Develop Reference

Check if a specific app is running in the background

I need to know when a specific app is in the background (not foreground).
I was able to get package name of all the applications running in the background with this code:
ActivityManager activityManager = (ActivityManager) getApplicationContext().getSystemService(ACTIVITY_SERVICE);
// Process running
if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.LOLLIPOP) {
UsageStatsManager mUsageStatsManager = (UsageStatsManager)getSystemService(USAGE_STATS_SERVICE);
long time = System.currentTimeMillis();
// We get usage stats for the last 10 seconds
List<UsageStats> stats = mUsageStatsManager.queryUsageStats(UsageStatsManager.INTERVAL_DAILY, time - 1000*10, time);
// Sort the stats by the last time used
if(stats != null) {
SortedMap<Long,UsageStats> mySortedMap = new TreeMap<Long,UsageStats>();
for (UsageStats usageStats : stats) {
mySortedMap.put(usageStats.getLastTimeUsed(),usageStats);
Log.d("RunningAppProcessInfo","Package name : "+usageStats.getPackageName());
}
}
}
But now how do I check if the specific app is on the list or not?
Thanks

If you want to check Specific Package than check below code I have added code in below method.
ActivityManager activityManager = (ActivityManager) getApplicationContext().getSystemService(ACTIVITY_SERVICE);
// Process running
if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.LOLLIPOP) {
UsageStatsManager mUsageStatsManager = (UsageStatsManager)getSystemService(USAGE_STATS_SERVICE);
long time = System.currentTimeMillis();
// We get usage stats for the last 10 seconds
List<UsageStats> stats = mUsageStatsManager.queryUsageStats(UsageStatsManager.INTERVAL_DAILY, time - 1000*10, time);
// Sort the stats by the last time used
if(stats != null) {
SortedMap<Long,UsageStats> mySortedMap = new TreeMap<Long,UsageStats>();
for (UsageStats usageStats : stats) {
mySortedMap.put(usageStats.getLastTimeUsed(),usageStats);
Log.d("RunningAppProcessInfo","Package name : "+usageStats.getPackageName());
if(usageStats.getPackageName().equals("package name")) {
Log.d("Package ","Package name : Success");
}
}
}
}

How to get the package name of the app running in android

I want to know how to get the package name when I open an app, for instance when I open Facebook I should get its package name and when I open another app I should get its package name how do I do this?

I does not show you the package name when you open the specific app, but you can use this code to list the package names of all apps installed on your device.
I don't think an Android app can have the privilege to "listen" for the launch of another app. You could only achieve this with a custom ROM.
You can do this with the PackageManager.
final PackageManager manager = getPackageManager();
List<ApplicationInfo> packages = manager.getInstalledApplications(PackageManager.GET_META_DATA);
for (ApplicationInfo info : packages) {
Log.i("Info", "Installed package:" + info.packageName);
}

For get the package name for the running app in Background you need to run one service and call the below method every 100 or 300 milliseconds, it will give you the current running package name. for more detail you can see this link, In this method AndroidUtils you can find in the link.
public String getRecentApps(Context context) {
String topPackageName = "";
if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.LOLLIPOP) {
UsageStatsManager mUsageStatsManager = (UsageStatsManager) context.getSystemService(Context.USAGE_STATS_SERVICE);
long time = System.currentTimeMillis();
UsageEvents usageEvents = mUsageStatsManager.queryEvents(time - 1000 * 30, System.currentTimeMillis() + (10 * 1000));
UsageEvents.Event event = new UsageEvents.Event();
while (usageEvents.hasNextEvent()) {
usageEvents.getNextEvent(event);
}
if (event != null && !TextUtils.isEmpty(event.getPackageName()) && event.getEventType() == UsageEvents.Event.MOVE_TO_FOREGROUND) {
if (AndroidUtils.isRecentActivity(event.getClassName())) {
return event.getClassName();
}
return event.getPackageName();
} else {
topPackageName = "";
}
} else {
ActivityManager am = (ActivityManager) context.getSystemService(context.ACTIVITY_SERVICE);
List<ActivityManager.RunningTaskInfo> taskInfo = am.getRunningTasks(1);
ComponentName componentInfo = taskInfo.get(0).topActivity;
// If the current running activity it will return not the package name it will return the activity refernce.
if (AndroidUtils.isRecentActivity(componentInfo.getClassName())) {
return componentInfo.getClassName();
}
topPackageName = componentInfo.getPackageName();
}
return topPackageName;
}
If your app is AppLocker you should call this method more frequent may
be every 100ms then only you can lock other apps.

