Question

I want to make it so that when my app is selected, another app will pop up. Is this possible with intent and service?

Answer 1

Yes it is possible.

You have a couple of ways to do this, here is two of them:

1. If you need some kind of long connection and need to move data between the application, you can use two services, one in each side and then communicate with Messenger object. Messenger object is use to implement a message-based communication across processes – two different applications, it’s easy to use once you get the idea.

2. If you need only to start other app when your app is selected you can start an intent with the intent filter you set in the manifest of the app you want to start. This is what you need if you only need to start the second application, without any connection between them.

If you need to start the calculator application, you can try to do it like this:

Intent i = new Intent();
i.setClassName("com.android.calculator2", "com.android.calculator2.Calculator");
startActivity(i);