How to check if activity is in foreground or in visible background

Question

I have a splash screen on a timer  My problem is that before I finish   my activity I need to check that the next activity has started because a system dialogue box pops-up and I only want to finish    once the user has selected an option from the dialogue box    I know that there are many questions on how to see if your activity is in the foreground but I do not know if this allows for dialogue boxes on top of the activity too    Here is the problem  the red is my activity which is in the background while the dialogue is in the foreground     EDIT  I have tried just not using finish   but then my activity can be gone back to in the stack of applications which I am trying to avoid

User · Answer

Activity  hasWindowFocus   returns you the boolean you need   public class ActivityForegroundChecker extends TimerTask       private static final long FOREGROUND CHECK PERIOD   5000      private static final long FIRST DELAY               3000       private Activity m activity      private Timer    m timer       public ActivityForegroundChecker  Activity p activity                m activity   p activity              Override     public void run                 if  m activity hasWindowFocus      true                   Activity is on foreground             return                       Activity is on background             public void start                  if  m timer    null                return                    m timer   new Timer            m timer schedule this  FIRST DELAY  FOREGROUND CHECK PERIOD              public void stop                  if  m timer    null                return                    m timer cancel            m timer purge            m timer   null            Here is an example class to check your activites  visibility from wherever you are    Remember that if you show a dialog  the result will be false since the dialog will have the main focus  Other than that it s really handy and more reliable than suggested solutions

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One possible solution might be setting a flag while showing the system-dialog and then in the onStop method of the activity life-cycle  check for the flag  if true  finish the activity   For example  if the system dialog is triggered by some buttonclick  then the onclick listener might be like  private OnClickListener btnClickListener   new OnClickListener           Override     public void onClick View v                       Intent intent   new Intent            intent setAction Intent ACTION SEND           intent setType  text plain            CheckActivity this startActivity Intent createChooser intent   Complete action using             checkFlag   true     flag used to check             and in onstop of activity    Override protected void onStop         if checkFlag           finish              super onStop

User · Answer

This can achieve this by a efficient way by using Application ActivityLifecycleCallbacks  For example lets take Activity class name as ProfileActivity lets find whether its is in foreground or background  first we need to create our application class by extending Application Class  which implements      Application ActivityLifecycleCallbacks   Lets be my Application class as follows  Application class  public class AppController extends Application implements Application ActivityLifecycleCallbacks     private boolean activityInForeground    Override public void onCreate         super onCreate       register ActivityLifecycleCallbacks        registerActivityLifecycleCallbacks this         public static boolean isActivityVisible         return activityVisible     public static void activityResumed         activityVisible   true     public static void activityPaused         activityVisible   false     private static boolean activityVisible    Override public void onActivityCreated Activity activity  Bundle savedInstanceState         Override public void onActivityStarted Activity activity         Override public void onActivityResumed Activity activity          Here you can add all Activity class you need to check whether its on screen or not      activityInForeground   activity instanceof ProfileActivity      Override public void onActivityPaused Activity activity         Override public void onActivityStopped Activity activity         Override public void onActivitySaveInstanceState Activity activity  Bundle outState         Override public void onActivityDestroyed Activity activity        public boolean isActivityInForeground         return activityInForeground        in the above class there is a override methord onActivityResumed of ActivityLifecycleCallbacks    Override public void onActivityResumed Activity activity          Here you can add all Activity class you need to check whether its on screen or not      activityInForeground   activity instanceof ProfileActivity      where all activity instance which is currently displayed on screen can be found  just check whether Your Activity is on Screen or not by the above method   Register your Application class in manifest xml   lt application     android name   AppController    gt    To check weather Activity is Foreground or background as per the above solution call the following method on places you need to check  AppController applicationControl    AppController  getApplicationContext        if applicationControl isActivityInForeground          Log d  TAG   Activity is in foreground             else             Log d  TAG   Activity is in background

