Convert String to Uri

You can parse a String to a Uri by using Uri.parse() as shown below:

Uri myUri = Uri.parse("http://stackoverflow.com");

The following is an example of how you can use your newly created Uri in an implicit intent. To be viewed in a browser on the users phone.

// Creates a new Implicit Intent, passing in our Uri as the second paramater.
Intent webIntent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW, myUri);

// Checks to see if there is an Activity capable of handling the intent
if (webIntent.resolveActivity(getPackageManager()) != null){
    startActivity(webIntent);
}

NB: There is a difference between Androids URI and Uri.

I am just using the java.net package. Here you can do the following:

...
import java.net.URI;
...

String myUrl = "http://stackoverflow.com";
URI myURI = new URI(myUrl);

If you are using Kotlin and Kotlin android extensions, then there is a beautiful way of doing this.

val uri = myUriString.toUri()

To add Kotlin extensions (KTX) to your project add the following to your app module's build.gradle

  repositories {
    google()
}

dependencies {
    implementation 'androidx.core:core-ktx:1.0.0-rc01'
}

You can use the parse static method from Uri

//...
import android.net.Uri;
//...

Uri myUri = Uri.parse("http://stackoverflow.com")