Determining the current foreground application from a background task or service

Question

I wish to have one application that runs in the background  which knows when any of the built-in applications  messaging  contacts  etc  is running   So my questions are    How I should run my application in the background  How my background application can know what the application currently running in the foreground is    Responses from folks with experience would be greatly appreciated

User · Answer

From lollipop onwards this got changed  Please find below code  before that user has to go Settings -  Security -   Scroll down to last  Apps with usage access -  Give the permissions to our app  private void printForegroundTask         String currentApp    NULL       if android os Build VERSION SDK INT  gt   android os Build VERSION CODES LOLLIPOP            UsageStatsManager usm    UsageStatsManager  this getSystemService Context USAGE STATS SERVICE           long time   System currentTimeMillis            List lt UsageStats gt  appList   usm queryUsageStats UsageStatsManager INTERVAL DAILY   time - 1000 1000  time           if  appList    null  amp  amp  appList size    gt  0                SortedMap lt Long  UsageStats gt  mySortedMap   new TreeMap lt Long  UsageStats gt                 for  UsageStats usageStats   appList                    mySortedMap put usageStats getLastTimeUsed    usageStats                             if  mySortedMap    null  amp  amp   mySortedMap isEmpty                      currentApp   mySortedMap get mySortedMap lastKey    getPackageName                                  else           ActivityManager am    ActivityManager this getSystemService Context ACTIVITY SERVICE           List lt ActivityManager RunningAppProcessInfo gt  tasks   am getRunningAppProcesses            currentApp   tasks get 0  processName             Log e TAG   Current App in foreground is      currentApp

User · Answer

Try the following code   ActivityManager activityManager    ActivityManager  newContext getSystemService  Context ACTIVITY SERVICE    List lt RunningAppProcessInfo gt  appProcesses   activityManager getRunningAppProcesses    for RunningAppProcessInfo appProcess   appProcesses       if appProcess importance    RunningAppProcessInfo IMPORTANCE FOREGROUND           Log i  Foreground App   appProcess processName             Process name is the package name of the app running in foreground  Compare it to the package name of your application  If it is the same then your application is running on foreground   I hope this answers your question

User · Answer

With regards to  2  How my background application can know what the application currently running in the foreground is     Do NOT use the getRunningAppProcesses   method as this returns all sorts of system rubbish from my experience and you ll get multiple results which have RunningAppProcessInfo IMPORTANCE FOREGROUND   Use getRunningTasks   instead  This is the code I use in my service to identify the current foreground application  its really easy   ActivityManager am    ActivityManager  AppService this getSystemService ACTIVITY SERVICE      The first in the list of RunningTasks is always the foreground task  RunningTaskInfo foregroundTaskInfo   am getRunningTasks 1  get 0     Thats it  then you can easily access details of the foreground app activity   String foregroundTaskPackageName   foregroundTaskInfo  topActivity getPackageName    PackageManager pm   AppService this getPackageManager    PackageInfo foregroundAppPackageInfo   pm getPackageInfo foregroundTaskPackageName  0   String foregroundTaskAppName   foregroundAppPackageInfo applicationInfo loadLabel pm  toString      This requires an additional permission in activity menifest and works perfectly    lt uses-permission android name  android permission GET TASKS    gt

User · Answer

In lollipop and up   Add to mainfest    lt uses-permission android name  android permission GET TASKS    gt    And do something like this   if  mTaskId  lt  0         List lt AppTask gt  tasks   mActivityManager getAppTasks         if  tasks size    gt  0           mTaskId   tasks get  0   getTaskInfo   id

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For cases when we need to check from our own service background-thread whether our app is in foreground or not  This is how I implemented it  and it works fine for me   public class TestApplication extends Application implements Application ActivityLifecycleCallbacks        public static WeakReference lt Activity gt  foregroundActivityRef   null        Override     public void onActivityStarted Activity activity            foregroundActivityRef   new WeakReference lt  gt  activity               Override     public void onActivityStopped Activity activity            if  foregroundActivityRef    null  amp  amp  foregroundActivityRef get      activity                foregroundActivityRef   null                          IMPLEMENT OTHER CALLBACK METHODS     Now to check from other classes  whether app is in foreground or not  simply call   if TestApplication foregroundActivityRef  null          APP IS IN FOREGROUND         We can also get the activity that is currently visible      Update  as pointed out by SHS    Do not forget to register for the callbacks in your Application class s onCreate method    Override public void onCreate                 registerActivityLifecycleCallbacks this

