Add OPEN_APP_FEATURE for system apps

Question

I have integrated OPEN_APP_FEATURE to launch my app with voice commands using this documentation and works fine with the help of Play Store configuration or so called App Action test tools.

I'm working on developing system apps(or pre-installed apps) for automotive OS, for which I need to add voice command to launch a feature of any of system app without using App Action test tools. But I do not see any documentation for such requirement(or maybe I missed in research). However, the same requirement was achieved by Amazon's Alexa Skills without Play store configuration. And should support for Google Assistance as well.

Is there a possibility to add OPEN_APP_FEATURE for system apps?

Answer 1

The test tool is just for development. It's not needed at all in production.

App Actions requires that the app be uploaded to the Play store so that Assistant can learn about its BIIs at the time of upload when shipping to end users. There is no alternative to this process. Please read again the requirements section in the documentation.

App Actions are only available for apps published to the Google Play Store. Also, make sure that your app is not intended to be used in a work profile, as App Actions are not supported by Managed Google Play.

Also read the read the documentation on review and deployment .

Your App Actions won't be available to your users until they've been reviewed and approved. The App Actions review does not affect your Android app review and deployment status in Google Play. Even if your app submission is approved, your actions.xml may still be under review by Google.

I don't think that it matters if the app is a system app or not. Assistant can only know about apps that are uploaded to Play. The application ID of the app installed on the device must match the ID in use in Play.