Can you open apps within other apps, with no URL scheme?

Question

Is it possible to open another app, like Camera, from a third-party app? I know there are URL schemes - http://wiki.akosma.com/IPhone_URL_Schemes - but I just want to open an app, not send any data to the app.

Answer 1

Unfortunately, no. Launch Services is private API on the iPhone. You application can launch another app only through trying to open a URL registered by that app or a file document the app understands. However, as far as I know, your app has no control over or knowledge about which app exactly will handle the URL or the file.

Answer 2

One way to fire up the camera from within your app, of course, is the UIImagePickerController class.

http://developer.apple.com/iphone/library/documentation/uikit/reference/UIImagePickerController_Class/UIImagePickerController/UIImagePickerController.html

It's not quite what you're asking, but it might be as close as you're going to get.