Share Android Apps on Twitter (or anywhere else)
By @edent
· android api mobile sdk sharing sharing is caring twitter · 3 comments · 250 words · read ~2,547 times.
I attended the Mobile Monday meeting "200,000 Apps - Where's Mine" last night.
One thing that became clear is that apps don't do a very good job of promoting themselves. One crippling problems with most app stores is that there's no (easy) way to share an app with a friend.
Here's some basic code for an Android app which will post the URL of your app to Twitter. Stick it in a button or menu item for easy sharing.
String twitterUri = "http://m.twitter.com/?status=";
String marketUri = Uri.encode("http://example.com/?q=app&title=test");
Intent shareOnTwitterIntent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW, Uri.parse(twitterUri + marketUri));
startActivity(shareOnTwitterIntent);
Some important things to note.
- This is set to post to the mobile version of Twitter. Your user is on a phone - don't direct them to a site that won't work on their device.
- The second string is URI encoded.
- Consider if you want to post a "market://" link. I would advise against it. Twitter won't render it as a link and, even if it did, 90% of users won't be able to click on it. Make it a link that will direct desktop users to your website, mobile users to a mobile friendly site and Android users direct to the market.
Facebook also has an API for this sort of sharing.
http://m.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=example.com&t=test
Again, it points to the mobile site and needs to be URL encoded.
Happy sharing!
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Hi Terence,
I'd like to offer a refinement.
Rather than directing users to open a browser that opens up a mobile site, ask them how they'd like to share, and then launch the app that they usually use:
String marketUri = "http://example.com/?q=app&title=test";
Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_SEND);
intent.setType("text/plain");
intent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_SUBJECT, "I found an awesome app");
intent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_TEXT, "Check this app out: " + marketUri);
Intent chooser = Intent.createChooser(intent, "Which app you want to share with");
startActivity(chooser);
This chooser will offer a list of apps that are able to share text and are installed, including email.
Brilliant idea. Although it will require the user to have a Facebook or Twitter app installed.
Hi both,
I went with James idea, works perfectly.
Thank you guys, real time saver !!