Unity Launcher for Mobile possible?

Unity Engine
1

Hello All,

I’ve recently been tasked with this problem where we would like to create some type of “Launcher” for our unity apps. Here’s an example:
User opens application “Launcher”:
user scrolls through list to find a specific application made by us.
User taps on an element in the list to open that application.
Once app is loaded, user taps back to go back to the launcher.

I have 2 ways i’ve thought of doing this so far:
Colossal Unity application will all projects integrated. (if i must, i will do this)
Single launcher app that can run the other apps externally on the device. (ideal method)

The colossal project’s main issue is that we have (i think) 20+ unity apps to integrate into a single application + launcher.

I’d rather do the single launcher app that sends a system call to externally open another app, but i’m not sure how to accomplish that atm. I’ve read that Application.OpenURL() can do something similar to this on iOS and on android we can use actions on our manifest to register for URL’s that open our application. It’s likely that this will hit and android device but i can’t be too sure about that at this time. It’s also likely that the first android device would be a nook color, agian, not too sure on that detail atm.

Has anyone done something similar and can share their experience? Note: this isn’t a shopping application where a user buys apps to play. The apps MUST run after tapping them in the launcher.

Is this something that can only be accomplished with native code?

2

The only way I think of doing it is by using native code.

3

Did you ever accomplish this?

4

Yes.
We ended up created a bridge to android. I think it me a few hours to get unity to pass messages to android.

5

Hiya, I just stumbled upon your post and I have a similar issue as you had with your launcher.

I was just wondering if you would be up for giving me any hints?
I understand it would be wrong to ask for your hard work and copy your code but I was wondering if you could steer me towards how I may do this myself and achieve what you did with the bridge?

Or would you be able to confirm if the Bridge was the only / best way to do this in hindsight now that you have finished coding your launcher?

Cheers in advance for any help you may be able to give me on this.

Lindsay.

6

http://www.platoevolved.com/blog/programming/android/creating-an-android-plugin-for-unity/

Some links i found on the subject.
The first one i read extensively, i couldn’t find all the resources I had used at the time though.
Just a note, you’ll need to know how to use Eclipse and java for android.