User · Answer

Here is a solution using Application class   public class AppSingleton extends Application implements Application ActivityLifecycleCallbacks    private WeakReference lt Context gt  foregroundActivity     Override public void onActivityResumed Activity activity        foregroundActivity new WeakReference lt Context gt  activity       Override public void onActivityPaused Activity activity        String class name activity activity getClass   getCanonicalName        if  foregroundActivity    null  amp  amp               foregroundActivity get   getClass   getCanonicalName   equals class name activity             foregroundActivity   null                                           public boolean isOnForeground  NonNull Context activity cntxt        return isOnForeground activity cntxt getClass   getCanonicalName        public boolean isOnForeground  NonNull String activity canonical name        if  foregroundActivity    null  amp  amp  foregroundActivity get      null            return foregroundActivity get   getClass   getCanonicalName   equals activity canonical name             return false        You can simply use it like follows     AppSingleton context getApplicationContext    isOnForeground context activity     If you have a reference to the required Activity or using the canonical name of the Activity  you can find out whether it s in the foreground or not  This solution may not be foolproof  Therefore your comments are really welcome

User · Answer

I think I have better solution  Because you can build in simply MyApplication activityResumed    to every Activity by one extend    Firstly you have to create  like CyberneticTwerkGuruOrc   public class MyApplication extends Application      public static boolean isActivityVisible         return activityVisible           public static void activityResumed         activityVisible   true         public static void activityPaused         activityVisible   false         private static boolean activityVisible      Next  you have to add Application class to AndroidManifest xml   lt application     android name  your app package MyApplication      android icon   drawable icon      android label   string app name   gt    Then  create class ActivityBase  public class ActivityBase extends Activity         Override     protected void onPause             super onPause            MyApplication activityPaused                Override     protected void onResume             super onResume            MyApplication activityResumed              Finally  when you crate new Activity  you can simply extends it by ActivityBase instead of Activity    public class Main extends ActivityBase        Override     protected void onResume             super onResume                Override     protected void onPause             super onPause              For me It s better method cause you have to just remember about extend by ActivityBase  In addition you can expand your base function in future  In my case I added receivers for my service and alerts about network in one class    If you wanna check visibility of your App  you can simply call  MyApplication isActivityVisible

User · Answer

I have to say your workflow is not in a standard Android way  In Android  you don t need to finish   your activity if you want to open another activity from Intent  As for user s convenience  Android allows user to use  back  key to go back from the activity that you opened to your app   So just let the system stop you activity and save anything need to when you activity is called back

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I don t know why nobody talked about sharedPreferences  for Activity A setting a SharedPreference like that  for example in onPause        SharedPreferences pref   context getSharedPreferences SHARED PREF  0   SharedPreferences Editor editor   pref edit    editor putBoolean  is activity paused a   true   editor commit      I think this is the reliable way to track activities visibilty

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If you are using EventBus  it as a method called hasSubscriberForEvent which can be used to check if an Activity is focused

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This is what is recommended as the right solution      The right solution  credits go to Dan  CommonsWare and NeTeInStEiN    Track visibility of your application by yourself using   Activity onPause  Activity onResume methods  Store  visibility  status   in some other class  Good choices are your own implementation of the   Application or a Service  there are also a few variations of this   solution if you d like to check activity visibility from the service        Example   Implement custom Application class  note the isActivityVisible   static method     public class MyApplication extends Application      public static boolean isActivityVisible         return activityVisible           public static void activityResumed         activityVisible   true         public static void activityPaused         activityVisible   false         private static boolean activityVisible         Register your application class in AndroidManifest xml     lt application     android name  your app package MyApplication      android icon   drawable icon      android label   string app name   gt       Add onPause and onResume to every Activity in the project  you may   create a common ancestor for your Activities if you d like to  but if   your activity is already extended from MapActivity ListActivity etc    you still need to write the following by hand      Override protected void onResume       super onResume      MyApplication activityResumed        Override protected void onPause       super onPause      MyApplication activityPaused        In your finish   method  you want to use isActivityVisible   to check if the activity is visible or not   There you can also check if the user has selected an option or not   Continue when both conditions are met   The source also mentions two wrong solutions   so avoid doing that   Source  stackoverflow

