XPost: comp.mobile.android, alt.comp.freeware

Have you cloned an APK to Windows & edited that APK with
Windows freeware to call a different activity & put it back?

The goal is to modify an APK so that one app calls a page in another.
<https://groups.google.com/g/comp.mobile.android/c/V4GtX6FROis/m/RoemebBHAQAJ>

The trick would be to "modify" one APK to call a page in the other,
where the way I'd first approach that is I'd clone the app.
<https://xdaforums.com/t/tool-clonemyapp-android-apk-cloner.4513777/>
<https://clonemy.app/>

And then I'd modify it on Windows & re-install it to Android.
But I've never done that - although it seems possible to do.
<https://xdaforums.com/t/tool-apk-editor-studio-free-apk-reverse-engineering-tool.3972529/>

Windows freeware APK Reverse Engineering Tool
<https://apktool.org/docs/install/>
Windows freeware APK Editing Tool
<https://qwertycube.com/apk-editor-studio/>

BACKGROUND:
For weeks now, Stan Browne has wanted one app on Android to call a page
inside another app on Android where the best I can help him with is I can
make any public page in any app into a homescreen shortcut as shown below.

<https://i.postimg.cc/vTqrBMpR/dialer01.jpg> com.samsung.android.dialer
<https://i.postimg.cc/brN0pdVH/dialer02.jpg> easily create shortcuts
<https://i.postimg.cc/X71LNcbZ/dialer03.jpg> easily open contacts at will
<https://i.postimg.cc/W3V6Y5My/dialer04.jpg> test the contacts shortcut
<https://i.postimg.cc/mk594jHB/dialer05.jpg> same with the dialer activity
<https://i.postimg.cc/7PVXdrtn/dialer06.jpg> add a dialer shortcut
<https://i.postimg.cc/85TMmjGQ/dialer07.jpg> you can even add searches
<https://i.postimg.cc/MpcDnM69/dialer08.jpg> but you only get 1 default

However... the question for this thread is has you ever linked the two?
That is, have you ever edited an APK to make it call a different activity?

Theoretically, it seems to be "as simple" as this (these are pseudo steps).

STEP 1: Identify the unique pages (activities) you wish to link.
STEP 2: Test by creating shortcuts to those pages (activities).

That test is what you see in the screenshots above, by the way.

STEP 3: Clone the first APK (so that you can modify & re-install it).
STEP 4: On Windows, edit that APK to call the desired page (activity).
STEP 5: Re-install the cloned-and-modified app back to Android.

This "should" allow us to open a page (activity) on one app, which
now would bring up the page (activity) from another app instead.

Have you ever done it?
--
The whole point of Usenet is to find people who know more than you do.
And to contribute to the overall tribal knowledge value of the newsgroup.
It's a domino effect where each of us helps the next person in the lineup.

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XPost: comp.mobile.android, alt.comp.freeware

Wally J, 2023-11-01 02:32:

[...]

This "should" allow us to open a page (activity) on one app, which
now would bring up the page (activity) from another app instead.

Have you ever done it?

Well - Nova launcher offers to use any app Activity as shortcut instead
of the default Activity of the app. Isn't that enough?

--
Arno Welzel
https://arnowelzel.de

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XPost: comp.mobile.android, alt.comp.freeware

On 01/11/2023 01:32, Wally J wrote:

Have you cloned an APK to Windows & edited that APK with
Windows freeware to call a different activity & put it back?

snip <

It would help if you told Windows users what an APK is. I had to look it up. APK = Android Package Kit

So my answer is no, & I probably never will. :)

--
Regards
wasbit

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wasbit <wasbit@nowhere.com> wrote

It would help if you told Windows users what an APK is. I had to look it up. APK = Android Package Kit

So my answer is no, & I probably never will. :)

Hi wasbit,

These two platforms are almost completely 100% inter-related, wasbit, where very many times you edit Android files on Windows (not so much vice versa).

In fact, your entire Android phone is always simply a drive letter on
Windows (which is done 100% of the time as it's all over your Wi-Fi LAN).
<https://i.postimg.cc/QtbR1GY0/webdav13.jpg> Editing Android on Windows

Since Android files are Windows files, you edit them on both platforms.
<https://i.postimg.cc/1zsvNCRj/emulate03.jpg> Editing Windows on Android

Most of the time you use Windows editing freeware, such as those listed.
adb freeware <https://duckduckgo.com/?&q=windows+adb+editor+free>
APK editor freware <https://duckduckgo.com/?&q=windows+apk+editor+free>
Android emulator freeware <https://duckduckgo.com/?&q=android+emulator>
etc.

