Open application with bundle identifier

Question

Is it possible to open a application from our application with bundle identifier. Suppose I have two apps installed on device one with com.test.app1 and com.test.app2. Can I open app1 from my app2.

I know about openUrl method. for that I have to register url scheme in info.plist. and then i can use following method:

[[UIApplication sharedApplication] openUrl:[NSURL urlWithString:@"myApp1://"]];

But what if I didn't register url scheme or don't know the registered url.

Any idea..?

Solution 1

I don't think that's possible.

Solution 2

You can use private API to do that

Class LSApplicationWorkspace_class = objc_getClass("LSApplicationWorkspace");
NSObject * workspace = [LSApplicationWorkspace_class performSelector:@selector(defaultWorkspace)];
BOOL isopen = [workspace performSelector:@selector(openApplicationWithBundleID:) withObject:@"com.apple.mobilesafari"];

Solution 3

The Swift version of @EvanJIANG answer.

guard let obj = objc_getClass("LSApplicationWorkspace") as? NSObject else { return false }
let workspace = obj.perform(Selector(("defaultWorkspace")))?.takeUnretainedValue() as? NSObject
let open = workspace?.perform(Selector(("openApplicationWithBundleID:")), with: "com.apple.mobilesafari") != nil
return open

Solution 4

You can use the openUrl call, but in order to succeed you must add some values to your project's xy-Info.plist file.

Once you've done that you can then call:

[[UIApplication sharedApplication] openUrl:[NSURL urlWithString:@"xingipad://"]];

View more solutions

Comments

[Kapil Choubisa]

Are you sure that this is not possible..? Because we can check if application is installed in device or not with bundle identifier. so I was wondering that there may be some method for open it.

[Akshay]

I don't think an Apple approved way exists.

[Kapil Choubisa]

I know that this is possible with URL Scheme but I want to know that is this possible using bundle identifier?? If I don't have url scheme register than is this possible to open an app.

[DmitryKanunnikoff]

Thank you very much! Works on iOS 11, and don't need to know URL scheme.

[ekscrypto]

Except you should never use private APIs.

[Evan JIANG]

@ekscrypto But I think it's the only way to match the requirements. And by the way, we successfully uploaded app with this code to AppStore.

[ekscrypto]

being able to snoop a private api usage by the app review team should not be seen as an authorization to use a private api.

[Luís Cunha]

I get the error Implicitly declaring library function 'objc_getClass' with type 'id (const char *)' on the first line

[ekscrypto]

The question already included deep linking, asker was trying to find a way around that

[Alok]

All steps of deep linking are given in the above answer.

[MEnnabah]

@LuísCunha #import <objc/runtime.h> on the top of the file

[Zeeshan Ahmed]

this worked for me, will my app gonna pass Apple review with this?

[Zeeshan Ahmed]

I am using this just to open different apps using their bundle id's

[zumzum]

this works. Just tested today. running latest version of Xcode and on device I have running iOS 15.3.1 (19D52)