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This worked for me  But it gives only the main menu name  That is if user has opened Settings --  Bluetooth --  Device Name screen  RunningAppProcessInfo calls it as just Settings  Not able to drill down furthur  ActivityManager activityManager    ActivityManager  context getSystemService  Context ACTIVITY SERVICE                    PackageManager pm   context getPackageManager                    List lt RunningAppProcessInfo gt  appProcesses   activityManager getRunningAppProcesses                    for RunningAppProcessInfo appProcess   appProcesses                                      if appProcess importance    RunningAppProcessInfo IMPORTANCE FOREGROUND                            CharSequence c   pm getApplicationLabel pm getApplicationInfo appProcess processName  PackageManager GET META DATA                            Log i  Foreground App    package      appProcess processName     App      c toString

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Taking into account that getRunningTasks   is deprecated and getRunningAppProcesses   is not reliable  I came to decision to combine 2 approaches mentioned in StackOverflow      private boolean isAppInForeground Context context                if  Build VERSION SDK INT  lt  Build VERSION CODES LOLLIPOP                        ActivityManager am    ActivityManager  context getSystemService ACTIVITY SERVICE               ActivityManager RunningTaskInfo foregroundTaskInfo   am getRunningTasks 1  get 0               String foregroundTaskPackageName   foregroundTaskInfo topActivity getPackageName                 return foregroundTaskPackageName toLowerCase   equals context getPackageName   toLowerCase                       else                       ActivityManager RunningAppProcessInfo appProcessInfo   new ActivityManager RunningAppProcessInfo                ActivityManager getMyMemoryState appProcessInfo               if  appProcessInfo importance    IMPORTANCE FOREGROUND    appProcessInfo importance    IMPORTANCE VISIBLE                                return true                             KeyguardManager km    KeyguardManager  context getSystemService Context KEYGUARD SERVICE                  App is foreground  but screen is locked  so show notification             return km inKeyguardRestrictedInputMode

User · Answer

In order to determine the foreground application  you can use for detecting the foreground app  you can use https   github com ricvalerio foregroundappchecker  It uses different methods depending on the android version of the device   As for the service  the repo also provides the code you need for it  Essentially  let android studio create the service for you  and then onCreate add the snippet that uses the appChecker  You will need to request permission however

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i had to figure out the right solution the hard way  the below code is part of cyanogenmod7  the tablet tweaks  and is tested on android 2 3 3   gingerbread    methods    getForegroundApp - returns the foreground application   getActivityForApp - returns the activity of the found app   isStillActive - determines if a earlier found app is still the active app  isRunningService - a helper function for getForegroundApp   this hopefully answers this issue in all extend     private RunningAppProcessInfo getForegroundApp         RunningAppProcessInfo result null  info null       if mActivityManager  null          mActivityManager    ActivityManager mContext getSystemService Context ACTIVITY SERVICE       List  lt RunningAppProcessInfo gt  l   mActivityManager getRunningAppProcesses        Iterator  lt RunningAppProcessInfo gt  i   l iterator        while i hasNext             info   i next            if info importance    RunningAppProcessInfo IMPORTANCE FOREGROUND                  amp  amp   isRunningService info processName                result info              break                      return result     private ComponentName getActivityForApp RunningAppProcessInfo target       ComponentName result null      ActivityManager RunningTaskInfo info       if target  null          return null       if mActivityManager  null          mActivityManager    ActivityManager mContext getSystemService Context ACTIVITY SERVICE       List  lt ActivityManager RunningTaskInfo gt  l   mActivityManager getRunningTasks 9999       Iterator  lt ActivityManager RunningTaskInfo gt  i   l iterator         while i hasNext             info i next            if info baseActivity getPackageName   equals target processName                result info topActivity              break                       return result     private boolean isStillActive RunningAppProcessInfo process  ComponentName activity           activity can be null in cases  where one app starts another  for example  astro        starting rock player when a move file was clicked  we dont have an activity then         but the package exits as soon as back is hit  so we can ignore the activity        in this case     if process  null          return false       RunningAppProcessInfo currentFg getForegroundApp        ComponentName currentActivity getActivityForApp currentFg        if currentFg  null  amp  amp  currentFg processName equals process processName   amp  amp               activity  null    currentActivity compareTo activity   0           return true       Slog i TAG   isStillActive returns false - CallerProcess      process processName     CurrentProcess                   currentFg  null    null    currentFg processName      CallerActivity      activity  null    null    activity toString                    CurrentActivity       currentActivity  null    null    currentActivity toString          return false     private boolean isRunningService String processname       if processname  null    processname isEmpty            return false       RunningServiceInfo service       if mActivityManager  null          mActivityManager    ActivityManager mContext getSystemService Context ACTIVITY SERVICE       List  lt RunningServiceInfo gt  l   mActivityManager getRunningServices 9999       Iterator  lt RunningServiceInfo gt  i   l iterator        while i hasNext             service   i next            if service process equals processname               return true             return false

