How to check if WhatsApp is installed on device?

user_9816472 0
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Linking.openURL(`whatsapp://send?phone=${phoneNumber}`);

The above code will navigate to WhatsApp however I'm wondering if it's possible to check existence of WhatsApp before trying to openURL

whatsapp react-native android ios
2 Answers

From React Native documentation:

To start the corresponding activity for a link (web URL, email, contact etc.), call

Linking.openURL(url).catch(err => console.error('An error occurred', err));

If you want to check if any installed app can handle a given URL beforehand you can call

Linking.canOpenURL(url).then(supported => {
  if (!supported) {
    console.log('Can\'t handle url: ' + url);
  } else {
    return Linking.openURL(url);
  }
}).catch(err => console.error('An error occurred', err));

I assume, if WhatsApp is not installed, the !supported block will be invoked and you can do your computation there.

user_57469180

It can be checked using the PackageManager. Just iterate over the installed packages and compare its name to the whatsapp package name.

PackageManager packageManager = getApplicationContext().getPackageManager();
for (PackageInfo packageInfo : packageManager.getInstalledPackages(0)) {
  if (packageInfo.packageName.equals(“com.whatsapp")) {
    return true;
  }
}
user_38413520
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