What is the Android System icon

[AC Question]

When doing a translation, a customer of mine showed me an Android System icon. It was green with a picture the looked like a pulley (there was a big silver wheel next to a smaller silver wheel with a band around them both). We saw several of these icons when on the Share With page.

 

[belodion]

Tap one and you have the option to share with certain System apps.

 

[rcrc001]

Cool, thanks. I had been searching for a while on this topic until I came across this forum. I have a couple of follow-up questions (your response may lead to a couple of more). What triggers these icons to appear? Why would a user need to share data with a system app?

 

[belodion]

I'm not sure, but some of those System apps are Calendar, Google Drive, Clipboard, so I suppose it makes some kind of sense. Why they're not simply listed as separate Share options I don't know.
Anyways, welcome as a new member.

 

[rcrc001]

Thanks for quick response. I will continue my quest for answers.

 

[belodion]

I've passed this on to more knowledgeable members.

Also, I've just Shared a translation to Clipboard, which was in one of those Android System options. After that, Clipboard appears as a Share option by itself. Nevertheless, I have Shared to Clipboard in the past, though not recently.

 

[rcrc001]

Thanks. When I think of system apps in this scenario, I'm leaning towards sys apps w/o a UI. Please let me know if you find out anything. I very much appreciate your efforts.

 

[jeffhaskins]

The symbol is the app icon for the application framwork-res.apk, found in /system/framework. Inside that apk is all of the resources the OS uses. It is one of the main apks to edit when modding or theming you Android OS.

 

[rcrc001]

Thanks for this additional piece of the puzzle.