User · Answer

That s exactly the difference between onPause and onStop events of the activity as described in the Activity class documentation   If I understand you correctly  what you want to do is call finish   from your activity onStop to terminate it  See the attached image of the Activity Lifecycle Demo App  This is how it looks like when Activity B is launched from Activity A  The order of events is from bottom to top so you can see that Activity A onStop is called after Activity B onResume was already called     In case a dialog is shown your activity is dimmed in the background and only onPause is called

User · Answer

Would Activity onWindowFocusChanged boolean hasFocus  be useful here  That  plus a class-level flag  something like isFocused that onWindowFocusChanged sets  would be an easy way to tell at any point in your activity if it is focused or not  From reading the docs  it looks like it would properly set  false  in any situation where the activity isn t directly in the physical  foreground   like if a dialog is being displayed or the notification tray is pulled down   Example   boolean isFocused   Override void onWindowFocusChanged  boolean hasFocus        super onWindowFocusChanged hasFocus       isFocused   hasFocus     void someMethod         if  isFocused               The activity is the foremost object on the screen       else              The activity is obscured or otherwise not visible

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Use the time gap between pause and resume from background to determine whether it is awake from background  In Custom Application  private static boolean isInBackground  private static boolean isAwakeFromBackground  private static final int backgroundAllowance   10000   public static void activityPaused         isInBackground   true      final Handler handler   new Handler        handler postDelayed new Runnable              Override         public void run                 if  isInBackground                    isAwakeFromBackground   true                                 backgroundAllowance       Log v  activity status    activityPaused       public static void activityResumed         isInBackground   false      if isAwakeFromBackground              do something when awake from background         Log v  activity status    isAwakeFromBackground              isAwakeFromBackground   false      Log v  activity status    activityResumed        In BaseActivity Class   Override protected void onResume       super onResume      MyApplication activityResumed        Override protected void onPause       super onPause      MyApplication activityPaused

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I have create project on github app-foreground-background-listen  which uses very simple logic and works fine with all android API level

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Two possible solutions    1  Activity LifeCycle Callbacks  Use an Application that implements ActivityLifecycleCallbacks and use it to track Activities lifecycle events in you application  Note that ActivityLifecycleCallbacks are for Android api    14  For previous Android api  you ll need to implement it by yourself inside all of your activities  -   Use Application when you need to share   store states accross activities   2  Check for running process informations  You can check the status of a running process with this class  RunningAppProcessInfo  Fetch the running process list with ActivityManager getRunningAppProcesses   and filter the result list to check for the desired RunningAppProcessInfo and check its  importance

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Why not use broadcasts for this  the second activity  the one that needs to be up  can send a local broadcast like this     put this in onCreate     or any other lifecycle method that suits you best   notice the string sent to the intent  it will be used to register a receiver  Intent result   new Intent  broadcast identifier    result putString  some message     this is optional LocalBroadcastManager getInstance getApplicationContext    sendBroadcast result     then write a simple receiver within the splash activity     this goes on the class level  like a class instance variable  not in a method  of your splash activity  private BroadcastReceiver receiver   new BroadcastReceiver          Override     public void onReceive Context context  Intent intent              kill activity here              mission accomplished             and register your new receiver with the LocalBroadcastManager to listen to the broadcast from your second activity     notice the string sent to the intent filter  this is where you tell the BroadcastManager which broadcasts you want to listen to  LocalBroadcastManager getInstance getApplicationContext    registerReceiver receiver  new IntentFilter  broadcast identifier       NOTE that you could use a constant or a string resource for the  broadcast identifier  string

User · Answer

If targeting API level 14 or above  one can use android app Application ActivityLifecycleCallbacks   public class MyApplication extends Application implements ActivityLifecycleCallbacks       private static boolean isInterestingActivityVisible        Override     public void onCreate             super onCreate                Register to be notified of activity state changes         registerActivityLifecycleCallbacks this                           public boolean isInterestingActivityVisible             return isInterestingActivityVisible              Override     public void onActivityResumed Activity activity            if  activity instanceof MyInterestingActivity                 isInterestingActivityVisible   true                        Override     public void onActivityStopped Activity activity            if  activity instanceof MyInterestingActivity                 isInterestingActivityVisible   false                          Other state change callback stubs

