Launch App on TV

Many TVs and streaming players include support for launching installed apps. The following is a simplified example of how to launch YouTube on a device.

Launch an app

[_device.launcher launchApp:@"YouTube" success:^(LaunchSession *launchSession) {
    NSLog(@"app launch success");
} failure:^(NSError *error) {
    NSLog(@"app launch error: %@", error.localizedDescription);
}];

Device-specific app identifiers

On each device (webOS TV, Roku, etc) apps are identified by different values. Here is an example of the different identifiers in use for the YouTube app.

webOS: youtube.leanback.v4 (value may change with future updates)
Netcast: 0000000000017498 (value may be different on each TV)
DIAL: YouTube (listed in DIAL registry)
Roku: 837 (Roku-specific channel number)

Launching an app with device-specific identifiers

The following snippet shows how to detect the platform of your device and launch with the appropriate app identifier.

NSString *appId;

if ([_device serviceWithName:@"webOS TV"])
    appId = @"youtube.leanback.v4";
else if ([_device serviceWithName:@"Netcast TV"])
    appId = @"0000000000017498";
else if ([_device serviceWithName:@"Roku"])
    appId = @"837";
else if ([_device serviceWithName:@"DIAL"])
    appId = @"YouTube";

if (!appId)
    return;

AppInfo *appInfo = [AppInfo appInfoForId:appId];
appInfo.name = @"YouTube";

[_device.launcher launchAppWithInfo:appInfo success:^(LaunchSession *launchSession) {
    NSLog(@"app launch success");
} failure:^(NSError *error) {
    NSLog(@"app launch error: $@", error.localizedDescription);
}];

AppInfo helper object

You will notice that the previous example refers to an AppInfo object. This object is used internally by Connect SDK to manage an app’s protocol-specific properties. If a device supports app list, the app list will return a set of AppInfo objects for each app installed on the TV.

Launching an app with parameters

In most cases, a device’s launcher object will allow you to pass launch parameters to your app. Connect SDK has normalized the parameter input type to a keyed set of values. These values are then parsed into the appropriate format for the protocol (XML, JSON, URL params, etc).

NSDictionary *params = @{
    @"someProperty" : @"someValue"
};

[_device.launcher launchAppWithInfo:appInfo params:params success:^(LaunchSession *launchSession) {
    NSLog(@"app launch success");
} failure:^(NSError *error) {
    NSLog(@"app launch error: $@", error.localizedDescription);
}];

Note

Due to the variety of protocols in use, it is strongly recommended that you only use strings for the keys AND values of your parameters.