);
            if ((!getSysPackages) && (p.versionName == null)) {
                continue ;
            }
            PackageInfoStruct newInfo = new PackageInfoStruct();
            newInfo.appname = p.applicationInfo.loadLabel(getPackageManager()).toString();
            newInfo.pname = p.packageName;
            newInfo.versionName = p.versionName;
            newInfo.versionCode = p.versionCode;
            newInfo.icon = p.applicationInfo.loadIcon(getPackageManager());
            res.add(newInfo);

            app_labels[i] = newInfo.appname;
        }
        return res;
    }

this is not working for me can pls give some link or any full example. — J_K, Sep 19 '12 at 13:18
It is just an object which holds the details of the application like application name, package , version etc.. — Rakshi, Oct 09 '13 at 08:43

score 1 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:02

I'd suggest you to atleast search stackoverflow before posting a question.

From a duplicate question : via @karan

Following is the code to get the list of activities/applications installed on Android :

final Intent mainIntent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_MAIN, null);
mainIntent.addCategory(Intent.CATEGORY_LAUNCHER);
final List pkgAppsList = context.getPackageManager().queryIntentActivities( mainIntent, 0);

score 0 · Answer 3 · edited Aug 31 '21 at 00:15

An updated solution based on COD3BOY's post above. I added the declaration of the struct. I should note also, maybe due to the large time gap between posts, that ArrayLists are accessed via arrList.get(i) instead of arrList[i].

First the imports...

import android.content.pm.PackageInfo;
import android.content.pm.PackageManager;
import android.graphics.drawable.Drawable;

Then the functions...

public class PackageInfoStruct {
        String appname = "";
        String pname = "";
        String versionName = "";
        int versionCode = 0;
        Drawable icon;
        String datadir = "";
    }
    
private ArrayList<PackageInfoStruct> getInstalledApps(boolean getSysPackages) {

        List<PackageInfo> packs = getPackageManager().getInstalledPackages(0);
        ArrayList<PackageInfoStruct> res = new ArrayList<PackageInfoStruct>();

        for(int i=0;i < packs.size();i++) {
            PackageInfo p = packs.get(i);
            if ((!getSysPackages) && (p.versionName == null)) {
                continue ;
            }
            PackageInfoStruct newInfo = new PackageInfoStruct();
            newInfo.appname = p.applicationInfo.loadLabel(getPackageManager()).toString();
            newInfo.pname = p.packageName;
            newInfo.versionName = p.versionName;
            newInfo.versionCode = p.versionCode;
            newInfo.icon = p.applicationInfo.loadIcon(getPackageManager());
            res.add(newInfo);
        }
        return res;
    }

Get a list of installed applications in android

3 Answers3

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