Android and Facebook share intent

Apparently Facebook no longer (as of 2014) allows you to customise the sharing screen, no matter if you are just opening sharer.php URL or using Android intents in more specialised ways. See for example these answers:

• "Sharer.php no longer allows you to customize."
• "You need to use Facebook Android SDK or Easy Facebook Android SDK to share."

Anyway, using plain Intents, you can still share a URL, but not any default text with it, as billynomates commented. (Also, if you have no URL to share, just launching Facebook app with empty "Write Post" (i.e. status update) dialog is equally easy; use the code below but leave out EXTRA_TEXT.)

Here's the best solution I've found that does not involve using any Facebook SDKs.

This code opens the official Facebook app directly if it's installed, and otherwise falls back to opening sharer.php in a browser. (Most of the other solutions in this question bring up a huge "Complete action using…" dialog which isn't optimal at all!)

String urlToShare = "https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7545254";
Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_SEND);
intent.setType("text/plain");
// intent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_SUBJECT, "Foo bar"); // NB: has no effect!
intent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_TEXT, urlToShare);

// See if official Facebook app is found
boolean facebookAppFound = false;
List<ResolveInfo> matches = getPackageManager().queryIntentActivities(intent, 0);
for (ResolveInfo info : matches) {
    if (info.activityInfo.packageName.toLowerCase().startsWith("com.facebook.katana")) {
        intent.setPackage(info.activityInfo.packageName);
        facebookAppFound = true;
        break;
    }
}

// As fallback, launch sharer.php in a browser
if (!facebookAppFound) {
    String sharerUrl = "https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=" + urlToShare;
    intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW, Uri.parse(sharerUrl));
}

startActivity(intent);

(Regarding the com.facebook.katana package name, see MatheusJardimB's comment.)

The result looks like this on my Nexus 7 (Android 4.4) with Facebook app installed:

The Facebook application does not handle either the EXTRA_SUBJECT or EXTRA_TEXT fields.

Here is bug link: https://developers.facebook.com/bugs/332619626816423

Thanks @billynomates:

The thing is, if you put a URL in the EXTRA_TEXT field, it does work. It's like they're intentionally stripping out any text.

The usual way

The usual way to create what you're asking for, is to simply do the following:

    Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_SEND);
    intent.setType("text/plain");
    intent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_TEXT, "The status update text");
    startActivity(Intent.createChooser(intent, "Dialog title text"));

This works without any issues for me.

The alternative way (maybe)

The potential problem with doing this, is that you're also allowing the message to be sent via e-mail, SMS, etc. The following code is something I'm using in an application, that allows the user to send me an e-mail using Gmail. I'm guessing you could try to change it to make it work with Facebook only.

I'm not sure how it responds to any errors or exceptions (I'm guessing that would occur if Facebook is not installed), so you might have to test it a bit.

    try {
        Intent emailIntent = new Intent(android.content.Intent.ACTION_SEND);
        String[] recipients = new String[]{"e-mail address"};
        emailIntent.putExtra(android.content.Intent.EXTRA_EMAIL, recipients);
        emailIntent.putExtra(android.content.Intent.EXTRA_SUBJECT, "E-mail subject");
        emailIntent.putExtra(android.content.Intent.EXTRA_TEXT, "E-mail text");
        emailIntent.setType("plain/text"); // This is incorrect MIME, but Gmail is one of the only apps that responds to it - this might need to be replaced with text/plain for Facebook
        final PackageManager pm = getPackageManager();
        final List<ResolveInfo> matches = pm.queryIntentActivities(emailIntent, 0);
        ResolveInfo best = null;
        for (final ResolveInfo info : matches)
            if (info.activityInfo.packageName.endsWith(".gm") ||
                    info.activityInfo.name.toLowerCase().contains("gmail")) best = info;
                if (best != null)
                    emailIntent.setClassName(best.activityInfo.packageName, best.activityInfo.name);
                startActivity(emailIntent);
    } catch (Exception e) {
        Toast.makeText(this, "Application not found", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
    }

I found out you can only share either Text or Image, not both using Intents. Below code shares only Image if exists, or only Text if Image does not exits. If you want to share both, you need to use Facebook SDK from here.

If you use other solution instead of below code, don't forget to specify package name com.facebook.lite as well, which is package name of Facebook Lite. I haven't test but com.facebook.orca is package name of Facebook Messenger if you want to target that too.

