Where is a list of available intents in Android?

Question

I'm starting to learn how to develop apps for Android, and I'm having some issues with intents--it just doesn't seem like they're documented at all. All I want to do is send the user to the video recorder, where they record a video, and the video information is returned to my app. I know this is possible, as I've seen it in other apps, but it seems like the intent is undocumented (or I'm just not completely understanding how intents work).

Any thoughts?

Answer 1

In general, the Android developer docs are a good place to look for this kind of thing: there's a list of common intent actions in the Intent class reference. For recording video, check out the ACTION_VIDEO_CAPTURE intent action defined by the Media provider.

Answer 2

Apart from above solutions, here are a list of common intents

//show web page intent:

Uri uri = Uri.parse("http://www.google.com");
Intent it  = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW,uri);
startActivity(it);

//show maps intent:

Uri uri = Uri.parse("geo:38.899533,-77.036476");
Intent it = new Intent(Intent.Action_VIEW,uri);
startActivity(it); 

//show ways

Uri uri = Uri.parse("http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&saddr=startLat%20startLng&daddr=endLat%20endLng&hl=en");
Intent it = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW,URI);
startActivity(it);

//call dial program

Uri uri = Uri.parse("tel:xxxxxx");
Intent it = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_DIAL, uri);  
startActivity(it);  

Uri uri = Uri.parse("tel.xxxxxx");
Intent it =new Intent(Intent.ACTION_CALL,uri);
//don't forget add this config:<uses-permission id="android.permission.CALL_PHONE" />

//send sms/mms, call sender program

Intent it = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW);   
it.putExtra("sms_body", "The SMS text");   
it.setType("vnd.android-dir/mms-sms");   
startActivity(it);  

//send sms

Uri uri = Uri.parse("smsto:0800000123");   
Intent it = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_SENDTO, uri);   
it.putExtra("sms_body", "The SMS text");   
startActivity(it);  

//send mms

Uri uri = Uri.parse("content://media/external/images/media/23");   
Intent it = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_SEND);   
it.putExtra("sms_body", "some text");   
it.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_STREAM, uri);   
it.setType("image/png");   
startActivity(it); 

//send email

Uri uri = Uri.parse("mailto:xxx@abc.com");
Intent it = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_SENDTO, uri);
startActivity(it);

Intent it = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_SEND);   
it.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_EMAIL, "me@abc.com");   
it.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_TEXT, "The email body text");   
it.setType("text/plain");   
startActivity(Intent.createChooser(it, "Choose Email Client"));  

Intent it=new Intent(Intent.ACTION_SEND);     
String[] tos={"me@abc.com"};     
String[] ccs={"you@abc.com"};     
it.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_EMAIL, tos);     
it.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_CC, ccs);     
it.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_TEXT, "The email body text");     
it.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_SUBJECT, "The email subject text");     
it.setType("message/rfc822");     
startActivity(Intent.createChooser(it, "Choose Email Client"));   


//add extra
Intent it = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_SEND);   
it.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_SUBJECT, "The email subject text");   
it.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_STREAM, "file:///sdcard/mysong.mp3");   
sendIntent.setType("audio/mp3");   
startActivity(Intent.createChooser(it, "Choose Email Client"));

//play media

Intent it = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW);
Uri uri = Uri.parse("file:///sdcard/song.mp3");
it.setDataAndType(uri, "audio/mp3");
startActivity(it);

Uri uri = Uri.withAppendedPath(MediaStore.Audio.Media.INTERNAL_CONTENT_URI, "1");   
Intent it = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW, uri);   
startActivity(it);  

//Uninstall

Uri uri = Uri.fromParts("package", strPackageName, null);   
Intent it = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_DELETE, uri);   
startActivity(it);

//uninstall apk

Uri uninstallUri = Uri.fromParts("package", "xxx", null);
returnIt = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_DELETE, uninstallUri);

//install apk

Uri installUri = Uri.fromParts("package", "xxx", null);
returnIt = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_PACKAGE_ADDED, installUri);

//play audio

Uri playUri = Uri.parse("file:///sdcard/download/everything.mp3");
returnIt = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW, playUri);

//send extra

Intent it = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_SEND);  
it.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_SUBJECT, "The email subject text");  
it.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_STREAM, "file:///sdcard/eoe.mp3");  
sendIntent.setType("audio/mp3");  
startActivity(Intent.createChooser(it, "Choose Email Client"));

//search

Uri uri = Uri.parse("market://search?q=pname:pkg_name");  
Intent it = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW, uri);  
startActivity(it);  
//where pkg_name is the full package path for an application  

//show program detail page

Uri uri = Uri.parse("market://details?id=app_id");  
Intent it = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW, uri);  
startActivity(it);  
//where app_id is the application ID, find the ID  
//by clicking on your application on Market home  
//page, and notice the ID from the address bar

//search google

Intent intent = new Intent();
intent.setAction(Intent.ACTION_WEB_SEARCH);
intent.putExtra(SearchManager.QUERY,"searchString")
startActivity(intent);

Answer 3

You might want to check out OpenIntents

Answer 4

This is relatively new from Google (they seem to have updated their old page which just showed Intents for standard Google apps).

Common Intents

It tells you exact Intent specification for performing a wide range of actions with apps for the following:

• Alarm Clock
• Camera
• Calendar
• Contacts / People
• Email
• File Storage
• Maps
• Music / Video
• Phone Dialler
• Settings
• Text Messaging
• Web browsing

It's important now that Google have provided a definitive list of the Intents that should be used for performing a given action, that we use them exactly as provided there. The reasoning behind Intents is all about a standard method of communication between apps (i.e. different developers), so it is important for the sake of your app's compatibility to talk in exactly the same language as the one everyone else will be using.