How does Android different between multiple components that have same action and category? <p>I looked up intent filters and found that they will be used when "Android finds the appropriate component to start by comparing the contents of the intent to the intent filters declared in the manifest file of other apps on the device"(<a href="http://developer.android.com/guide/components/intents-filters.html#Building" rel="nofollow">http://developer.android.com/guide/components/intents-filters.html#Building</a>)</p> <p>In my manifest file, I have </p> <pre><code>&lt;intent-filter&gt; &lt;action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" /&gt; &lt;category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" /&gt; &lt;/intent-filter&gt; </code></pre> <p>which from reading that guide means that this activity can handle an implicit intent with action of main and category of launcher.</p> <p>However what if i have multiple applications with the same intent filter in the manifest file. I know that some implicit intent will be called with action of main and category of launcher. How does the Android O.S know to choose this application?</p>