[FIXED] How can I natively launch an external app from within Xamarin.Forms?

Issue

As the question title suggests, I'm looking for a way to launch an external app from within a Xamarin.Forms app. For example, my app has a list of addresses, and when the user taps on one of them, the built-in map app for the current platform would open (Google Maps for Android, Apple Maps for iOS). In case it matters, I am only targeting Android and iOS.

I could use a dependency service and write the app-launching code on a per-platform basis, of course, but I'd prefer if I only had to write it once. Is there a native way to do this in Xamarin.Forms? I was unable to find anything that officially documented this on the Xamarin site or forums.

Solution

Use Device.OpenUri and pass it the appropriate URI, combined with Device.OnPlatform to format the URI per platform

string url; 

Device.OnPlatform(iOS: () =>
  {
     url = String.Format("http://maps.apple.com/maps?q={0}", address);
  },
  Android: () =>
  {
    url = String.Format("http://maps.google.com/maps?q={0}", address);
  });

Device.OpenUri(url);

Answered By - Jason

Answer Checked By - Candace Johnson (PHPFixing Volunteer)