How to Send BroadCast from one app to another app

Question

I have App A and App B. In App A I want to send broadcast to App B. This is the code for App A:

final Intent intent = new Intent();
intent.setAction("com.pkg.perform.Ruby");
intent.putExtra("KeyName", "code1id");
intent.setComponent(new ComponentName("com.pkg.AppB", "com.pkg.AppB.MainActivity"));
sendBroadcast(intent);

And in App B - In MainActivity, I have MyBroadCastReceiver Class.

public class MainActivity extends Activity {
    private MyBroadcastReceiver MyReceiver;
    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
        // Receive broadcast from External App
        IntentFilter intentFilter = new IntentFilter("com.pkg.perform.Ruby");
        MyReceiver = new MyBroadcastReceiver();
        if(intentFilter != null)
        {
            registerReceiver(MyReceiver, intentFilter);
        }
    }

    public class MyBroadcastReceiver extends BroadcastReceiver
    {
        @Override
        public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {
            Toast.makeText(MainActivity.this, "Data Received from External App", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
        }
    }

    @Override
    protected void onDestroy() {
        super.onDestroy();
        if(MyReceiver != null)
            unregisterReceiver(MyReceiver);
    }
}

I am getting the error - Receiver is not registered.

Answer 1

First thing first declare the receiver in app B in the manifest file like this:

<receiver android:name=".MyBroadcastReceiver"
    android:enabled="true"
    android:exported="true">
        <intent-filter>
          <action android:name="com.pkg.perform.Ruby" />
        </intent-filter>
</receiver>

when sending the broadcast add FLAG_INCLUDE_STOPPED_PACKAGES flag to the intent [src] because when you broadcast from app A to app B , app B might not be running, this flag insures that the broadcast reachs out even apps not running:

FLAG_INCLUDE_STOPPED_PACKAGES flag is added to the intent before it is sent to indicate that the intent is to be allowed to start a component of a stopped application.

intent.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_INCLUDE_STOPPED_PACKAGES);

In your case it will be like this:

    final Intent intent=new Intent();
    intent.setAction("com.pkg.perform.Ruby");
    intent.putExtra("KeyName","code1id");
    intent.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_INCLUDE_STOPPED_PACKAGES);
    intent.setComponent(  
        new ComponentName("com.pkg.AppB","com.pkg.AppB.MyBroadcastReceiver"));  
    sendBroadcast(intent);