BTW, I must make a comment about your very strongly held opinion given
I aim for seamless compatibility between all platforms that I use myself.

Nobody minds anyone having an opinion - but it should be sensibly sound. Personally, I think the way you presented yours, is illogically unsound.

You're kind of like saying that Windows isn't a camera so why would you
ever want to edit a JPEG (Joint Pictures Expert Group) file on Windows.

It's like saying Windows isn't a paper book so why would you ever want to
edit an EPUB (Ebook Publishing) format file or a MOBI (Mobipocket) file.

The fact is that Android runs on Windows, which if you don't know this, you should since Android freeware has _always_ run on the Windows platform.

And, the fact is an Android APK is nothing more or less than a zip file.

To scratch the surface, which you didn't do, the APK file is much like the
EXE is for Windows in action, but far more like the ZIP file is in content.

The Windows EXE comparison is here:
<https://www.techradar.com/how-to/what-is-an-apk-and-how-do-i-install-one>
The Windows ZIP comparison is here:
<https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/what-is-apk-file/>

In fact, you use Windows almost all the time to _install_ APK files.
<https://i.postimg.cc/wvsbcNBz/scrcpy05.jpg> APKs install from Win10

And, in fact, you _often_ manage your entire Android phone from Windows.
<https://droidwin.com/debloat-remove-bloatware-from-samsung-devices-via-adb/>

More in fact, I customize Android all the time from Windows, wasbit, where,
for example, my Android phone is simply another drive letter on Windows 10.
<https://i.postimg.cc/BvJdKWzt/webdav06.jpg> Both sdcards mounted

And, if I felt like it, I could do everything I want to on Windows with emulation, which is how Stan might want to test out his customizations too.
<https://i.postimg.cc/056zRLBY/emulate01.jpg> Android on Windows

For example, just like people illogically complained about the loss of the
XP Start Menu in Windows 10 (it never disappeared, in fact), people love to complain about things that they misunderstand almost completely.
<https://i.postimg.cc/6pZjtmHz/winxp-win10-menu03.jpg>

Notice my point is people have strong opinions, like you do, but those very strong opinions are logically insensible because of what they're based on.

These are WindowsXP cascade menus, for example:
<https://i.postimg.cc/HnPZkDDv/wiinxp-win10-menu01.jpg>
These are Windows10 cascade menus, for example:
<https://i.postimg.cc/nz3T3bzV/winxp-win10-menu02.jpg>

They're literally the same folder (copied over from WinXP to Windows 10).
And yet, people have strong opinions that the WinXP menus "went away".

Why? Because some people form very strong opinions based on wrong/mere assumptions, where I am making a case that you just did that moments ago.

What Stan wants to do is customize Android so that he can call one activity from one app from an activity that is in another app, as far as I can tell.

That's a fair customization for anyone to want to do.
a. Use the one app GUI "page" display for the phone dialer;
b. But use a different app GUI "page" display for contacts retrieval.
Where GUIs that display "pages" are called "activities" in Android speak.

My suggestion was to use Windows freeware tools to modify the Android app.
Much like I customize my Windows system to make it do what I want it to.
<https://i.postimg.cc/D0J1tgDZ/windows-tweak.jpg>
--
The whole point of Usenet is to find people who know more than you do.
And to contribute to the overall tribal knowledge value of the newsgroup.
It's a domino effect where each of us helps the next person in the lineup.

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XPost: comp.mobile.android, alt.comp.freeware

Arno Welzel <usenet@arnowelzel.de> wrote

This "should" allow us to open a page (activity) on one app, which
now would bring up the page (activity) from another app instead.

Have you ever done it?

Well - Nova launcher offers to use any app Activity as shortcut instead
of the default Activity of the app. Isn't that enough?

Hmmmm... maybe... I don't know... but maybe it will do the job...

To be open and up front with you, I don't even understand your suggestion.
Stan probably won't either so I need to try to understand your suggestion.

As a starting point, I have used the free Nova launcher for years.
And, I've been making shortcuts for years (without needing Nova launcher).

So what I need to know is what the Nova launcher does that's different.
And maybe powerful (as we all know Nova is the best launcher out there).

As a starting point... let me explore what Nova has for activities...

