At what point and under what conditions does the operating system read the AndroidManifest.xml file when launching an app?

The AndroidManifest.xml file is read by the Android operating system at the moment of app installation and when it is launched to determine the main parameters of the app: components (Activity, Service, BroadcastReceiver), permissions, theme settings, minimum SDK version, and other metadata. The OS analyzes this file to know which components to initialize, which permissions to request, and how to handle intents.

When the Android app is launched, the OS starts a process, creates an instance of the Application class and activities based on the data from the manifest. Thus, reading the manifest occurs before the UI is created and before the app code is executed, ensuring the correct configuration of the runtime environment.