How to start an application using android ADB tools

Question

How do I send an intent using Android s ADB tools

User · Answer

We can as well start an application by knowing application type and feeding it with data:

adb shell am start -d "file:///sdcard/sample.3gp" -t "video/3gp" -a android.intent.action.VIEW

This command displays available Video Players to play sample.3gp file

User · Answer

Step 1  First get all the package name of the apps installed in your Device  by using  adb shell pm list packages Step 2  You will get all the package names  copy the one you want to start using adb  Step 3  Add your desired package name in the below command  adb shell monkey -p  your package name  -v 500      For Example adb shell monkey -p com estrongs android pop -v 500    to start the Es explorer

User · Answer

linux mac users can also create a script to run an apk with something like the following   create a file named  adb-run sh  with these 3 lines   pkg   aapt dump badging  1 awk -F      package   print  2   awk -F      name    print  2    act   aapt dump badging  1 awk -F      launchable-activity   print  2   awk -F      name    print  2    adb shell am start -n  pkg  act   then  chmod  x adb-run sh  to make it executable   now you can simply   adb-run sh myapp apk  The benefit here is that you don t need to know the package name or launchable activity name  Similarly  you can create  adb-uninstall sh myapp apk   Note  This requires that you have aapt in your path  You can find it under the new build tools folder in the SDK

User · Answer

You can find your app package name by below command  adb shell pm list packages  Above command returns package list of all apps  Example  org linphone debug     com android email  Now I want to start app linphone by using below command and this worked for me  adb shell am start org belphone debug

User · Answer

It s possible to run application specifying package name only using monkey tool by follow this pattern   adb shell monkey -p your app package name -c android intent category LAUNCHER 1   Command is used to run app using monkey tool which generates random input for application  The  last part of command is integer which specify the number of generated random input for app  In this case the number is 1  which in fact is used to launch the app  icon click

User · Answer

adb shell am start -n   lt appPackageName gt    lt appActitivityName gt    Ex   adb shell am start -n  com android settings  wifi WifiStatusTest    You can use APK-INFO application to know the list of App Activities with respect to each App Package

User · Answer

Also  I want to mention one more thing   When you start an application from adb shell am  it automatically adds FLAG ACTIVITY NEW TASK flag which makes behavior change  See the code   For example  if you launch Play Store activity from adb shell am  pressing  Back  button hardware back button  wouldn t take you your app  instead it would take you previous Play Store activity if there was some If there was not Play store task  then it would take you your app   FLAG ACTIVITY NEW TASK documentation says       if a task is already running for the activity you are now starting  then a new activity will not be started  instead  the current task will simply be brought to the front of the screen with the state it was last in   This caused me to spend a few hours to find out what went wrong   So  keep in mind that adb shell am add FLAG ACTIVITY NEW TASK flag

User · Answer

Try this  for opening an android photo app  amp  with specific image file to open as parameter   adb shell am start -n com google android apps photos  home HomeActivity -d file    mnt user 0 primary Pictures Screenshots Screenshot png  It will work on latest android  no pop up will come to select an application to open as you are giving specific app to which you want to open your image with

User · Answer

open    bash profile and add these bash functions to the end of the file  function androidinstall       adb install -r   bin  1 apk   function androidrun       ant clean debug    adb shell am start -n  1  1  2     then open the Android project folder   androidinstall app-debug  amp  amp  androidrun com example app MainActivity

User · Answer

Or  you could use this    adb shell am start -n com package name  ActivityName

User · Answer

monkey --pct-syskeys 0 for development boards  Without this argument  the app won t open on a development board without keys   display   adb shell monkey --pct-syskeys 0 -p com cirosantilli android cheat textviewbold 1   and fails with error   SYS KEYS has no physical keys but with factor 2 0    Tested on HiKey960  Android O AOSP   Learned from  https   github com ARM-software lisa pull 408  Also asked at  monkey test   If the Android system doesnt has physical keys  what are the parameters need to be includeded in the command

User · Answer

adb shell am start -n com package name com package name ActivityName   Or you can use this directly   adb shell am start -n com package name com package name ActivityName   You can also specify actions to be filter by your intent-filters   am start -a com example ACTION NAME -n com package name com package name ActivityName

[android] How to start an application using android ADB tools?

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