Android remove shortcuts in HomeScreen

Question

How to remove shortcuts in the home screen(programatically). I can remove the shortcuts created by me using intent but not other existing ones..

Bitmap theBitmap = ((BitmapDrawable)icon).getBitmap();

        Intent shortcutIntent = new Intent();
        shortcutIntent.setAction(Intent.ACTION_VIEW);


  shortcutIntent.setClassName(url, group);

   shortcutIntent.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);
   shortcutIntent.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TOP);

   Intent removeIntent = new Intent();
   removeIntent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_SHORTCUT_INTENT, shortcutIntent);
   removeIntent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_SHORTCUT_NAME, name);
   removeIntent.putExtra("duplicate", false);
   removeIntent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_SHORTCUT_ICON, theBitmap);
   removeIntent.setAction("com.android.launcher.action.UNINSTALL_SHORTCUT");

   sendBroadcast(removeIntent);

when deleting using intent as above, it is possible to delete shortcut when knowing the icon packagename + app class name. we can get icon package name of all application using PackageInfo as follows but not the launch class name

ArrayList<PInfo> res = new ArrayList<PInfo>();        
        List<PackageInfo> packs = getPackageManager().getInstalledPackages(0);
        for(int i=0;i<packs.size();i++) {
            PackageInfo p = packs.get(i);



            if ((!getSysPackages) && (p.versionName == null)) {
                continue ;
            }
            PInfo newInfo = new PInfo();
            newInfo.appname = p.applicationInfo.loadLabel(getPackageManager()).toString();
            newInfo.pname = p.packageName;
            newInfo.classname = p.applicationInfo.className;
            newInfo.versionCode = p.versionCode;
            newInfo.icon = p.applicationInfo.loadIcon(getPackageManager());

Now problem is, Is there any method to get class name of a application, then we can delete the shortcut created by this application in the home Screen.. any help??

Answer 1

you cannot remove programatically other shortcuts from homescreen

Answer 2

It IS possible.

[UPDATE]: Since Android M, they've completely removed support for the UNINSTALL_SHORTCUT intent in AOSP Launcher3 and Google Now Launcher. Currently there is no alternative or replacement for this API. Source: https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=179697

---

[UPDATE-2]: Maybe this is helpful for some of you. I was able to figure out, how - at least- to uninstall my apps own shotscuts from the home screen. While Google removed the support for the uninstall of a shortcut, a shortcut, that points to an activity-alias will still get removed, once the alias is disabled.

Small reference:

   ComponentName yourAlias = new ComponentName(getPackageName(), "org.example.yourAliasName");

    if (show){
        flag = PackageManager.COMPONENT_ENABLED_STATE_ENABLED;
    }else{
        flag = PackageManager.COMPONENT_ENABLED_STATE_DISABLED;
    }


    context.getPackageManager().setComponentEnabledSetting(yourAlias, flag, PackageManager.DONT_KILL_APP);

---

Below Android M:

First things first, here the code which I was repeatedly able to delete the Facebook shortcut, without any root (which is kind of the same like op's code, so he was not wrong):

    Intent appIntent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_MAIN);
    appIntent.setComponent(new ComponentName("com.facebook.katana", "com.facebook.katana.LoginActivity"));
    appIntent.addCategory(Intent.CATEGORY_LAUNCHER);

    Intent addIntent = new Intent("com.android.launcher.action.INSTALL_SHORTCUT");
    addIntent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_SHORTCUT_NAME, "Facebook");
    addIntent.putExtra("duplicate", false);
    addIntent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_SHORTCUT_INTENT, appIntent);

    sendBroadcast(addIntent);

The important thing is, that your intent must be exaclty the same, as the Intent which was used to create the shortcut. You can, if you have root, take a look into the launcher.db and copy the URI. Located in data/data/com.android.Launcher.launcher.db However, you don't have access to the android launcher.db anytime, so it can be a bit try and error.

Sources which I highly recommend to read:

UninstallShortcutReceiver.java

very good answer from Dev-il for this topic

Additonally, code to fetch all applications and their data, which in my case was enough to remove most of the shortcuts.

PackageManager pManager = context.getPackageManager();
List<ResolveInfo> packageInfos = loadApps(context);

From here you can iterate over the list and fetch necessary information's like:

ActivityInfo activityInfo = packInfo.activityInfo;

• activityInfo.loadLabel(pManager).toString() //name of the App
• activityInfo.loadIcon(pManager) //Icon of the activity as drawable
• activityInfo.packageName // packageName the activity belongs to
• activityInfo.name //Launcher class name

Answer 3

Use the following method:

    private void removeShortcutIcon(String app_name, Intent app_intent){
    app_intent.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);
    app_intent.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TOP);
    Intent removeIntent = new Intent();
    removeIntent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_SHORTCUT_INTENT, app_intent);
    removeIntent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_SHORTCUT_NAME, app_name);
    removeIntent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_SHORTCUT_ICON_RESOURCE, Intent.ShortcutIconResource.fromContext(getApplicationContext(), R.drawable.ic_launcher));
    removeIntent.setAction("com.android.launcher.action.UNINSTALL_SHORTCUT");
    getApplicationContext().sendBroadcast(removeIntent);
}

And try to get all installed apps in the following way:

PackageManager pm = getPackageManager();
List<ResolveInfo> pacs_list = pm.queryIntentActivities(main_intent, 0);
for(int i=0; i < pacs_list.size(); i++)
{
pacs_list.get(i).loadIcon(pm);
pacs_list.get(i).activityInfo.packageName;
pacs_list.get(i).loadLabel(pm).toString();
}

Note: you can get various attributes from ResolveInfo. Check this link: ResolveInfo