There is one third party app in playstore ,which shows 'Package Name' along with Activity's name .Find it over here:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.willme.topactivity&hl=en_IN

Get Running Applications on a non rooted Android

I've seen many posts about how to get the running processes on Android, but things changed with Lolipop. Now the list is trunked for non rooted devices.
Every post was about to do this kind of code:
ActivityManager am = (ActivityManager) mContext
.getSystemService(Activity.ACTIVITY_SERVICE);
List<ActivityManager.RunningAppProcessInfo> runningAppProcessInfo = this.getActivityManager().getRunningAppProcesses();
List<ActivityManager.RunningTaskInfo> taskInfo = this.getActivityManager().getRunningTasks(Integer.MAX_VALUE);
I tried it and the only thing that is retrieved is your current application.
#Stan was talking about developping an accessibility service here in this post: How to check current running applications in Android?
I checked the API, and what I saw is that you could be informed of application launch with an accessibility service, but not if it's still running afterward. So I don't think this is the good way to do it.
Does anyone have an idea about how to do it?

In Android Lolipop your code will not work as from Android L onward getRunningTask will not work. You have to use getAppRunningProcess.
Here is the code:-
public static String[] getActivePackagesCompat() {
final List<ActivityManager.RunningTaskInfo> taskInfo = mActivityManager.getRunningTasks(1);
final ComponentName componentName = taskInfo.get(0).topActivity;
final String[] activePackages = new String[1];
activePackages[0] = componentName.getPackageName();
return activePackages;
}
public static String[] getActivePackages() {
final Set<String> activePackages = new HashSet<String>();
final List<ActivityManager.RunningAppProcessInfo> processInfos = mActivityManager.getRunningAppProcesses();
for (ActivityManager.RunningAppProcessInfo processInfo : processInfos) {
if (processInfo.importance == ActivityManager.RunningAppProcessInfo.IMPORTANCE_FOREGROUND) {
activePackages.addAll(Arrays.asList(processInfo.pkgList));
}
}
return activePackages.toArray(new String[activePackages.size()]);
}

Detect which app has been launched in android

How to detect which app has been launched by user in my app i.e my application should get notified when Whatsapp is launched by user even if my app is not running in foreground or background.
hike messenger has achieved same functionality with accessibility service.
How can I solve this problem ?
Thanks in advance!!

Depending on the Android version running your application, you will have to use different methods.
On Pre-Lollipop devices, it is pretty straight-forward:
String[] result = new String[2];
List<ActivityManager.RunningTaskInfo> runningTasks;
ComponentName componentInfo;
runningTasks = activityManager.getRunningTasks(1);
componentInfo = runningTasks.get(0).topActivity;
result[0] = componentInfo.getPackageName();
result[1] = componentInfo.getClassName();
If you are on a Lollipop or newer device, you have to use UsageStatsManager class, which requires your application to be granted specific permissions
//no inspection ResourceType
UsageStatsManager mUsageStatsManager = (UsageStatsManager)context.getSystemService("usagestats");
long time = System.currentTimeMillis();
// We get usage stats for the last 10 seconds
List<UsageStats> stats = mUsageStatsManager.queryUsageStats(UsageStatsManager.INTERVAL_DAILY, time - 1000*10, time);
// Sort the stats by the last time used
if(stats != null) {
SortedMap<Long,UsageStats> mySortedMap = new TreeMap<>();
for (UsageStats usageStats : stats) {
mySortedMap.put(usageStats.getLastTimeUsed(),usageStats);
}
if(mySortedMap != null && !mySortedMap.isEmpty()) {
return mySortedMap.get(mySortedMap.lastKey()).getPackageName();
}
}
return null;
This will tell you if your apps has been granted permissions:
try {
PackageManager packageManager = context.getPackageManager();
ApplicationInfo applicationInfo = packageManager.getApplicationInfo(context.getPackageName(), 0);
AppOpsManager appOpsManager = (AppOpsManager) context.getSystemService(Context.APP_OPS_SERVICE);
int mode = appOpsManager.checkOpNoThrow(AppOpsManager.OPSTR_GET_USAGE_STATS, applicationInfo.uid, applicationInfo.packageName);
return (mode != AppOpsManager.MODE_ALLOWED);
} catch (PackageManager.NameNotFoundException e) {
return false;
}
And finally this will launch the Android permission granting activity for the user:
Intent intent = new Intent(Settings.ACTION_USAGE_ACCESS_SETTINGS);
activity.startActivity(intent);
Hope that helps