You can add more methods for sharing with WhatsApp, Twitter ...

public class IntentShareHelper {

    /**
     * <b>Beware,</b> this shares only image if exists, or only text if image does not exits. Can't share both
     */
    public static void shareOnFacebook(AppCompatActivity appCompatActivity, String textBody, Uri fileUri) {
        Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_SEND);
        intent.setType("text/plain");
        intent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_TEXT,!TextUtils.isEmpty(textBody) ? textBody : "");

        if (fileUri != null) {
            intent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_STREAM, fileUri);
            intent.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_GRANT_READ_URI_PERMISSION);
            intent.setType("image/*");
        }

        boolean facebookAppFound = false;
        List<ResolveInfo> matches = appCompatActivity.getPackageManager().queryIntentActivities(intent, PackageManager.MATCH_DEFAULT_ONLY);
        for (ResolveInfo info : matches) {
            if (info.activityInfo.packageName.toLowerCase().startsWith("com.facebook.katana") ||
                info.activityInfo.packageName.toLowerCase().startsWith("com.facebook.lite")) {
                intent.setPackage(info.activityInfo.packageName);
                facebookAppFound = true;
                break;
            }
        }

        if (facebookAppFound) {
            appCompatActivity.startActivity(intent);
        } else {
            showWarningDialog(appCompatActivity, appCompatActivity.getString(R.string.error_activity_not_found));
        }
    }

    public static void shareOnWhatsapp(AppCompatActivity appCompatActivity, String textBody, Uri fileUri){...}

    private static void showWarningDialog(Context context, String message) {
        new AlertDialog.Builder(context)
                .setMessage(message)
                .setNegativeButton(context.getString(R.string.close), new DialogInterface.OnClickListener() {
                    @Override
                    public void onClick(DialogInterface dialog, int which) {
                        dialog.dismiss();
                    }
                })
                .setCancelable(true)
                .create().show();
    }
}

For getting Uri from File, use below class:

public class UtilityFile {
    public static @Nullable Uri getUriFromFile(Context context, @Nullable File file) {
        if (file == null)
            return null;

        if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.N) {
            try {
                return FileProvider.getUriForFile(context, "com.my.package.fileprovider", file);
            } catch (Exception e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
                return null;
            }
        } else {
            return Uri.fromFile(file);
        }
    }

    // Returns the URI path to the Bitmap displayed in specified ImageView       
    public static Uri getLocalBitmapUri(Context context, ImageView imageView) {
        Drawable drawable = imageView.getDrawable();
        Bitmap bmp = null;
        if (drawable instanceof BitmapDrawable) {
            bmp = ((BitmapDrawable) imageView.getDrawable()).getBitmap();
        } else {
            return null;
        }
        // Store image to default external storage directory
        Uri bmpUri = null;
        try {
            // Use methods on Context to access package-specific directories on external storage.
            // This way, you don't need to request external read/write permission.
            File file = new File(context.getExternalFilesDir(Environment.DIRECTORY_PICTURES), "share_image_" + System.currentTimeMillis() + ".png");
            FileOutputStream out = new FileOutputStream(file);
            bmp.compress(Bitmap.CompressFormat.PNG, 90, out);
            out.close();

            bmpUri = getUriFromFile(context, file);
        } catch (IOException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
        return bmpUri;
    }    
}

For writing FileProvider, use this link: https://github.com/codepath/android_guides/wiki/Sharing-Content-with-Intents

Here is what I did (for text). In the code, I copy whatever text is needed to clipboard. The first time an individual tries to use the share intent button, I pop up a notification that explains if they wish to share to facebook, they need to click 'Facebook' and then long press to paste (this is to make them aware that Facebook has BROKEN the android intent system). Then the relevant information is in the field. I might also include a link to this post so users can complain too...

private void setClipboardText(String text) { // TODO
    int sdk = android.os.Build.VERSION.SDK_INT;
    if(sdk < android.os.Build.VERSION_CODES.HONEYCOMB) {
        android.text.ClipboardManager clipboard = (android.text.ClipboardManager) getSystemService(Context.CLIPBOARD_SERVICE);
        clipboard.setText(text);
    } else {
        android.content.ClipboardManager clipboard = (android.content.ClipboardManager) getSystemService(Context.CLIPBOARD_SERVICE); 
        android.content.ClipData clip = android.content.ClipData.newPlainText("text label",text);
        clipboard.setPrimaryClip(clip);
    }
}

Below is a method for dealing w/prior versions

public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item) {
    switch (item.getItemId()) {
    case R.id.menu_item_share:
        Intent shareIntent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_SEND);
        shareIntent.setType("text/plain");
        shareIntent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_TEXT, "text here");

        ClipboardManager clipboard = (ClipboardManager) getSystemService(CLIPBOARD_SERVICE); //TODO
         ClipData clip = ClipData.newPlainText("label", "text here");
         clipboard.setPrimaryClip(clip);

        setShareIntent(shareIntent); 

        break;
    }
        return super.onOptionsItemSelected(item);
}