I'm permanently using version 7.0.57 of the Nova launcher (because it's
the last known good version prior to the Branch acquisition, that's why).
<https://novalauncher.com/apk/NovaLauncher_7.0.57.apk> Dec 14, 2021
Name: NovaLauncher_7.0.57.apk
Size: 8687535 bytes (8483 KiB)
SHA256: 05AE72221D8D4F3D6A111A3220A0C87040806AF4E53053EF64F2DE426990893E

Looking up to try to understand what you're suggesting, I first look inside
of Nova itself, I see there's something in Nova called "Sesame shortcuts".
Nova Settings > Integrations > Sesame shortcuts

Which, when I tap on it, this Windows adb command runs that activity.

cmd activity start --user 0 -a android.intent.action.VIEW -d market://details?id=ninja.sesame.app.edge --eu android.intent.extra.REFERRER android-app://com.teslacoilsw.launcher -f 318799872

With this being the URI to get the app from the Google Play Store repo.
<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ninja.sesame.app.edge>

So I installed Sesame from the Aurora GUI to the Google Play Store
repository (because I don't have a Google Account, that's why).
<https://i.postimg.cc/W3dv1b4S/dialer09.jpg> Nova Sesame shortcuts

Before I test this further for Stan Brown, am I on the right track
(to empirically follow up on your suggestion to use Nova to do it)?
--
Like dominoes, people can work together to move the problem set
down the line using knowledge that each of us has to give others.

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Wally J, 2023-11-01 20:36:

Arno Welzel <usenet@arnowelzel.de> wrote

This "should" allow us to open a page (activity) on one app, which
now would bring up the page (activity) from another app instead.

Have you ever done it?

Well - Nova launcher offers to use any app Activity as shortcut instead
of the default Activity of the app. Isn't that enough?

Hmmmm... maybe... I don't know... but maybe it will do the job...

To be open and up front with you, I don't even understand your suggestion.

The quesion was how one app open a specific activity of another app.

Well - if you just want to be able to start a specific activity, you can
use Nova launcher to do so.

[...]

Looking up to try to understand what you're suggesting, I first look inside of Nova itself, I see there's something in Nova called "Sesame shortcuts".
Nova Settings > Integrations > Sesame shortcuts

I am talking about the Nova launcher 1x1 widget "Activity" where you see
a list of all apps and all their activities. With this widget you can
create a shortcut on the home screen which calls the selected activity
in the selected app.


--
Arno Welzel
https://arnowelzel.de

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Wally J <walterjones@invalid.nospam> wrote

What Stan wants to do is customize Android so that he can call one activity from one app from an activity that is in another app, as far as I can tell.

Moving forward, because it would be useful to solve this problem set:
a. Have a displayed page (aka activity) inside one app (Google phone)
b. Call a displayed page (aka activity) inside another app (Samsung phone)
c. Using freeware Windows app editors
Has anyone on this newsgroup any experience using the "alias" feature?

BACKGROUND:
I do all my Android work on Windows where I was looking at the various
contacts apps I have installed on Android (where there are 18 on my phone).
<https://i.postimg.cc/7Ps3Dmsj/dialer10.jpg> 18 contacts apps tested

Of the 18 apps with "contact" in the name, two are Samsung packages.
Contacts <com.samsung.android.app.contacts>
Contacts Storage <com.samsung.android.providers.contacts>

So we don't know exactly which package/activity Stan is trying to bring
up from inside the Google dialer that he's using (probably "Contacts").

Assuming it's the Contacts app that Stan is trying to bring up the
page of, three of the many public activities in Samsung Contacts are
Direct Dial

adb shell cmd activity start --user 0 -a android.intent.action.VIEW -n com.samsung.android.app.contacts/alias.DialShortcut -f 0 com.samsung.android.app.contacts

Direct Message

adb shell cmd activity start --user 0 -a android.intent.action.VIEW -n com.samsung.android.app.contacts/alias.RcsMessageShortcut -f 0 com.samsung.android.app.contacts

Select Contact

adb shell cmd activity start --user 0 -a android.intent.action.VIEW -n com.samsung.android.app.contacts/com.android.contacts.activities.ContactSelectionActivity -f 0 com.samsung.android.app.contacts

Where two of those are actually "aliases", which I do _not_ understand.
alias.DialShortcut
alias.RcsMessageShortcut

Hmmmm... what's an "alias" (and can it be useful for our task)?

Does anyone on this ng know how to take advantage of "aliases" like those?
(How does an alias differ from an activity (which is a display page)?)

