Allow launching the application from the lockscreen shortcut without unlocking the phone

[antoyo]

Checklist

• I made sure that there are no existing issues - open or closed - to which I could contribute my information.
• I made sure that there are no existing discussions - open or closed - to which I could contribute my information.
• I have read the FAQs inside the app (Menu -> About -> FAQs) and my problem isn't listed.
• I have taken the time to fill in all the required details. I understand that the request will be dismissed otherwise.
• This issue contains only one feature request.
• I have read and understood the contribution guidelines.

Feature description

The builtin camera app from Samsung or Google can be opened without unlocking the phone, either by double-clicking on the power button or via a lockscreen app shortcut.
When using configuring those to open Fossify Camera instead, this require unlocking the phone.

Why do you want this feature?

It would be convenient to be able to take pictures without needing to enter the pin.

Additional information

This would require limiting the access to pictures/videos so that you cannot see them without unlocking the phone unless there were captured before closing the app.

[ItzELECTR0]

I'm not sure how possible it is for the developers to implement this themselves as this is more of a "This app isn't on a list of pre-allowed apps so you need to unlock your phone" type of situation

[antoyo]

From what I could see, this should be possible to implement within this app.
I can't find exactly the solution I found the other day, but perhaps it is one of those:

• android.permission.DISABLE_KEYGUARD
• setShowWhenLocked

[ItzELECTR0]

I see. I was not aware of these before, my bad. Thanks for letting me know.

[PhilLab]

This also seems to depend on the OS. Because Fossify Camera can run from the lock screen (above permission and function call are both in the code). The challenge seems to be convincing the OS and/or lock screen that Fossify Camera shall be the camera app.

It might be a Samsung-specific issue, because on my Emulator and on my non-Samsung phone it works like this:

1. Install the application
2. Start camera from lock screen.
3. This will now not open a camera but instead ask to unlock. Because it will show you the app selector, with the stock camera app and Fossify Camera up for selection
4. Select Fossify Camera and "Always"
5. From now on, the Fossify camera will open directly

But on Samsung, this didn't work. The lock screen just always selects the stock camera app without asking.

As per Github Copilot, these might be worth investigating (so this is not yet fact-checked):

1. Missing android.intent.category.APP_CAMERA — This standard category is what the Android OS (and OEM launchers like Samsung One UI) uses to discover which apps qualify as "the camera app." Without it, Fossify is not considered a first-class camera candidate for the lockscreen shortcut.

2. Samsung-specific lockscreen intent not handled — Samsung's One UI lock screen does not use android.media.action.STILL_IMAGE_CAMERA_SECURE for its camera shortcut. It fires a proprietary com.samsung.android.intent.action.LAUNCH_CAMERA intent. Since there is no matching intent filter, Samsung silently falls back to the stock camera app with no chooser dialog shown.

3. showOnLockScreen is a deprecated manifest attribute — On API 27+, the OS ignores android:showOnLockScreen="true" and requires the programmatic APIs setShowWhenLocked(true) and setTurnScreenOn(true) to be called in the Activity. Without this, the activity may not be allowed to draw over the lockscreen at all on newer Android versions.

@naveensingh Given that the requested feature works on some platforms, but not on other, I propose triaging this as bug. Once this is triaged, as per the contributing guidelines, I could take a look into this.

[antoyo]

But on Samsung, this didn't work. The lock screen just always selects the stock camera app without asking.

This is not my experience. On my Samsung phone, it opens Fossify Camera, but it requires the lock.
I would like it to not require unlocking the phone.

I probably needed to configure the default Camera app in the settings for that to happen.