Checking if an Android application is running in t

Question

By background, I mean none of the application's activities are currently visible to the user?

Answer 1

Starting support library version 26 you can use ProcessLifecycleOwner, just add it to your dependency like described here, for example:

dependencies {
    def lifecycle_version = "1.1.1"

    // ViewModel and LiveData
    implementation "android.arch.lifecycle:extensions:$lifecycle_version"
    // alternatively - Lifecycles only (no ViewModel or LiveData).
    //     Support library depends on this lightweight import
    implementation "android.arch.lifecycle:runtime:$lifecycle_version"
    annotationProcessor "android.arch.lifecycle:compiler:$lifecycle_version" // use kapt for Kotlin
}

And then just query ProcessLifecycleOwner whenever you want for app state, examples:

//Check if app is in background
ProcessLifecycleOwner.get().getLifecycle().getCurrentState() == Lifecycle.State.CREATED;

//Check if app is in foreground
ProcessLifecycleOwner.get().getLifecycle().getCurrentState().isAtLeast(Lifecycle.State.STARTED);

Answer 2

To piggyback on what CommonsWare and Key have said, you could perhaps extend the Application class and have all of your activities call that on their onPause/onResume methods. This would allow you to know which Activity(ies) are visible, but this could probably be handled better.

Can you elaborate on what you have in mind exactly? When you say running in the background do you mean simply having your application still in memory even though it is not currently on screen? Have you looked into using Services as a more persistent way to manage your app when it is not in focus?

Answer 3

See the comment in the onActivityDestroyed function.

Works with SDK target version 14> :

import android.app.Activity;
import android.app.Application;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.util.Log;

public class AppLifecycleHandler implements Application.ActivityLifecycleCallbacks {

    public static int active = 0;

    @Override
    public void onActivityStopped(Activity activity) {
        Log.i("Tracking Activity Stopped", activity.getLocalClassName());
        active--;
    }

    @Override
    public void onActivityStarted(Activity activity) {
        Log.i("Tracking Activity Started", activity.getLocalClassName());
        active++;
    }

    @Override
    public void onActivitySaveInstanceState(Activity activity, Bundle outState) {
        Log.i("Tracking Activity SaveInstanceState", activity.getLocalClassName());
    }

    @Override
    public void onActivityResumed(Activity activity) {
        Log.i("Tracking Activity Resumed", activity.getLocalClassName());
        active++;
    }

    @Override
    public void onActivityPaused(Activity activity) {
        Log.i("Tracking Activity Paused", activity.getLocalClassName());
        active--;
    }

    @Override
    public void onActivityDestroyed(Activity activity) {
        Log.i("Tracking Activity Destroyed", activity.getLocalClassName());
        active--;

        // if active var here ever becomes zero, the app is closed or in background
        if(active == 0){
            ...
        }

    }

    @Override
    public void onActivityCreated(Activity activity, Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        Log.i("Tracking Activity Created", activity.getLocalClassName());
        active++;
    }
}

Answer 4

I recommend reading through this page: http://developer.android.com/reference/android/app/Activity.html

In short, your activity is no longer visible after onStop() has been called.

Answer 5

You can use ComponentCallbacks2 to detect if the app is in background. BTW this callback is only available in API Level 14 (Ice Cream Sandwich) and above.

You will get a call to the method:

public abstract void onTrimMemory (int level)

if the level is ComponentCallbacks2.TRIM_MEMORY_UI_HIDDEN then the app is in background.

You can implement this interface to an activity, service, etc.

public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity implements ComponentCallbacks2 {
   @Override
   public void onConfigurationChanged(final Configuration newConfig) {

   }

   @Override
   public void onLowMemory() {

   }

   @Override
   public void onTrimMemory(final int level) {
     if (level == ComponentCallbacks2.TRIM_MEMORY_UI_HIDDEN) {
        // app is in background
     }
   }
}