Android 4.2 on tablets added support for multiple users per device (similar to desktop OSes), each of which can install and remove apps independently. Currently, using adb install /path/to/app.apk installs the app globally; every user can see and launch it (as if every user installed the same app from the Play store for example).
Is there a way to adb install an app onto a device so that only one user can see it in the launcher menu?
adb install now supports --user USER_ID argument, so in order to install APK for a certain user, use:
adb install --user USER_ID PATH_TO_APK
In order to find out USER_ID, use adb shell pm list users.
See https://source.android.com/devices/tech/admin/multi-user-testing for details.
I stumbled across this post when I was having issues installing a React Native app on a phone with a separate Work Profile on it. For some reason, it felt like it was randomly choosing which profile to install the app on.
Here's what I did to specify the user manually:
Build the app at least once:
npx react-native run-android
Uninstall if needed:
adb uninstall <your package name here>
Install the app manually. The APK path should be relative to the top level of your project:
adb install --user 0 ./android/app/build/outputs/apk/debug/app-debug.apk