Question

I am just building a very simple application. Three buttons. The first opens a browser, the second opens the phone and the third opens the Maps application. The purpose is to learn more about intents triggering the start up of other applications.

public void openBrowser(){
    //Create intent
    Intent i = new Intent(android.content.Intent.ACTION_VIEW, Uri.parse("http://www.facebook.com"));
    startActivity(i);
}

public void openPhone(){
    Intent i = new Intent(android.content.Intent.ACTION_DIAL, Uri.parse("tel: [phone]"));
    startActivity(i);
}

public void openMap(){
    Intent i = new Intent(android.content.Intent.ACTION_VIEW, Uri.parse("geo:53.2803, -6.1529"));
    startActivity(i);

}

Should there be an entry in the manifest file for these particular intents? Thanks for the help!

Answer 1

No you don’t need ManifestEntrys for built-in Intents.

What you may need are permissions:
An Activity (especially if it is not your own) may require you to have permissions to call this functionallity. A Barcode-scan App (i.e. BarcodeScanner from the XZing Team) which you can call via an Intent for the resultString inside a Barcode may require, that the caller has the Permission CAMERA. If you want to pick a Contact from the default Android Contact App, it will require you to have the READ_CONTACTS Permission. Otherwise it could be considered as kind of local exploit, if an App with no Permission is able to read Contacts via the Contacts-App – which of course – has this permission.