Try this code:
ActivityManager activityManager = (ActivityManager) this.getSystemService( ACTIVITY_SERVICE );
List<RunningAppProcessInfo> procInfos = activityManager.getRunningAppProcesses();
for(int i = 0; i < procInfos.size(); i++)
{
if(procInfos.get(i).processName.equals("put the package name here"))
{
Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(), "Notify Message", Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
}
}

No, this is not really possible using the public SDK.
You can get the current running process by ActivityManager#getRunningAppProcesses But it is definitely impossible to get notified .However, it isn't the most accurate, or efficient method

getRunningTasks doesn't work in Android L

In Android L, Google has disabled getRunningTasks. Now it can only return own apps task and the home launcher. I can no longer get other apps tasks.
Our app needs that method to determine current top app.
Any one has another method to do this?
I have searched in Google, no more topics about this except this:
https://code.google.com/p/android-developer-preview/issues/detail?id=29

For a recent project that I worked on, I also need to detect when certain applications are launched. All my research lead to the getRunningTasks method, which is deprecated starting from Lollipop.
However, to my surprises, I discovered that some of the app lock apps still work on lollipop devices, so they must have come up with a solution to get around this. So I dug a little deeper. Here is what I found out:
On pre-L devices, they still use getRunningTasks
On L devices, they use getRunningAppProcesses, which returns a list of processes currently running on the devices. You might think "well, that is not useful". Each processInfo has a attributed called importance. When an app becomes top activity, its processInfo importance also changes to IMPORTANCE_FOREGROUND. So you can filter out those processes that are not in foreground. From a each ProcessInfo, you can also ask a list of packages it loaded. You can then check if the list contains the same package that the app when are trying "protected".
Some sample code to detect when the default calendar app is launched:
public class DetectCalendarLaunchRunnable implements Runnable {
#Override
public void run() {
String[] activePackages;
if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT > Build.VERSION_CODES.KITKAT_WATCH) {
activePackages = getActivePackages();
} else {
activePackages = getActivePackagesCompat();
}
if (activePackages != null) {
for (String activePackage : activePackages) {
if (activePackage.equals("com.google.android.calendar")) {
//Calendar app is launched, do something
}
}
}
mHandler.postDelayed(this, 1000);
}
String[] getActivePackagesCompat() {
final List<ActivityManager.RunningTaskInfo> taskInfo = mActivityManager.getRunningTasks(1);
final ComponentName componentName = taskInfo.get(0).topActivity;
final String[] activePackages = new String[1];
activePackages[0] = componentName.getPackageName();
return activePackages;
}
String[] getActivePackages() {
final Set<String> activePackages = new HashSet<String>();
final List<ActivityManager.RunningAppProcessInfo> processInfos = mActivityManager.getRunningAppProcesses();
for (ActivityManager.RunningAppProcessInfo processInfo : processInfos) {
if (processInfo.importance == ActivityManager.RunningAppProcessInfo.IMPORTANCE_FOREGROUND) {
activePackages.addAll(Arrays.asList(processInfo.pkgList));
}
}
return activePackages.toArray(new String[activePackages.size()]);
}
}
Note: getRunningAppProcesses is also intended for debugging or "building a user-facing process management UI". Not sure if google will close this backdoor the similar way they did to getRunningTasks.
So no, you can't get the topActivity anymore. But with a little bit hack you can achieve similar result.

As MKY mentioned, getRunningTasks() method does not work for getting the current application in Lollipop.
As sunxin8086 wrote, the one way for getting the running applications is by using getRunningAppsProcesses() method. However, the condition info.importance == IMPORTANCE_FOREGROUND can not determine the current app uniquely.
The better approach to determine the current foreground application may be checking the processState field in RunningAppProcessInfo object. This field is a hidden field, but you can see it in the RunningAppProcessInfo class. If this value is ActivityManager.PROCESS_STATE_TOP (which is also
hidden static constant), the process is the current foreground process.
For example the code is
final int PROCESS_STATE_TOP = 2;
ActivityManager.RunningAppProcessInfo currentInfo = null;
Field field = null;
try {
field = ActivityManager.RunningAppProcessInfo.class.getDeclaredField("processState");
} catch (Exception ignored) {
}
ActivityManager am = (ActivityManager) context.getSystemService(Context.ACTIVITY_SERVICE);
List<ActivityManager.RunningAppProcessInfo> appList = am.getRunningAppProcesses();
for (ActivityManager.RunningAppProcessInfo app : appList) {
if (app.importance == ActivityManager.RunningAppProcessInfo.IMPORTANCE_FOREGROUND
&& app.importanceReasonCode == ActivityManager.RunningAppProcessInfo.REASON_UNKNOWN) {
Integer state = null;
try {
state = field.getInt(app);
} catch (Exception e) {
}
if (state != null && state == PROCESS_STATE_TOP) {
currentInfo = app;
break;
}
}
}
return currentInfo;
Note: processState field does not exist in pre-Lolipop. Please check that Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= 21 before running the above code. The above code works only for Lollipop+.
The other approach, by Gaston (which is quite different), and the meaning of 'current application' is slightly different from this approach.
Please choose one for your purpose.
[EDIT]
As Sam pointed out, I modified START_TASK_TO_FRONT by PROCESS_STATE_TOP. (Both values are 2)
[EDIT2]
Sam has a new find! To determine the foreground application uniquely, one more
condition
process.importanceReasonCode == 0
is necessary. The above code has been updated. Thanks!

