How can I launch an Android app on a device through Python?

Issue

I have consulted several topics on the subject, but I didn't see any related to launching an app on a device directly using a ppadb command.

I managed to do this code:

import ppadb
import subprocess

from ppadb.client import Client as AdbClient

# Create the connect functiun

def connect():

   client = AdbClient(host='localhost', port=5037)
   devices = client.devices()
   for device in devices:
       print (device.serial)

   if len(devices) == 0:
       print('no device connected')
       quit()

   phone = devices[0]
   print (f'connected to {phone.serial}')

   return phone, client

if __name__ == '__main__':
    phone, client = connect()

    import time
    time.sleep(5)

    # How to print each app on the emulator
    list = phone.list_packages()
    for truc in list:
       print(truc)

# Launch the desired app through phone.shell using the package name
phone.shell(????????????????)

From there, I have access to each app package (com.package.name). I would like to launch it through a phone.shell() command but I can't access the correct syntax.

I can execute a tap or a keyevent and it's perfectly working, but I want to be sure my code won't be disturbed by any change in position.

Solution

From How to start an application using Android ADB tools, the shell command to launch an app is

am start -n com.package.name/com.package.name.ActivityName

Hence you would call

phone.shell("am start -n com.package.name/com.package.name.ActivityName")

A given package may have multiple activities. To find out what they are, you can use dumpsys package as follows:

def parse_activities(package, connection, retval):
    out = ""
    while True:
        data = connection.read(1024)
        if not data: break
        out += data.decode('utf-8')
    retval.clear()
    retval += [l.split()[-1] for l in out.splitlines() if package in l and "Activity" in l]
    connection.close()

activities = []
phone.shell("dumpsys package", handler=lambda c: parse_activities("com.package.name", c, activities))
print(activities)

Answered By - SamBob