I came across questions addressed android concepts around foreground - https://stackoverflow.com/questions/20647168/android-how-to-find-if-any-app-is-running-in-foreground.
I need some clarification on the term foreground used in android. I think I have a working definition of background in android - something that happens you cannot see on the screen.
Would foreground just be stuff that you can see and interact with on the screen. Like if I were to play a game of flappy bird, would the game itself(bird jumping over pipes) be the foreground because I can see it and interact it with. Based off that would the game music be in the background because I cannot see it?
To put it simple, if it's interactable it's in the foreground (although the reverse may not always be true).
To be exact:
The system distinguishes between foreground and background apps. An app is considered to be in the foreground if any of the following is true:
It has a visible activity, whether the activity is started or paused.
It has a foreground service.
Another foreground app is connected to the app, either by binding to one of its services or by making use of one of its content providers.
If none of those conditions is true, the app is considered to be in the background.
1
Would foreground just be stuff that you can see and interact with on
the screen.
IMHO yes, basically foreground is a state in which user can interact with the application through android component like Activity or service.
Take example of Musicplayer playing music in foreground service. Also if you have to interact with application through Actvity, the activity has to be in forground. User can't interact with app even if the activity is visible but not in foreground.
A started Service or Activity which user can see and interact is said to be in a foreground state, and the system considers it to be something the user is actively aware of and thus not a candidate for killing when low on memory.The flappy bird activity is foreground because you can see it and interact with it.
To Read about it more
Related
I'm developing a player app.
For this reason, it uses a foreground service to handle the playback.
Until recently the service was bound to my activities.
This is not the case anymore.
Since then, some specific devices (mostly Pixel 1/2/3) have been killing my app 1 minute after the screen has been turned off
The service is a foreground service not bound to anything.
Why would the device kill it?
As soon as the app is excluded from the device-optimized apps list the issue is solved
I'm not providing code, because I'm just trying to understand if this situation makes sense and if so what should I do to prevent this
BTW the app is using a receiver to act on Screen_ON/OFF messages. That's how I can see in the logs that the player service onDestroy() method gets killed exactly 1 minute after the screen has been turned off
what should I do to prevent this?
The key point here to keep the service alive is as said in official documentation :
While an app is in the foreground, it can create and run both
foreground and background services freely.
so, we can conclude that keeping the work in foreground and visible to the user has very minimal chances of being killed. And to do so we need to know that how android gets the idea that this process is in foreground ?
Here are the criteria's at which a process is said to be in foreground:
It has a visible activity, whether the activity is started or
paused.
It has a foreground service.
Another foreground app is connected to the app, either by binding to
one of its services or by making use of one of its content
providers. For example, the app is in the foreground if another app
binds to its:
-IME Wallpaper service
-Notification listener
-Voice or text service
If none of those conditions is true, the app is considered to be in
the background.
If none of the above criteria is fulfilled by your app process then thats the reason of your service being killed.
You can read more on this topic here :
Foreground service being killed by Android
I have a service with graphic elements, that needs to run for a few seconds then stops itself (all while the app itself is in background). But often times the system automatically closes the service due to low RAM.
I am new to android, and all the codes for bringing service in foreground are using IntentServices.
Can only IntentServices be brought to foreground? If yes, how can I prevent my service from closing.
See [startForeground()](http://developer.android.com/reference/android/app/Service.html#startForeground(int, android.app.Notification)) method of Service class. Do note that it requires you to provide a Notification.
I have a service with graphic elements
What exactly does that mean? A Service in Android is meant for the exact opposite use case - i.e., when there is no user interaction desired.
I want to implement a service (or similar) on Android KitKat (4.4.2) in order to detect which is the foreground app and make something depending on which app it is "foregrounded".
I have read a lot of threads about determining which is the app is the foregound ON THAT MOMENT (https://stackoverflow.com/a/14044662/1683141). But I'm not able to see any thread about keeping this service continuosly monitoring in order to detect any changes on foreground. Kind of loop? Event registering?
For example, I want to be notified when LINE (messaging app) has or loses foreground. So I suppose the service has to be registered to some kind of event (I think Broadcast here is useless) in order to be notified and then take some action.
I don't know if that is possible. I hope it is.
Thank you for your help.
You are unable to keep your service alive if system decide to kill it. You are also unable to keep your service alive if your app is "unloaded" (whatever you mean), because your service is part of your app (and APK) and will be unloaded too.
How do I keep a service running, when all activities of an application are viewable. and close the service only when I leave the app?
Is there a way to start a service in one activity of an app and stop that same service in another activity of that same application?
I don`t want that service to continue running when the user leaves the application.
There is really no concept of 'application' and leaving it. What happens if open a link from one of your activities, launch the browser to view it, then come back via the back button? Did you really leave the app?
What does your service do? Do activities bind to it? If so, it will be automatically shut down after the last client unbinds. If not, it should shut itself when it has finished doing it's work (Cf. IntentService). If it doesn't fit either of those patterns, maybe you don't need a service at all, just some background thread(s)?
Edit (based on comments below):
For a service running a media player, the usual way is to have an ongoing notification for the service that lets the user bring up an activity to control the service. Or have buttons on the notification in JB to achieve something similar. Additionally, if you make the service a foreground one, that will give it higher priority and it is less likely to be killed if resources are low.
im currently developing an app which plays the steam audio using MediaPlayer class. And i'd declare its main (Player) activity as SingleTop. Also on button "Back" it does moveTaskToBack(true) which acts the same as button Home does. So it just stays and plays on background and if user wants to see the gui he just starts the app once again (which is less convenient) or he clicks the special app's notify. Exit provided via menu.
but what are the benefits of using service instead of activity in such case? Definitely it would be more complex to develop, i have to say. Even instantiating the GUI while "on background" will take much more time, i'm afraid.
From the Android Documentation:
Activities
An activity represents a single screen with a user interface. For example, an email application might have one activity that shows a list of new emails, another activity to compose an email, and another activity for reading emails.
Services
A service is a component that runs in the background to perform long-running operations or to perform work for remote processes. A service does not provide a user interface. For example, a service might play music in the background while the user is in a different application, or it might fetch data over the network without blocking user interaction with an activity. Another component, such as an activity, can start the service and let it run or bind to it in order to interact with it.
also
Once started, a service can run in the background indefinitely, even if the component that started it is destroyed.
The Android OS can destroy your Activity if it runs out of resources, but it won't destroy the service.
EDIT: you should use startForeground() to ensure your Service won't be killed in situations where the resources are low. From the docs:
Make this service run in the foreground, supplying the ongoing notification to be shown to the user while in this state. By default services are background, meaning that if the system needs to kill them to reclaim more memory (such as to display a large page in a web browser), they can be killed without too much harm. You can set this flag if killing your service would be disruptive to the user, such as if your service is performing background music playback, so the user would notice if their music stopped playing.