Here's an exact solution to get current top activity on your Android L/Lollipop devices and Android M/Marshmallow devices.
First call this line of code:(One time)
Intent intent = new Intent(Settings.ACTION_USAGE_ACCESS_SETTINGS);
startActivity(intent);
The above code will open a screen named "Apps with usage access". Just check the radio button to on/true to allow usage access.
Now call the following method in your service or anywhere you want:
public void getTopActivtyFromLolipopOnwards() {
String topPackageName;
if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.LOLLIPOP) {
UsageStatsManager mUsageStatsManager = (UsageStatsManager) getSystemService(Context.USAGE_STATS_SERVICE);
long time = System.currentTimeMillis();
// We get usage stats for the last 10 seconds
List < UsageStats > stats = mUsageStatsManager.queryUsageStats(UsageStatsManager.INTERVAL_DAILY, time - 1000 * 10, time);
// Sort the stats by the last time used
if (stats != null) {
SortedMap < Long, UsageStats > mySortedMap = new TreeMap < Long, UsageStats > ();
for (UsageStats usageStats: stats) {
mySortedMap.put(usageStats.getLastTimeUsed(), usageStats);
}
if (mySortedMap != null && !mySortedMap.isEmpty()) {
topPackageName = mySortedMap.get(mySortedMap.lastKey()).getPackageName();
Log.e("TopPackage Name", topPackageName);
}
}
}
}
add permission
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.PACKAGE_USAGE_STATS"
tools:ignore="ProtectedPermissions" />
This will return the package name of currently running activity , whether it is facebook or whatsapp.
The only complication of this method is you need to prompt user for allowing app usage stats ... i.e. the first step.
Hope! this helps everyone.

private String getProcess() throws Exception {
if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= 21) {
return getProcessNew();
} else {
return getProcessOld();
}
}
//API 21 and above
private String getProcessNew() throws Exception {
String topPackageName = null;
UsageStatsManager usage = (UsageStatsManager) context.getSystemService(Constant.USAGE_STATS_SERVICE);
long time = System.currentTimeMillis();
List<UsageStats> stats = usage.queryUsageStats(UsageStatsManager.INTERVAL_DAILY, time - ONE_SECOND * 10, time);
if (stats != null) {
SortedMap<Long, UsageStats> runningTask = new TreeMap<Long,UsageStats>();
for (UsageStats usageStats : stats) {
runningTask.put(usageStats.getLastTimeUsed(), usageStats);
}
if (runningTask.isEmpty()) {
return null;
}
topPackageName = runningTask.get(runningTask.lastKey()).getPackageName();
}
return topPackageName;
}
//API below 21
#SuppressWarnings("deprecation")
private String getProcessOld() throws Exception {
String topPackageName = null;
ActivityManager activity = (ActivityManager) context.getSystemService(Context.ACTIVITY_SERVICE);
List<RunningTaskInfo> runningTask = activity.getRunningTasks(1);
if (runningTask != null) {
RunningTaskInfo taskTop = runningTask.get(0);
ComponentName componentTop = taskTop.topActivity;
topPackageName = componentTop.getPackageName();
}
return topPackageName;
}
//required permissions
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.PACKAGE_USAGE_STATS"/>
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.GET_TASKS"/>

I Think its not possible to get other app's tasks,
This is what documentation says
With the introduction of the new concurrent documents and activities
tasks feature in the upcoming release (see Concurrent documents and
activities in Recents screen below), the
ActivityManager.getRecentTasks() method is now deprecated to improve
user privacy. For backward compatibility, this method still returns a
small subset of its data, including the calling application’s own
tasks and possibly some other non-sensitive tasks (such as Home). If
your app is using this method to retrieve its own tasks, use
android.app.ActivityManager.getAppTasks() instead to retrieve that
information.
Check out the api overview of Android L here https://developer.android.com/preview/api-overview.html#Behaviors