ARG app implementation

[maildude]

Hi everyone, I have this ARG game(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternate_reality_game) app concept in my mind, but I'm not sure how to implement it because I don't know Android development that well.

The idea is that you install the app and it gives you a cryptic hint as to where you need to look for the solution. The hint leads to a website where you click a link and that updates the state of the app, so now the app congratulates you on solving the puzzle and gives you the next puzzle.

Now that I've roughly explained the idea - my question is how do I implement the state change of my app? What mechanisms do android apps have that would let me signal to my app that the state needs to change? Is it possible for the website to update an app, call a method inside my app, or save a shared file on the device, that my app can read to confirm that the user visited the page with the solution?
Thank you for your time.

 

[Deleted User]

Yes it's possible for an embedded website within your application, to communicate with the app, and even invoke a method call within the code. This could trigger a state change within your app.
You would use a WebView component. Some information about it here

http://rapidprogrammer.com/android-how-to-call-native-java-methods-from-webview-javascript

I think a major challenge with your proposed idea, is coming up with an interesting story line, with challenging puzzles. How is your creativity?

 

[KBU2]

I think a server application would help in the progress of the game that lead the End user in proceeding to the next step of each stage.


https://zeemee.engineering/upping-y...ics-to-server-side-event-tracking-4a5439ac7fa

 

[maildude]

it's possible for an embedded website within your application, to communicate with the app, and even invoke a method call within the code

I was thinking more along the lines of a website not being embedded, but rather the app being invoked by the webpage. After reading your link I got some ideas on how to form my own google search, and what I've found was this bare-bones article that demonstrates how an app can be called from a URI link:
https://www.techrepublic.com/blog/s...ability-launch-your-android-app-from-the-web/
This article doesn't present the full code, but I suppose it gives enough info to know where to go digging next.

Thank you for your response!