Android Create shortcut of Application on Home Page | Create App Shortcut on Home Screen on Android Programmatically

Hello Friends,

Today I am going to share very useful code for creating application shortcut on Home-Screen in android. If we upload our application on Google store, google automatically creates shortcut of application, but if we want create our own launcher use broadcast receiver.  Just copy paste below code and enjoy.

I am using shared-preference for checking app first time install, else it will create many shortcut every-time.

Note: don't forget to add permission in your manifest for create shortcut.
 <uses-permission android:name="com.android.launcher.permission.INSTALL_SHORTCUT" />

1)MainActivity.java

package com.manish.home.shortcut;

import android.app.Activity;

import android.content.Context;

import android.content.Intent;

import android.content.SharedPreferences;

import android.os.Bundle;

import android.preference.PreferenceManager;

/**

 *

 * @author manish

 *

 */

public class MainActivity extends Activity {

       Context mContext=MainActivity.this;

       SharedPreferences appPreferences;

       boolean isAppInstalled = false;

       @Override

       public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {

              super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

              setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

              /**

               * check if application is running first time, only then create shorcut

               */

              appPreferences = PreferenceManager.getDefaultSharedPreferences(this);

              isAppInstalled = appPreferences.getBoolean("isAppInstalled",false);

              if(isAppInstalled==false){

              /**

               * create short code

               */

              Intent shortcutIntent = new Intent(getApplicationContext(),MainActivity.class);

              shortcutIntent.setAction(Intent.ACTION_MAIN);

              Intent intent = new Intent();

              intent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_SHORTCUT_INTENT, shortcutIntent);

              intent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_SHORTCUT_NAME, "ShortcutDemo");

              intent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_SHORTCUT_ICON_RESOURCE,Intent.ShortcutIconResource.fromContext(getApplicationContext(), R.drawable.logo));

              intent.setAction("com.android.launcher.action.INSTALL_SHORTCUT");

              getApplicationContext().sendBroadcast(intent);

              /**

               * Make preference true

               */

              SharedPreferences.Editor editor = appPreferences.edit();

              editor.putBoolean("isAppInstalled", true);

              editor.commit();

       }

}

}

2)activity_main.xml

<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"

    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"

    android:layout_width="match_parent"

    android:layout_height="match_parent">

    <TextView

        android:id="@+id/textView1"

        android:layout_width="wrap_content"

        android:layout_height="wrap_content"

        android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"

        android:layout_centerVertical="true"

        android:text="Short Cut Demo!"

        android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceLarge" />

</RelativeLayout>

3)AndroidManifest.xml

<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"

    package="com.manish.home.shortcut"

    android:versionCode="1"

    android:versionName="1.0" >

    <uses-sdk

        android:minSdkVersion="8"

        android:targetSdkVersion="18" />

    <uses-permission android:name="com.android.launcher.permission.INSTALL_SHORTCUT" />

    <application

        android:icon="@drawable/logo"

        android:label="@string/app_name"

        android:theme="@style/AppTheme" >

        <activity

            android:name="com.manish.home.shortcut.MainActivity"

            android:exported="true"

            android:label="@string/app_name" >

            <intent-filter>

                <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />

                <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />

            </intent-filter>

        </activity>

    </application>

</manifest>

Thanks,
Manish