How to Get ALL Installed Apps on Your Android Phone Using Kotlin

Описание: Discover how to retrieve all installed apps on your Android device with this comprehensive guide. Ensure you have the right permissions and code to access complete app information.
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This video is based on the question https://stackoverflow.com/q/71403093/ asked by the user 'skushu' ( https://stackoverflow.com/u/16526054/ ) and on the answer https://stackoverflow.com/a/71404335/ provided by the user 'oibarra93' ( https://stackoverflow.com/u/6926036/ ) at 'Stack Overflow' website. Thanks to these great users and Stackexchange community for their contributions.

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How to Get ALL Installed Apps on Your Android Phone Using Kotlin

Are you a developer looking to fetch all installed applications on an Android device? You might have tried using getInstalledApplications and getInstalledPackages methods only to find out that they seem to return just the default applications. If you've hit a roadblock similar to this, you are not alone! In this post, we will explore the root of the issue and provide a well-structured solution to help you get all installed apps reliably.

The Problem

While many developers resort to using the getInstalledApplications and getInstalledPackages methods, they often get unexpected results. For example:

You might find that these methods do not return all apps like YouTube, which is a default application on many devices.

Depending on the API level of your simulator versus your actual device, you may see differing results, leading to confusion about which apps are genuinely installed.

The Solution

If you want to get a comprehensive list of all installed apps, including those that may not appear by default, follow these steps:

Step 1: Update Your Code

The initial code you provided is mostly correct but might not yield the desired results due to permission restrictions. Here's the updated version of your code snippet for reference:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Step 2: Add Necessary Permissions

To ensure you can access all installed apps, you need to add specific permissions to your Android Manifest file. This is crucial because querying installed applications involves sensitive information that requires explicit permission.

Here’s how to do it:

Open your Android Manifest file.

Add the following permission:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Important Note about Play Store Submission

Before you publish your app to the Google Play Store, keep in mind that your application will undergo scrutiny because queries for applications are classified as sensitive information. You may need to provide justification to the Google Play team about why your app requires access to this data.

Conclusion

By following the above steps, you should be able to retrieve a complete list of all installed applications on your Android device without any issues. The key takeaway is to ensure that you have the correct permissions set in your Manifest file, as this allows you to bypass restrictions that may prevent access to non-default apps.

Happy coding, and I hope this guide helps you navigate the complexities of retrieving installed apps on Android! If you have any questions or run into issues, feel free to leave them in the comments below.