Looking up what an "alias" is, doesn't help me all that much.
<https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/manifest/activity-alias-element>
<https://developer.android.com/reference/android/app/AliasActivity>

But maybe we can make use of these aliases, which can be called from Windows?
<https://www.tanelikorri.com/blog/2017/06/android-activity-alias-is-your-friend/>
<https://proandroiddev.com/activity-alias-in-android-manifest-174622a3f2dc>
<https://blog.mindorks.com/understanding-activity-aliases-in-android-to-preserve-your-launchers/>
<https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/activity-aliases-in-android-to-preserve-launchers/>

Hmmm... Maybe we can use the alias to cause one app to call the activity
from another app w/o changing the one app or the other app????
--
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Arno Welzel <usenet@arnowelzel.de> wrote

Looking up to try to understand what you're suggesting, I first look inside >> of Nova itself, I see there's something in Nova called "Sesame shortcuts". >> Nova Settings > Integrations > Sesame shortcuts

I am talking about the Nova launcher 1x1 widget "Activity" where you see
a list of all apps and all their activities. With this widget you can
create a shortcut on the home screen which calls the selected activity
in the selected app.

Oh. OK. Thanks for explaining as I dislike when I can't understand what
people say, especially since I'm trying to help Stan solve his problem.

While I've tested every free app launcher and long ago had settled on Nova,
I had never used that method. So I just tried it and documented it here.
<https://i.postimg.cc/d01fd5R5/dialer11.jpg> Nova creates shortcuts

But all that does is create the shorcut which we already had created
<https://i.postimg.cc/7PVXdrtn/dialer06.jpg> add a dialer shortcut
by using Muntashirakon App Manager (which is the best of the best).
<https://github.com/MuntashirAkon/AppManager>

There's no problem using myriad ways to create shortcuts on Android,
even to hidden activities - which I've documented many times prior.

For example...
*Manually creating shortcuts to any desired public Android activities*
<https://groups.google.com/g/comp.mobile.android/c/6vsLWAuqP3A/>

*Tutorial: How to make a 1-tap Google Maps or OSMAnd+ homescreen shortcut to your HOME location*
<https://groups.google.com/g/comp.mobile.android/c/wPHvMPjNurk/>

*Tutorial: How to make a 5-levels deep 1-tap shortcut to Google Precise Location Settings*
<https://groups.google.com/g/comp.mobile.android/c/KGDGRm7rUO4/>

*Tutorial: Single-tap URL & app shortcuts to survey real-time traffic with location privacy*
<https://groups.google.com/g/comp.mobile.android/c/UI8uKgyToBs/>

*Tutorial: How to make one-tap shortcuts to HIDDEN Android activies (which have no GUI to get to them)*
<https://groups.google.com/g/comp.mobile.android/c/qb3VFw0gWGc/>

*Tutorial: How to make a one-tap homescreen shortcut to an activity which isn't EXPORTED as public (volume mute)*
<https://groups.google.com/g/comp.mobile.android/c/f6M__rV10YI/>

*Tutorial: Creating one-tap shortcuts to turn on Apple Airtag unknown tracker alerts*
<https://groups.google.com/g/comp.mobile.android/c/R1KeMGhspYE/>

*Tutorial: Easily save your failed Aurora Store attempts for use at a later date*
<https://groups.google.com/g/comp.mobile.android/c/4IlVynkpN3U/>
etc.

But _none_ of those are what Stan Brown seems to be asking for
(which is to call a Samsung activity from inside a Google app). (AFAIK)

Still I appreciate the help as each of us kicks the can further along.

So I thank you for letting me know about both the Nova "Sesame" integration
and the Nova ability to create shortcuts to displayed pages inside of apps (both of which I had never used until you had suggested using it here).
<https://i.postimg.cc/4dRzZd3p/dialer12.jpg> Sesame integrates shortcuts

Just creating a shortcut to any public page (aka activity) inside any
app is easy (as shown above); but what we're trying to do is have one
app (I think Stan wants that to be the Google Dialer) call a public
page (activity) inside of another app (I think the Samsung Contacts).

If that's the correct understanding of what Stan Brown wants to do,
then the trick is to change the Google app to call the Samsung activity.

The reason Windows is intimately involved is that it's the only way
I know of to clone and edit and re-install an edited APK for free.

Which is why it would expand upon our knowledge to answer this question.
*Have you cloned an APK to Windows & edited that APK with Windows freeware to call a different activity & put it back on Android?*
<https://groups.google.com/g/comp.mobile.android/c/75-vyIUPDAE/>
--
If one person does a chunk of the work, everyone benefits, which frees them
to do the next chunk of work, where everyone benefits with each endeavor.

