Set Default Android Launcher on Huawei devices?

Question

My Goal is here is to set my app as default launcher on Huawei devices.

1 - Explanations:

1.1 - Current situation:

I am already able to:

Check if my app is the default launcher
Display the 'launcher picker' (with the 'use once' / 'always' choice)

This all works fine.. except on Huawei devices!

From my point of view, Huawei's Android flavor does not properly 'honor' the "ACTION_MANAGE_DEFAULT_APPS_SETTINGS" intent action contract.

// this displays the list of default apps on all tested devices, except on Huawei devices!
// instead, it does display apps permissions, app links and apps'advanced settings
intent.setAction(Settings.ACTION_MANAGE_DEFAULT_APPS_SETTINGS);
activity.startActivity(intent);

As a B Plan, I am able to display the 'Applications & Notifications' settings 'page' using this:

String packageName = "com.android.settings";
String className = "Settings$AppAndNotificationDashboardActivity";
intent.setClassName(packageName, packageName + "." + className);
activity.startActivity(intent);

So the user can navigate from there, pressing this sequence of menu items:

-> Advanced Parameters ( expandable menu item : not present on tablet, and not sure it's present on phone)
-> Default Apps
-> Default Launcher

This requires 2 or 3 steps that I would like to avoid.

1.2 - This can be improved!

I found out that when the "-> Default Apps" menu item is selected, a (com.android.settings, .SubSettings) Intent (with extra) is launched but I was not able to make this works (permission denial).

But I installed Nova Launcher and it turns out it's able to display the "-> Default Apps" settings page on Huawei devices!
So the user land on a page where she/he only has to tap on "-> Default Launcher" then choose a default launcher: much easier.

2 - Questions:

As I think it's just not possible to display the 'Lancher Picker' on Huawei devices, here is my question:
How can I display the "-> Default Apps" settings page (image down here) on Huawei devices (like Nova Launcher does)?
Are they using another intent action on Huawei devices?

Thanks beforehand your help.

score 7 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 15 '19 at 02:11

7

Yes on Huawei devices, Nova uses a different intent to open to the correct screen. I likely found this by using apktool on the Settings.apk pulled from a Huawei device and looking at the AndroidManifest. Note that "com.android" is always a code smell as it means it's not part of the public API. Also this isn't even really "com.android" as it doesn't exist on AOSP and com.android.settings.PREFERRED_SETTINGS is purely a Huawei invention. It's very likely that some Huawei devices won't have this at all. It's also possible that in the future this intent might continue to work but not do what it currently does. So handle it carefully.

/* Some Huawei devices don't let us reset normally, handle it by opening preferred apps */
Intent preferredApps = new Intent("com.android.settings.PREFERRED_SETTINGS");
preferredApps.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK | Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TASK);
if (pm.resolveActivity(preferredApps, 0) != null) {
    context.startActivity(preferredApps);
} else {
    ...
}

answered Jan 15 '19 at 02:11

Kevin TeslaCoil

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I did the very same thing a few days ago! And you should also check the Intent.FLAG_HW_HOME_INTENT_FROM_SYSTEM value (using reflection). If it's NOT 0 AND API level is 21 or above AND Build.BRAND equalsIgnoreCase "huawei", then you can 'try' to use this "com.android.settings.PREFERRED_SETTINGS" intent. – Pascal Jan 16 '19 at 09:23
Ha, yes I see you decompiled Nova :P. You don't need to specifically check that flag, I'm just using it as a likely indicator. In general when detecting OEMs changes it's better to detect the software instead of the hardware, and reflection for a constant is an easy way to do that. If they refactor it's likely the original issue needs a new workaround anyway. And BTW really the check should be if the flag exists at all or not, the != 0 is just how my reflection helper works. – Kevin TeslaCoil Jan 29 '19 at 05:04
Kevin, indeed, I decompiled your Nova app and found that. Thanks a lot for sharing this explanation. Thanks a lot for Nova (on behalf of the entire world): Nova is really AMAZING! Bravo! (On my side, I use a different approach: I try to offer a simplified version of Android to elderly persons ( elementique.com/fr/ ok english version under construction). This is a homemade and kind of tough project as I am doing everything on my own) – Pascal Jan 29 '19 at 08:36
This will open the general preferred apps screen, not the launcher selection screen. Launcher selection is `com.google.android.permissioncontroller/com.android.packageinstaller.role.ui.HomeSettingsActivity` – artem Aug 28 '20 at 11:10

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 28 '20 at 11:15

In fact, the accepted answer is not 100% correct, because it opens a general default apps chooser activity.

It works, but it's better to bring user right to the launcher chooser activity — it's com.google.android.permissioncontroller/com.android.packageinstaller.role.ui.HomeSettingsActivity (at least for the Android 10 Huawei Honors).

So, the correct code snippet is:

Intent()
            .apply {
                component = ComponentName("com.google.android.permissioncontroller", "com.android.packageinstaller.role.ui.HomeSettingsActivity")
                addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK or Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TASK)
            }
            .takeIf {
                packageManager.resolveActivity(it, 0) != null
            }
            ?.let(context::startActivity)

Set Default Android Launcher on Huawei devices?

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