Now possible to use resource-id for finding elements.

android/bootstrap/src/io/appium/android/bootstrap/handler/Find.java

@@ -388,16 +388,26 @@ public class Find extends CommandHandler {
         }
         break;
       case ID:
-        try {
-          text = apkStrings.getString(text);
-          Logger.debug("Searching for text: " + text);
-        } catch (final Exception e) { // JSONException and NullPointerException
+        if (text.contains(":")) {
+          // Handle this as a resource id
+          sel = sel.resourceId(text);
+          if (!many)
+            sel = sel.instance(0);
+          selectors.add(sel);
+          // Don't fall through when using resource id
+          break;
+        } else {
+          try {
+            text = apkStrings.getString(text);
+            Logger.debug("Searching for text: " + text);
+          } catch (final Exception e) { // JSONException and NullPointerException
 
-          final StringWriter string = new StringWriter();
-          e.printStackTrace(new PrintWriter(string));
+            final StringWriter string = new StringWriter();
+            e.printStackTrace(new PrintWriter(string));
 
-          throw new InvalidStrategyException("Unable to search by ID for "
-              + text + ".\n" + string.toString());
+            throw new InvalidStrategyException("Unable to search by ID for "
+                + text + ".\n" + string.toString());
+          }
         }
         // now fall through and do a name search
       case NAME:

test/functional/apidemos/findElement.js

@@ -122,6 +122,20 @@ describeWd('find element(s)', function(h) {
       });
     });
   });
+  it('should find a single element by resource-id', function(done) {
+    h.driver.elementById('android:id/home', function(err, element) {
+      should.not.exist(err);
+      should.exist(element.value);
+      done();
+    });
+  });
+  it('should find multiple elements by resource-id', function(done) {
+    h.driver.elementsById('android:id/text1', function(err, els) {
+      should.not.exist(err);
+      els.length.should.equal(11);
+      done();
+    });
+  });
 });
 
 describeWd('find element(s) from element', function(h) {
@@ -254,4 +268,4 @@ describeWd('mobile xmlKeyContains', function(h) {
       done();
     });
   });
-});
+});