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Nobody here has but people have done it based on the search results. https://github.com/kefir500/apk-editor-studio https://androidmtk.com/apk-editor-studio
https://www.wikihow.com/Edit-APK-Files https://www.reddit.com/r/ApksApps/comments/oat3qu/tutorial_how_to_modify_apk_files_for_premium/?rdt=51330
https://t.me/s/apkeditorpr00/952 https://fatcatapk.com/how-to-use-apk-editor-pro-for-android/ https://www.droidviews.com/compile-and-decompile-apk-files-with-apktool/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZfAIZGJnW4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ul7_3TLt0B8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vqZ0mAk1NE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4g0IB5xBxE https://www.xda-developers.com/decompile-and-modify-apks-on-the-go-with-apktool-for-android/
https://www.droidviews.com/decompile-and-compile-apk-files-with-apk-easy-tool/ https://www.xda-developers.com/decompile-edit-and-recompile-in-one-tool-with-apk-studio/
https://xdaforums.com/t/apk-edit-v0-4-allows-you-to-edit-your-apk-file.890199/

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On 11/2/23 13:48, Andy Burns wrote:

wasbit wrote:

It would help if you told Windows users what an APK is. I had to look
it up.

APK files are to Android as JAR files are to Java

Or like an EXE for windows?
--
user <candycane> is generated from /dev/urandom

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wasbit wrote:

It would help if you told Windows users what an APK is. I had to look it
up.

APK files are to Android as JAR files are to Java

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candycanearter07 wrote:

Andy Burns wrote:

wasbit wrote:

It would help if you told Windows users what an APK is. I had to look
it up.

APK files are to Android as JAR files are to Java

Or like an EXE for windows?

More like an MSI (but not so close)

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On 11/2/23 13:58, Andy Burns wrote:

candycanearter07 wrote:

Andy Burns wrote:

wasbit wrote:

It would help if you told Windows users what an APK is. I had to
look it up.

APK files are to Android as JAR files are to Java

Or like an EXE for windows?

More like an MSI (but not so close)

I don't think I've *ever* used MSI.
--
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On 2/11/2023, Andy Burns wrote:

Andy Burns wrote:

wasbit wrote:

It would help if you told Windows users what an APK is. I had to look
it up.

APK files are to Android as JAR files are to Java

Or like an EXE for windows?

More like an MSI (but not so close)

Aren't the apk's a typical standard normal Windows zip file?
For example, can't Windows 7Zip or Unzip always easily unzip them?

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Frankie wrote:

Andy Burns wrote:

Andy Burns wrote:

APK files are to Android as JAR files are to Java

Or like an EXE for windows?

More like an MSI (but not so close)

Aren't the apk's a typical standard normal Windows zip file?
For example, can't Windows 7Zip or Unzip always easily unzip them?

yes they are, and so are jar files (but not msi files, though 7zip
happens to open them)

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On Thu, 2 Nov 2023 21:19:42 +0000, Andy Burns wrote:

Andy Burns wrote:

Andy Burns wrote:

APK files are to Android as JAR files are to Java

Or like an EXE for windows?

More like an MSI (but not so close)

Aren't the apk's a typical standard normal Windows zip file?
For example, can't Windows 7Zip or Unzip always easily unzip them?

yes they are, and so are jar files (but not msi files, though 7zip
happens to open them)

If apks are just zip files and if when you unpack them you end up with
editable text files, can you change those text files to do something you
want the app to do that the app didn't previously do?

After you make those changes, can you just put it back with the same name?

Or do you need to sign the now modified apk under a different name?

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Oscar Mayer wrote:

If apks are just zip files and if when you unpack them you end up with editable text files

you end up with mostly binary files, you can inspect them in e.g abdroid
studio

can you change those text files to do something you
want the app to do that the app didn't previously do?

only in limited ways, just as there are "resource editors" for .exe/.dll
files, you could also decompile them

After you make those changes, can you just put it back with the same name?

what you end up with is far from the original source code, you might be
able to alter an intent name here or there and rebuild it, but much more
than that would be hairy.

Or do you need to sign the now modified apk under a different name?

I have known naming be a problem, e.g. when "sucking" an android app
inside a microsoft environment, you can inject extra code into the apk
to allow setting app parameters from a central policy, and to
automatically deploy it ... sometimes this works, othertimes it doesn't.

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Frankie, 2023-11-02 22:00:

On 2/11/2023, Andy Burns wrote:

Andy Burns wrote:

wasbit wrote:

It would help if you told Windows users what an APK is. I had to look >>>>> it up.

APK files are to Android as JAR files are to Java

Or like an EXE for windows?

More like an MSI (but not so close)

Aren't the apk's a typical standard normal Windows zip file?
For example, can't Windows 7Zip or Unzip always easily unzip them?

Yes. But you can not compress them back again. Just compressing to a ZIP
file and then renaming to have the extension ".apk" does not work.

--
Arno Welzel
https://arnowelzel.de

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