Android 16 marks a massive shift in how the OS interacts with installed applications. With the introduction of the android.app.appfunctions package, we are moving away from the rigid deep-linking of App Actions and Slices toward a truly agentic model. Apps are no longer just destinations to be opened; they are headless toolboxes of capabilities that system agents can invoke directly.

In this session, we will move beyond the documentation and dive into the practical implementation of App Functions. We will explore how to wire up an app to expose its features using the new Jetpack androidx.appfunctions library, focusing on the @AppFunction annotation and secure cross-process data handling with AppFunctionSerializable.

Finally, we will look at the other side of the equation: consuming these capabilities. I will demonstrate how to build a custom Android launcher that queries AppFunctionStaticMetadata and natively executes tasks from third-party apps via the AppFunctionManager — effectively turning a standard UI into an AI-ready intent engine.

Key Takeaways:

The Agentic OS Shift: Understand the architectural differences between legacy App Actions and the new headless execution model of App Functions.

Exposing Capabilities: Learn how to implement the androidx.appfunctions Jetpack library, handle KSP code generation, and manage the PlatformAppFunctionService system entry point.

Schema & Serialization: Best practices for defining structured parameters that system agents can easily index and consume.

Live Launcher Demo: A practical walkthrough of querying the on-device index and executing App Functions dynamically from a custom Android launcher.