Android M中Intent的解析

Warning! Resolving of “Implicit Intent”s in Android Marshmallow is not working as the same as before. This may break your app’s behavior.

注意了！在Android Marshmallow中，“隐式Intent”的解析不能像之前版本那样正常工作了。这很有可能导致你的app不能正常使用。

Let me explain the expected behavior and why is not working:

I have recently been working on a small open source project called “Open Link With”. It will hopefully be in the Play Store soon.

My app gives you the ability to switch between other apps. When you share a link with me, I basically grab the link and query all the Activity’s that can handle that link. And finally I mimic the system dialog and let you switch apps.

I was using the below method as always:

It is a familiar method to almost all Android developers and I am sure that it is currently being used in lots of apps.

I have 2 browsers in my phone. “An Intent with Google+ URL” is expected to give a list of 3 ResolveInfo objects (Google+ app and 2 browsers).

Well, not anymore!

Welcome to Android Marshmallow!

Android Marshmallow introduced App Links. The system basically authenticates with your web-page and opens those URLs automatically using your application without asking anything to user. Or you can go to system Settings, Apps, click an app, click “Open by default” and then set “Open in this app” to use always that app.

欢迎来到Android棉花糖！

Android棉花糖引进了应用关联。系统主要通过你的web页面来认证，并且自动使用你的app来打开这些URL，而不会向你做任何请求。或者你可以到系统设置，选择“应用程序”，然后点击一个应用，再点击“默认打开方式”，然后设置“用这个应用打开”，就可以每次都使用这个应用打开。


In that case, queryIntentActivities method will give developers a list with only 1 Activity (which is Google+ in this case).

It didn’t do anything for me. I opened the source code (at least we have that!) and investigated the method.

It looks like they prioritize the domain verified applications. They did not just prioritize in their internal system, they also did it in the public API.

If there is a domain verified application, it does not return anything else. MATCH_ALL flag removes some system filters but only if there is no verified application.

I couldn’t find any way to workaround this behavior. It simply eliminates browser apps even when their IntentFilters match.

There is no workaround because it is an internal component (which we cannot access) and Android SDK communicates with it using IPC communication using AIDL.

Most of the developers are using this method to find if there is at least 1 Activity to handle the implicit Intent. In most of the situations the first item in the list is the one you want anyway.

After spending hours to understand what’s going on and trying to find a workaround, I thought everyone should know this.

There are lots of behavior changes in Android M. Google actually provided a list of behavior changes. You can find it here. I am sure that just like this, there are lots of hidden behavior changes that may break applications.

在Android M中，改动的地方很多。实际上谷歌提供了一些改变清单，在清单中你能看到到底有哪些改变。我认为还有很多类似上面的一些没有在清单中列出的改变，而这些改动很有可能导致你的应用无法正常运行。

So beware of this, and check your situation if you use PackageManager methods.

Thanks to the people who proofread this article: Yağmur Dalman, Sebastiano Poggi, Salim KAYABAŞI, Hasan Keklik