Android Kotlin: How to get device installed app version name and code

Introduction

This code snippet showcases how to retrieve information about an installed application on an Android device using Kotlin programming language. The retrieved information includes the application's package name, version name, and version code.

Explanation

  1. Import Statements:

    The code imports necessary packages for working with Android UI components and accessing package information.

  • android.content.pm.PackageInfo provides classes to represent information about an installed package.
  • androidx.appcompat.app.AppCompatActivity is the base class for activities in the AndroidX library.
  • androidx.core.content.pm.PackageInfoCompat offers utility methods for working with PackageInfo.
  • kotlinx.android.synthetic.main enables the use of synthetic imports for views defined in the layout XML file.

  1. MainActivity Class:

    This class inherits from AppCompatActivity and represents the main activity of the application.

  2. onCreate Method:

    • This method is called when the activity is first created.

    • Retrieve Package Information:

      • The code gets an instance of PackageManager using packageManager.
      • It then calls getPackageInfo on the PackageManager instance, passing the app's package name (packageName) and a flag set to 0 to retrieve basic information.
      • The retrieved information is stored in the packageInfo variable of type PackageInfo.

    • Extract App Version Details:

      • The app's version name is extracted from the packageInfo object using versionName and stored in the versionName string variable.
      • Similarly, the app's version code is retrieved using PackageInfoCompat.getLongVersionCode and assigned to the versionCode long variable.

    • Display Information:

      • The collected details (package name, version name, and version code) are displayed in the TextView with the ID textView.
      • The text is appended line by line using the append method.

Summary

By running this code, the application retrieves and displays the installed app's package name, version name, and version code on the main screen.

Table: Summary of Retrieved Information

InformationDescription
Package NameThe unique identifier of the application package.
Version NameThe human-readable version name of the application.
Version CodeThe internal version number of the application (typically an integer).


MainActivity.kt 

package com.example.jetpack

import android.content.pm.PackageInfo
import android.os.Bundle
import androidx.appcompat.app.AppCompatActivity
import androidx.core.content.pm.PackageInfoCompat
import kotlinx.android.synthetic.main.activity_main.*


class MainActivity : AppCompatActivity() {

    override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main)

        // get the package info instance
        val packageInfo: PackageInfo = packageManager.getPackageInfo(packageName, 0)
        // get this app version name programmatically
        val versionName: String = packageInfo.versionName
        // get this app version code programmatically
        val versionCode: Long = PackageInfoCompat.getLongVersionCode(packageInfo)

        // display the collected information in text view
        textView.text = "Package Name: $packageName"
        textView.append("\nVersion Name: $versionName")
        textView.append("\nVersion Code : $versionCode")
    }
}
activity_main.xml 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:id="@+id/constraintLayout"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:background="#E5E4E2"
    tools:context=".MainActivity">

    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/textView"
        android:layout_width="0dp"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_marginStart="16dp"
        android:layout_marginTop="32dp"
        android:layout_marginEnd="16dp"
        android:fontFamily="sans-serif-condensed"
        android:textColor="#191970"
        android:textSize="25sp"
        app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent"
        tools:text="TextView" />

</androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout>
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