get launchable activity name of package from adb

Is there a way to get the launchable activity for a package from using adb? For an unroot phone (i.e. without having the pull the apk from /data/app directory and inspect with appt).

I tried dumpsys, but it does not include information on default launchable activity.

Thanks

You don't need root to pull the apk files from /data/app. Sure, you might not have permissions to list the contents of that directory, but you can find the file locations of APKs with:

adb shell pm list packages -f

Then you can use adb pull:

adb pull <APK path from previous command>

and then aapt to get the information you want:

aapt dump badging <pulledfile.apk>

$ adb shell pm dump PACKAGE_NAME | grep -A 1 MAIN

Since Android 7.0 you can use adb shell cmd package resolve-activity command to get the default activity of an installed app like this:

adb shell "cmd package resolve-activity --brief com.google.android.calculator | tail -n 1"
com.google.android.calculator/com.android.calculator2.Calculator

#!/bin/bash
#file getActivity.sh
package_name=$1
#launch app by package name
adb shell monkey -p ${package_name} -c android.intent.category.LAUNCHER 1;
sleep 1;
#get Activity name
adb shell logcat -d | grep 'START u0' | tail -n 1 | sed 's/.*cmp=\(.*\)} .*/\1/g'

---

sample:

getActivity.sh com.tencent.mm
com.tencent.mm/.ui.LauncherUI

I didn't find it listed so updating the list.

You need to have the apk installed and running in front on your phone for this solution:

Windows CMD line:

adb shell dumpsys window windows | findstr <any unique string from your pkg Name>

Linux Terminal:

adb shell dumpsys window windows | grep -i <any unique string from your Pkg Name>

OUTPUT for Calculator package would be:

Window #7 Window{39ced4b1 u0 com.android.calculator2/com.android.calculator2.Calculator}:

    mOwnerUid=10036 mShowToOwnerOnly=true package=com.android.calculator2 appop=NONE

    mToken=AppWindowToken{29a4bed4 token=Token{2f850b1a ActivityRecord{eefe5c5 u0 com.android.calculator2/.Calculator t322}}}

    mRootToken=AppWindowToken{29a4bed4 token=Token{2f850b1a ActivityRecord{eefe5c5 u0 com.android.calculator2/.Calculator t322}}}

    mAppToken=AppWindowToken{29a4bed4 token=Token{2f850b1a ActivityRecord{eefe5c5 u0 com.android.calculator2/.Calculator t322}}}

    WindowStateAnimator{3e160d22 com.android.calculator2/com.android.calculator2.Calculator}:

      mSurface=Surface(name=com.android.calculator2/com.android.calculator2.Calculator)

  mCurrentFocus=Window{39ced4b1 u0 com.android.calculator2/com.android.calculator2.Calculator}

  mFocusedApp=AppWindowToken{29a4bed4 token=Token{2f850b1a ActivityRecord{eefe5c5 u0 com.android.calculator2/.Calculator t322}}}

Main part is, First Line:

Window #7 Window{39ced4b1 u0 com.android.calculator2/com.android.calculator2.Calculator}:

First part of the output is package name:

com.android.calculator2

Second Part of output (which is after /) can be two things, in our case its:

com.android.calculator2.Calculator

1. <PKg name>.<activity name> = <com.android.calculator2>.<Calculator>

   so .Calculator is our activity

2. If second part is entirely different from Package name and doesn't seem to contain pkg name which was before / in out output, then entire second part can be used as main activity.

Here is another way to find out apps package name and launcher activity.

Step1: Start "adb logcat" in command prompt.

Step2: Open the app (either in emulator or real device)

You can also use ddms for logcat logs where just giving search of the app name you will all info but you have to select Info instead of verbose or other options. check this below image.

Launch your app and keep it in foreground.

Run the below command:

> adb shell dumpsys window windows | find "mcurrentfocus"