Sharing a track from the Spotify Android app with my app

Question

In recent versions of the Spotify Android app (3.9.0.965 at the time of writing) the Share -> Send to menu shows a bespoke list of options:

Select Recipient, Email, SMS and then a list of other apps (WhatsApp, Hangouts etc).

Is it possible for me to get my app onto that list? I'd like to be able to share a Spotify track with my app and play it.

Answer 1

Is it possible for me to get my app onto that list?

No, unfortunately this is not possible, even if your manifest is properly configured you cannot see your app when you choose Share -> Send to because Spotify will display only a predefined set of apps (WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Hangouts).

For example we have an app with the package name com.example.spotify. Add this intent-filter to the AndroidManifest.xml:

<intent-filter>
    <action android:name="android.intent.action.SEND"/>
    <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT"/>
    <data android:mimeType="text/plain"/>
</intent-filter>

Run the app, but if we choose Share -> Send to the app will not appear.

Now change the applicationId to one of the whitelisted package name (com.whatsapp, com.facebook.orca, com.google.android.talk) in our build.gradle:

apply plugin: 'com.android.application'

android {
    compileSdkVersion 23
    buildToolsVersion "23.0.1"

    defaultConfig {
        applicationId "com.whatsapp"
        minSdkVersion 15
        targetSdkVersion 23
        versionCode 1
        versionName "1.0"
    }
    buildTypes {
        release {
            minifyEnabled false
            proguardFiles getDefaultProguardFile('proguard-android.txt'), 'proguard-rules.pro'
        }
    }
}

Now the application is available in the Share -> Send to context menu as if it were WhatsApp, as you can see in this screenshot:

Choosing WhatsApp our app will correctly opens and receive the intent from Spotify.