Android Question Package Manager

[fbritop]

When using PackageManager to list installed apps, only default OS apps are listed. This is a known restriction that affects targetSdkVersion>29

No effective way until now for listing apps. For ex, we have several CRM communications channel, one of them is WhatsApp integrated with WhatsApp Business API, we check if the user has whatsapp installed, so we can offer him that channel. Same thing with Telegram.

As I exposed on an Android Question, this feature has some backdoors that can be tweak.

Package visibility in Android 11 | Android Developers

Android 11 introduces changes to package visibility that affect apps targeting Android 11.

developer.android.com

 

[agraham]

To answer your original query, to check if WhatsApp is installed add this to your project manifest where packagename is that of the required app to check. You can add more than one package to the queries element.

AddManifestText("<queries>
    <package android:name="packagename" />
    <package android:name="anotherpackagename" />
</queries>")

If the package is installed it will show up in the GetInstalledPackages list.

 

[agraham]

If you want to get all the packages add this to the manifest

AddPermission(android.permission.QUERY_ALL_PACKAGES)

and request permission as usual

    Dim rp As RuntimePermissions
    rp.CheckAndRequest( "android.permission.QUERY_ALL_PACKAGES")
    Wait For Activity_PermissionResult (Permission As String, Result As Boolean)
    Log($"QUERY_ALL_PACKAGES = ${Result}"$)

Note that Google will not usually allow this for Play Store apps.

 

[Erel]

This is not a bug. Moved to the questions forum.