A Flutter plugin for launching a URL. Supports iOS, Android, web, Windows, macOS, and Linux.
To use this plugin, add url_launcher
as a dependency in your pubspec.yaml file.
import 'package:flutter/material.dart'; import 'package:url_launcher/url_launcher.dart'; const String _url = 'https://flutter.dev'; void main() => runApp( const MaterialApp( home: Material( child: Center( child: RaisedButton( onPressed: _launchURL, child: Text('Show Flutter homepage'), ), ), ), ), ); void _launchURL() async { if (!await launch(_url)) throw 'Could not launch $_url'; }
See the example app for more complex examples.
Add any URL schemes passed to canLaunch
as LSApplicationQueriesSchemes
entries in your Info.plist file.
Example:
<key>LSApplicationQueriesSchemes</key> <array> <string>https</string> <string>http</string> </array>
See -[UIApplication canOpenURL:]
for more details.
Starting from API 30 Android requires package visibility configuration in your AndroidManifest.xml
otherwise canLaunch
will return false
. A <queries>
element must be added to your manifest as a child of the root element.
The snippet below shows an example for an application that uses https
, tel
, and mailto
URLs with url_launcher
. See the Android documentation for examples of other queries.
<queries> <!-- If your app opens https URLs --> <intent> <action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW" /> <data android:scheme="https" /> </intent> <!-- If your app makes calls --> <intent> <action android:name="android.intent.action.DIAL" /> <data android:scheme="tel" /> </intent> <!-- If your sends SMS messages --> <intent> <action android:name="android.intent.action.SENDTO" /> <data android:scheme="smsto" /> </intent> <!-- If your app sends emails --> <intent> <action android:name="android.intent.action.SEND" /> <data android:mimeType="*/*" /> </intent> </queries>
The launch
method takes a string argument containing a URL. This URL can be formatted using a number of different URL schemes. The supported URL schemes depend on the underlying platform and installed apps.
Commonly used schemes include:
Scheme | Example | Action |
---|---|---|
https:<URL> | https://flutter.dev | Open URL in the default browser |
mailto:<email address>?subject=<subject>&body=<body> | mailto:smith@example.org?subject=News&body=New%20plugin | Create email to in the default email app |
tel:<phone number> | tel:+1-555-010-999 | Make a phone call to using the default phone app |
sms:<phone number> | sms:5550101234 | Send an SMS message to using the default messaging app |
file:<path> | file:/home | Open file or folder using default app association, supported on desktop platforms |
More details can be found here for iOS and Android
Note: URL schemes are only supported if there are apps installed on the device that can support them. For example, iOS simulators don‘t have a default email or phone apps installed, so can’t open tel:
or mailto:
links.
URLs must be properly encoded, especially when including spaces or other special characters. This can be done using the Uri
class. For example:
String? encodeQueryParameters(Map<String, String> params) { return params.entries .map((e) => '${Uri.encodeComponent(e.key)}=${Uri.encodeComponent(e.value)}') .join('&'); } final Uri emailLaunchUri = Uri( scheme: 'mailto', path: 'smith@example.com', query: encodeQueryParameters(<String, String>{ 'subject': 'Example Subject & Symbols are allowed!' }), ); launch(emailLaunchUri.toString());
Warning: For any scheme other than http
or https
, you should use the query
parameter and the encodeQueryParameters
function shown above rather than Uri
's queryParameters
constructor argument, due to a bug in the way Uri
encodes query parameters. Using queryParameters
will result in spaces being converted to +
in many cases.
A particular mobile device may not be able to receive all supported URL schemes. For example, a tablet may not have a cellular radio and thus no support for launching a URL using the sms
scheme, or a device may not have an email app and thus no support for launching a URL using the mailto
scheme.
We recommend checking which URL schemes are supported using the canLaunch
in most cases. If the canLaunch
method returns false, as a best practice we suggest adjusting the application UI so that the unsupported URL is never triggered; for example, if the mailto
scheme is not supported, a UI button that would have sent feedback email could be changed to instead open a web-based feedback form using an https
URL.
By default, Android opens up a browser when handling URLs. You can pass forceWebView: true
parameter to tell the plugin to open a WebView instead. If you do this for a URL of a page containing JavaScript, make sure to pass in enableJavaScript: true
, or else the launch method will not work properly. On iOS, the default behavior is to open all web URLs within the app. Everything else is redirected to the app handler.
file:
scheme can be used on desktop platforms: macOS
, Linux
and Windows
.
We recommend checking first whether the directory or file exists before calling launch
.
Example:
var filePath = '/path/to/file'; final Uri uri = Uri.file(filePath); if (await File(uri.toFilePath()).exists()) { if (!await launch(uri.toString())) { throw 'Could not launch $uri'; } }
If you need to access files outside of your application's sandbox, you will need to have the necessary entitlements.