What is the best way to start one android app from another app? Is it to send custom broadcast event and have broadcast receiver of other app catch this event and do a star
Use an Intent: http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/intents/intents-filters.html
Use Context.startActivity() to just launch, or Activity.startActivityForResult() if you want to get a result when it's done.
If you are tightly coupled with the other application, you can use an explicit Intent. Otherwise, send an implicit Intent.