Is Android "open" enough to let you disable built-in features such as Phone book etc?

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Is Android "open" enough to let you disable built-in features such as Phone book etc?

Hi,

Is it possible in Android, to disable standard features of the phone such as Mail, browser, phone etc?

What I'm asking is, is it possible to create an application that, when launched on startup provides some features to the user, but sits "on top" of android so they only have access to your application and not the underlying features of android itself?

Effectively, the phone still runs android, but the user never gets to see this as they are limited to the functionality that your app provides.

+2 A:

You can replace all of the stock apps that come in the AOSP. browser, dialer, homescreen, etc are all just APK files you could replace them with any other APK file you want, lots of ROMS from the Android mod scene replace the stock apps for more robust versions.

schwiz 2010-10-26 13:11:04

Yes - but the key thing to realize is that is "android" being open source and available to be recompiled with different features, vs "some carrier branded phone" being open to modification by applications, which is fairly limited. Installing a customized android build will require a dev phone or a rooted carrier branded phone

Chris Stratton 2010-10-26 16:05:43

you don't need to root your phone to install any new versions of home, dialer, etc. You will just be prompted with what app to open when the intent is launched, you can also set the new apk to your default so you aren't prompted again.

schwiz 2010-10-27 02:13:50

ansaurus

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Is Android "open" enough to let you disable built-in features such as Phone book etc?

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