android – How to open other mobile apps from within a Kotlin Multiplatform app?

I am trying to understand how to open other apps from within a Kotlin Multiplatform app. I am creating a contacts app for iOS and Android and I want to make a button which lets the user call a contact in a 3rd party app (e.g. WhatsApp, Google Meet etc.).

An example interaction:

1. In my app, the user navigates to the contact they want to call.
2. User presses the ‘Video call’ button.
3. My app opens the Google Meet app and creates a new video call.

I was able to implement this sort of functionality in Android/Java using Android intents:

Intent viewContact = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW);

viewContact.setClassName("com.google.android.apps.tachyon",
                        "com.google.android.apps.tachyon.ContactsVideoActionActivity");

viewContact.setData(Uri.parse("content://com.android.contacts/data/2173"));

This intent opens the Google Meet app and starts a video call with the contact ID:2173.

My questions are:

• Is there a way to open external apps in common code?
• Is there a multiplatform equivalent of Android intents?
• On the other hand, if I have to create separate implementations for Android and iOS, how do I open an external iOS app?

Many thanks!