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androidadb

How to determine if a package name is a service or launchable GUI app

With ADB I get all preinstalled apps package names. I want to know which package name is a real app (not a service) so I can launch it.

Solution

  • adb gives you list of preinstalled applications. These applications may contain activities, services, content providers, and/or broadcast receivers. When you say "real app", you are asking for applications with activities. Even if you knew which application contains activities, you still need to find the name of that activity before you can launch it.

    So to get what you want, it is going to be few more steps. The answer below describes what you need:

    https://stackoverflow.com/a/12700063/4406743

    Basically, you need to go through each application that you are interested in, pull it to the PC and get it details using aapt. aapt will provide you all the details needed for launching any activities in that application.