User · Answer

did you try not calling finish  and putting  android noHistory  true  in the manifest  this will prevent the activity from going to the stack

User · Answer

Save a flag if you are paused or resumed  If you are resumed it means you are in the foreground  boolean  isResumed   false    Override public void onPause       super onPause          isResumed   false      Override public void onResume       super onResume          isResumed   true     private void finishIfForeground       if  isResumed        finish

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UPD  updated to state Lifecycle State RESUMED  Thanks to  htafoya for that   In 2019 with help of new support library 28  or AndroidX you can simply use   val isActivityInForeground   activity lifecycle currentState isAtLeast Lifecycle State RESUMED    You can read more in the documenation to understand what happened under the hood

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If you want to know if any activity of your app is visible on the screen  you can do something like this   public class MyAppActivityCallbacks implements Application ActivityLifecycleCallbacks   private Set lt Class lt Activity gt  gt  visibleActivities   new HashSet lt  gt       Override public void onActivityResumed Activity activity        visibleActivities add  Class lt Activity gt   activity getClass         Override public void onActivityStopped Activity activity         visibleActivities remove activity getClass        public boolean isAnyActivityVisible         return  visibleActivities isEmpty        Override public void onActivityCreated Activity activity  Bundle savedInstanceState       Override public void onActivityStarted Activity activity       Override public void onActivityPaused Activity activity       Override public void onActivityDestroyed Activity activity       Override public void onActivitySaveInstanceState Activity activity  Bundle outState        Just create a singleton of this class and set it in your Application instance like below   class App extends Application        Override      public void onCreate              registerActivityLifecycleCallbacks myAppActivityCallbacks              Then you can use isAnyActivityVisible   method of  your MyAppActivityCallbacks instance everywhere

User · Answer

If you use finish   just to avoid new app to starts in the stack  task  of you app  you can use Intent FLAG ACTIVITY NEW TASK flag  when starting new application and do not call finish   at all  According to the documentation  this is the flag to be used to implement a  launcher  style behavior      just add this line before you start an activity intent addFlags Intent FLAG ACTIVITY NEW TASK   startActivity intent

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I used to do like   if the activity is not in the foreground      getIntent     will return null    P

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Use these methods inside of an Activity    isDestroyed       Added in Api 17   Returns true if the final onDestroy   call has been made on the   Activity  so this instance is now dead    isFinishing       Added in Api 1   Check to see whether this activity is in the process of finishing    either because you called finish   on it or someone else has requested   that it finished  This is often used in onPause   to determine whether   the activity is simply pausing or completely finishing         From Memory Leaks Documentation   A common mistake with AsyncTask is to capture a strong reference to the host Activity  or Fragment    class MyActivity extends Activity     private AsyncTask lt Void  Void  Void gt  myTask   new AsyncTask lt Void  Void  Void gt             Don t do this  Inner classes implicitly keep a pointer to their        parent  which in this case is the Activity          This is a problem because AsyncTask can easily outlive the parent Activity  for example if a configuration change happens while the task is running   The right way to do this is to make your task a static class  which does not capture the parent  and holding a weak reference to the host Activity   class MyActivity extends Activity     static class MyTask extends AsyncTask lt Void  Void  Void gt           Weak references will still allow the Activity to be garbage-collected     private final WeakReference lt MyActivity gt  weakActivity       MyTask MyActivity myActivity          this weakActivity   new WeakReference lt  gt  myActivity               Override     public Void doInBackground Void    params             do async stuff here             Override     public void onPostExecute Void result             Re-acquire a strong reference to the activity  and verify          that it still exists and is active        MyActivity activity   weakActivity get          if  activity    null              activity isFinishing                activity isDestroyed                 activity is no longer valid  don t do anything          return                    The activity is still valid  do main-thread stuff here

[android] How to check if activity is in foreground or in visible background?

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