User · Answer

The ActivityManager class is the appropriate tool to see which processes are running   To run in the background  you typically want to use a Service

User · Answer

Do something like this   int showLimit   20      Get all Tasks available  with limit set      ActivityManager mgr    ActivityManager  getSystemService Context ACTIVITY SERVICE   List lt ActivityManager RunningTaskInfo gt  allTasks   mgr getRunningTasks showLimit      Loop through all tasks returned     for  ActivityManager RunningTaskInfo aTask   allTasks                           Log i  MyApp    Task      aTask baseActivity getClassName          if  aTask baseActivity getClassName   equals  com android email activity MessageList             running true

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This is how I am checking if my app is in foreground  Note I am using AsyncTask as suggested by official Android documentation           private class CheckIfForeground extends AsyncTask lt Void  Void  Void gt         Override     protected Void doInBackground Void    voids             ActivityManager activityManager    ActivityManager  mContext getSystemService Context ACTIVITY SERVICE           List lt ActivityManager RunningAppProcessInfo gt  appProcesses   activityManager getRunningAppProcesses            for  ActivityManager RunningAppProcessInfo appProcess   appProcesses                if  appProcess importance    ActivityManager RunningAppProcessInfo IMPORTANCE FOREGROUND                    Log i  Foreground App   appProcess processName                    if  mContext getPackageName   equalsIgnoreCase appProcess processName                         Log i Constants TAG   foreground true     appProcess processName                       foreground   true                         close app                                                      Log d Constants TAG   foreground value     foreground           if  foreground                foreground   false              close app                Log i Constants TAG   Close App and start Activity                else                 if not foreground             close app                foreground   false              Log i Constants TAG   Close App                        return null            and execute AsyncTask like this  new CheckIfForeground   execute

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I combined two solutions in one method and it works for me for API 24 and for API 21  Others I didn t test    The code in Kotlin    private fun isAppInForeground context  Context   Boolean       val appProcessInfo   ActivityManager RunningAppProcessInfo       ActivityManager getMyMemoryState appProcessInfo      if  appProcessInfo importance    IMPORTANCE FOREGROUND                appProcessInfo importance    IMPORTANCE VISIBLE            return true       else if  appProcessInfo importance    IMPORTANCE TOP SLEEPING                appProcessInfo importance    IMPORTANCE BACKGROUND            return false            val am   context getSystemService Context ACTIVITY SERVICE  as ActivityManager     val foregroundTaskInfo   am getRunningTasks 1  0      val foregroundTaskPackageName   foregroundTaskInfo topActivity packageName     return foregroundTaskPackageName toLowerCase      context packageName toLowerCase       and in Manifest   lt  -- Check whether app in background or foreground -- gt   lt uses-permission android name  android permission GET TASKS    gt

[android] Determining the current foreground application from a background task or service

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