How to set default app launcher programmatically?

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This is actually possible with a little workaround:

Create an empty Activity that acts as a launcher called FakeLauncherActivity. Add it to your manifest as a disabled component: 

<activity
    android:name="com.path.to.your.FakeLauncherActivity"
    android:enabled="false">
    <intent-filter>
        <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />

        <category android:name="android.intent.category.HOME" />
        <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
    </intent-filter>
</activity>

Check whether your desired launcher activity is the default one (with the isMyAppLauncherDefault() from your question).

If not, offer the user to choose the preferred launcher activity like this:

public static void resetPreferredLauncherAndOpenChooser(Context context) {
    PackageManager packageManager = context.getPackageManager();
    ComponentName componentName = new ComponentName(context, com.path.to.your.FakeLauncherActivity.class);
    packageManager.setComponentEnabledSetting(componentName, PackageManager.COMPONENT_ENABLED_STATE_ENABLED, PackageManager.DONT_KILL_APP);

    Intent selector = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_MAIN);
    selector.addCategory(Intent.CATEGORY_HOME);
    selector.setFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);
    context.startActivity(selector);

    packageManager.setComponentEnabledSetting(componentName, PackageManager.COMPONENT_ENABLED_STATE_DEFAULT, PackageManager.DONT_KILL_APP);
}

This method temporarily enables FakeLauncherActivity, which leads to a change in the set of available launcher activities, which forces Android to forget its default launcher. You will see something like…

521-735/system_process I/PackageManager﹕ Result set changed, dropping preferred activity for Intent { act=android.intent.action.MAIN cat=[android.intent.category.HOME] flg=0x10000000 } type null

… in your log.

The method then simply opens a launcher intent where you can see all installed launchers and the buttons “Always”https://stackoverflow.com/”Just once”.
Finally, the method disables FakeLauncherActivity again so that it doesn’t display in the list.

You could repeat that as often as you want and only let the user proceed if your desired launcher activity is set as default.

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