Question

I’d like to send arbitrary strings (not paths or URLs) between two of my company’s Android apps, but the Intent data is a URI. Presently I’m concerned with starting an Activity, but in some cases it would be nice to be able to send a query and receive a response without starting an Activity. So:

• How should I send any arbitrary string when Intent wants a URI?
• What other communication mechanisms could I use?

Answer 1

You can add an arbitrary string to an intent by using extras on the intent.

Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW);
intent.putExtra(SOME_STATIC_NAME_VALUE, "your_arbitrary_string");

There are many options for extra’s, see http://developer.android.com/reference/android/content/Intent.html

To retrieve the string in your receiving activity, use

intent.getExtras().getString(SOME_STATIC_NAME_VALUE)

Or the appropriate getter for whatever value you set on the extra.