Triggering a native Share intent on Android from the web

 Android  has an ecosystem built around sharing between apps. The most powerful attribute of Android Intents in my opinion is that for most parts an Intent can be encoded as a simple URL using the scheme. Chrome and every other browser on the platform support. However the only time it used on the web is to open up a user’s installed native app. 

For example: intent:paul.kinlan.me#Intent;scheme=https;package=com.chrome.beta;endwill open my site in the Chrome Beta browser on Android.

The interesting thing is that you can’t just open any app on the users device. The app has to say to the system that it can be opened from the web by including in the intent-filter.

A fuller example of what might be included in the Android Manifest follows.