[android] Calling startActivity() from outside of an Activity?

I'm using an AlarmManager to trigger an intent that broadcasts a signal. The following is my code:

AlarmManager mgr = (AlarmManager) getSystemService(Context.ALARM_SERVICE);
Intent i = new Intent(this, Wakeup.class);
try
{
    PendingIntent pi = PendingIntent.getBroadcast(this, 0, i, 0);
    Long elapsed +=  // sleep time;
    mgr.set(AlarmManager.RTC_WAKEUP, elapsed, pi);
}
catch(Exception r)
{
    Log.v(TAG, "RunTimeException: " + r);
}

I'm calling this code from an Activity, so I don't know how I could be getting the following error...

ERROR/AndroidRuntime(7557): java.lang.RuntimeException: Unable to start receiver com.wcc.Wakeup: android.util.AndroidRuntimeException: Calling startActivity() from outside of an Activity  context requires the FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK flag. Is this really what you want?

Android Doc says -

FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK requirement is now enforced

With Android 9, you cannot start an activity from a non-activity context unless you pass the intent flag FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK. If you attempt to start an activity without passing this flag, the activity does not start, and the system prints a message to the log.

Note: The flag requirement has always been the intended behavior, and was enforced on versions lower than Android 7.0 (API level 24). A bug in Android 7.0 prevented the flag requirement from being enforced.

That means for (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT <= Build.VERSION_CODES.M) || (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.P) it is mandatory to add Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK while calling startActivity() from outside of an Activity context.

So it is better to add flag for all the versions -

...
Intent i = new Intent(this, Wakeup.class);
i.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);
...

When you want to open an activity within your app then you can call the startActivity() method with an Intent as parameter. That intent would be the activity that you want to open. First you have to create an object of that intent with first parameter to be the context and second parameter to be the targeted activity class.

Intent intent = new Intent(this, Activity_a.class);
startActivity(intent);

Hope this will help.

This same error I have faced in case of getting Notification in latest Android devices 9 and 10.

It depends on Launch mode how you are handling it. Use below code:- android:launchMode="singleTask"

Add this flag with Intent:- intent.setFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);

if your android version is below Android - 6 then you need to add this line otherwise it will work above Android - 6.

...
Intent i = new Intent(this, Wakeup.class);
i.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);
...

Try changing to this line:

PendingIntent pendingIntent = PendingIntent.getBroadcast(getContext(), 0, i, 0);

I just want to notice that startActivity from outside an activity is valid in some android versions (between N and O-MR1) and the interesting point is that it is a bug in android source code!

This is the comment above startActivity implementation. See here.

Calling start activity from outside an activity without FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK is generally not allowed, except if the caller specifies the task id the activity should be launched in. A bug was existed between N and O-MR1 which allowed this to work.

Sometimes this error can occur without an explicit call to startActivity(...). For example, some of you may have seen a stack trace like this in Crashlytics:

Fatal Exception: android.util.AndroidRuntimeException: Calling startActivity() from outside of an Activity  context requires the FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK flag. Is this really what you want?
       at android.app.ContextImpl.startActivity(ContextImpl.java:1597)
       at android.app.ContextImpl.startActivity(ContextImpl.java:1584)
       at android.content.ContextWrapper.startActivity(ContextWrapper.java:337)
       at android.text.style.URLSpan.onClick(URLSpan.java:62)
       at android.text.method.LinkMovementMethod.onTouchEvent(LinkMovementMethod.java:217)
       at android.widget.TextView.onTouchEvent(TextView.java:9522)
       at android.view.View.dispatchTouchEvent(View.java:8968)
       at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchTransformedTouchEvent(ViewGroup.java:2709)
       at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchTouchEvent(ViewGroup.java:2425)
       at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchTransformedTouchEvent(ViewGroup.java:2709)
       at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchTouchEvent(ViewGroup.java:2425)
       at android.widget.AbsListView.dispatchTouchEvent(AbsListView.java:5303)
       at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchTransformedTouchEvent(ViewGroup.java:2709)
       at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchTouchEvent(ViewGroup.java:2425)
       at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchTransformedTouchEvent(ViewGroup.java:2709)
       at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchTouchEvent(ViewGroup.java:2425)
       at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchTransformedTouchEvent(ViewGroup.java:2709)
       at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchTouchEvent(ViewGroup.java:2425)
       at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchTransformedTouchEvent(ViewGroup.java:2709)
       at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchTouchEvent(ViewGroup.java:2425)
       at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchTransformedTouchEvent(ViewGroup.java:2709)
       at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchTouchEvent(ViewGroup.java:2425)
       at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchTransformedTouchEvent(ViewGroup.java:2709)
       at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchTouchEvent(ViewGroup.java:2425)
       at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchTransformedTouchEvent(ViewGroup.java:2709)
       at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchTouchEvent(ViewGroup.java:2425)
       at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchTransformedTouchEvent(ViewGroup.java:2709)
       at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchTouchEvent(ViewGroup.java:2425)
       at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchTransformedTouchEvent(ViewGroup.java:2709)
       at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchTouchEvent(ViewGroup.java:2425)
       at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchTransformedTouchEvent(ViewGroup.java:2709)
       at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchTouchEvent(ViewGroup.java:2425)
       at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchTransformedTouchEvent(ViewGroup.java:2709)
       at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchTouchEvent(ViewGroup.java:2425)
       at com.android.internal.policy.impl.PhoneWindow$DecorView.superDispatchTouchEvent(PhoneWindow.java:2559)
       at com.android.internal.policy.impl.PhoneWindow.superDispatchTouchEvent(PhoneWindow.java:1767)
       at android.app.Activity.dispatchTouchEvent(Activity.java:2866)
       at android.support.v7.view.WindowCallbackWrapper.dispatchTouchEvent(WindowCallbackWrapper.java:67)
       at android.support.v7.view.WindowCallbackWrapper.dispatchTouchEvent(WindowCallbackWrapper.java:67)
       at com.android.internal.policy.impl.PhoneWindow$DecorView.dispatchTouchEvent(PhoneWindow.java:2520)
       at android.view.View.dispatchPointerEvent(View.java:9173)
       at android.view.ViewRootImpl$ViewPostImeInputStage.processPointerEvent(ViewRootImpl.java:4706)
       at android.view.ViewRootImpl$ViewPostImeInputStage.onProcess(ViewRootImpl.java:4544)
       at android.view.ViewRootImpl$InputStage.deliver(ViewRootImpl.java:4068)
       at android.view.ViewRootImpl$InputStage.onDeliverToNext(ViewRootImpl.java:4121)
       at android.view.ViewRootImpl$InputStage.forward(ViewRootImpl.java:4087)
       at android.view.ViewRootImpl$AsyncInputStage.forward(ViewRootImpl.java:4201)
       at android.view.ViewRootImpl$InputStage.apply(ViewRootImpl.java:4095)
       at android.view.ViewRootImpl$AsyncInputStage.apply(ViewRootImpl.java:4258)
       at android.view.ViewRootImpl$InputStage.deliver(ViewRootImpl.java:4068)
       at android.view.ViewRootImpl$InputStage.onDeliverToNext(ViewRootImpl.java:4121)
       at android.view.ViewRootImpl$InputStage.forward(ViewRootImpl.java:4087)
       at android.view.ViewRootImpl$InputStage.apply(ViewRootImpl.java:4095)
       at android.view.ViewRootImpl$InputStage.deliver(ViewRootImpl.java:4068)
       at android.view.ViewRootImpl.deliverInputEvent(ViewRootImpl.java:6564)
       at android.view.ViewRootImpl.doProcessInputEvents(ViewRootImpl.java:6454)
       at android.view.ViewRootImpl.enqueueInputEvent(ViewRootImpl.java:6425)
       at android.view.ViewRootImpl$WindowInputEventReceiver.onInputEvent(ViewRootImpl.java:6654)
       at android.view.InputEventReceiver.dispatchInputEvent(InputEventReceiver.java:185)
       at android.os.MessageQueue.nativePollOnce(MessageQueue.java)
       at android.os.MessageQueue.next(MessageQueue.java:143)
       at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:130)
       at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:5942)
       at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java)
       at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:372)
       at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:1400)
       at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:1195)

And you may wonder what you did wrong, since the trace only includes framework code. Well, here's an example of how this can happen. Let's say we're in a fragment.

Activity activity = getActivity();
Context activityContext = activity;
Context appContext = activityContext.getApplicationContext();
LayoutInflater inflater = LayoutInflater.from(appContext); // whoops!
View view = inflater.inflate(R.layout.some_layout, parent, false);
TextView tvWithLinks = (TextView) view.findViewById(R.id.tv_with_links);

tvWithLinks.setMovementMethod(LinkMovementMethod.getInstance()); // whoops!!

Now, when a user clicks on that text view, your app will crash with the stack trace above. This is because the layout inflater has a reference to the application context, and so therefore your text view has an application context. Clicking on that text view implicitly calls appContext.startActivity(...).

Final note: I tested this on Android 4, 5, 6, and 7 devices. It only affects 4, 5, and 6. Android 7 devices apparently have no trouble calling appContext.startActivity(...).

I hope this helps someone else!

In my case I have used context for startActivity, after changing that with ActivityName.this . it solves. I'm using method from util class so this happens.

Hope it help some one.

You didn't paste the part where you call startActivity, that's the interesting part.

You might be calling startActivity in a Service context, or in an Application context.

Print "this" to log cat before making the startActivity call, and see what it refers to, it's sometimes a case of using an inner "this" accidentally.

For Multiple Instance of the same activity , use the following snippet,

Note : This snippet, I am using outside of my Activity. Make sure your AndroidManifest file doesn't contain android:launchMode="singleTop|singleInstance". if needed, you can change it to android:launchMode="standard".

Intent i = new Intent().setClass(mActivity.getApplication(), TestUserProfileScreenActivity.class);  
i.setFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK | Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_MULTIPLE_TASK);

// Launch the new activity and add the additional flags to the intent
mActivity.getApplication().startActivity(i);

This works fine for me. Hope, this saves times for someone. If anybody finds a better way, please share with us.