How does the 'Play Music' app run without constant notification? - android

I am writing a metronome app, I have the sound running from a service which I would like to keep running when the user is outside the app (browsing etc) and hasn't made a conscious effort to press the stop button.
It seems I should be using startForeground() as it's not the kind of thing you want in the background without paying attention to, and I really don't want the service to be killed at any time. Ideally I wouldn't be showing the notification while the app is in focus though. I notice that the Google Play Music app works this way, it only shows the notification when outside the app. Is anyone able to tell me how they have done this, I would find it hard to believe they wouldn't be using startForeground() after reading all the documentation stating you should be using it for this sort of app?
On the other hand, is this really desired behavior? It seems good to me, but I noticed that pretty much every other app I use with a long running service (HTC's music app, Navigation, few others) shows the notification icon at all times, whether in the app or not. I am interested in what is considered correct behavior. Any help much appreciated, thanks.

Is anyone able to tell me how they have done this
They probably call stopForeground() when one of their activities returns to the foreground, and startForeground() when they think the user has left (e.g., onUserLeaveHint()).
I am interested in what is considered correct behavior.
I do not think there is a definitive "correct behavior" in this area. It is easier to do what the other apps do and leave the Notification around, until the user indicates that they no longer want the background work to run.
Note that while you may want "to keep running when the user is outside the app", the user might not. Certain types of apps (e.g., music players) can safely assume that the user wants the audio to keep going; a metronome, IMHO, does not rise to that level. Please allow the user to configure this behavior, such as through a SharedPreference.

Related

What's the right way to interact with Chromecast from an Android Notification?

I'm trying to figure out the right way to add Chromecast buttons (pause, play, etc) to an Android Notification. I've set up a custom notification that sends PendingIntents to a ChromecastService. That service is trying to interact with a class I built called ChromecastAdapter. The ChromecastAdapter implements MediaRouteAdapter and contains all the listeners and state that go along with casting. However, all this state is gone as soon as I exit the application. So, my ChromecastService doesn't end up having access to the Chromecast once my app is gone.
It seems to me that the only way to get this to work is refactor all the Chromecast state into a Service that implements MediaRouteAdapter. I really don't want to do this since I'm pretty happy with the way things are now.
Since these interactive Notifications are required by Google, I feel like there has to be a standard way of interacting with a cast from a Notification. Am I on the right track here? Do I have to place all my Chromecast interactions behind a Service?
What the behavior should be depends on the type of app and the requirements of the app. If your app is "gone" (in the sense that the Application instance is gone), then the question that you should ask yourself is whether you would want to keep a notification mechanism to stay around; there are apps that when they are killed, the receiver also gets closed and user is sent back to the home screen on the chromecast device, in which case there is no reason to keep a notification around.
On the other hand, there are apps that based on their requirements, you would want to let the cast device continue what it was doing (for example play the video) even if the mobile app is gone. In those cases, you may want to have a notification mechanism in place for "bringing up" the app. To achieve that, you need to maintain certain amount of information/state/objects in a service, enough to be able to establish a connection again and "join" the running app. In addition, your "service" needs to be aware of the status of the app on your receiver so if that app is killed (say, someone else starts casting a different app to the device), it can be notified and exit.

capture hard-button events when phone is locked?

i am currently collecting information, if it is possible to make some kind of quickdraw-application for emergency purposes; i want to get the device to start a customized camera-intent once some certain key-combo is pressed.
I have check quite some information on the topic already, but it is still not clear to me how doable this whole idea is.
So far i figured, that it is not meant to be by android-design. My first idea was to build some kind of InputService and make it teach the hard power-button to listen for a triple-click. But the Services arent allowed to catch KeyEvents. So, the volume-button is out of the equasion aswell.
Then i came across the idea reacting on the SCREEN ON/OFF event, but 80% of the ppl say that it is not going to work, while 20% state, that they got it. But im not really sure if they really did it.
Last but not least the question, if it is possible to launch this customized-camera-intent/application out of the locked mode.
resumé: i need to check if its possible in general to launch this camera-app (that does some quick fotos for emergency purposes) while phone is in the pocket in lock-mode. Anybody got some opinion for me? thx
The solution is to setup a BroadcastReceiver that is listening for the SCREEN_ON-Event. I did this one inside a backgroundservice that was waiting for at least two SCREEN_ON-Events within a short period of time. (less than two events obviously can't work)...
The Service then dismissed the Keyguard and was able to even pass past password/gesture and run the App. Funny fact: closing the app does pop back to desktop still beeing logged in.
I did this at Android 4.2.. Sources told me that dismissing the keyguard is not working with current Android-versions no more.

Android : How to notify the user when the Application is not running

I am new to Android and have a problem with the Notifications. I know that this topic has been taken up earlier as well but I just wanted to know if there is any other way to go about it.
Problem : In my application I want that the user is notified that he/she has entered in the radius of a particular location. I have the functionality working when the application is alive and in the foreground. I will however want that the user is also notified when the application is not working and not there in the foreground.
In the previous posts I have found out that this can be done by using something called as the C2DM. Altough I am not much aware of it but by using C2DM I would be introducing an extra network trip. My question is that the only way to go about it? Can't this functionality be done any other way round, something locally like something of a daemon thread of sorts?
Also if C2DM is only the way, and as my application is not in my foreground will the C2DM also inform once the user reaches the radius of a particular location?
Will like to thank you all in advance. Please do let me know if any one of you have faced a situation/problem/requirement similar to this before and also if you can highlight the way forward for this?
I have the functionality working when the application is alive and in the foreground. I will however want that the user is also notified when the application is not working and not there in the foreground.
Use addProximityAlert() on LocationManager, and then it will not matter whether your app is in the foreground or not.

Quick notification silence

The primary purpose of my app is to change a smart phone into a sort of smart pager (there is an associated web app, but that's not the purpose of the Android app). I use the Notification system built in to Android to handle alerting the user that they have received a page.
My problem is that the clients want:
The notification ringer to ring forever until acknowledged (easily accomplished with FLAG_INSISTENT)
An easy way to silence the ringer with 1 push of a button. It is really not always feasible due to the nature of their work to press the power button, slide to unlock, and drag down the notification bar. I need to replicate the behavior of a pager.
I need to find a way to satisfy the 2nd requirement. It looks like I can hook into keypresses if I've got an activity running, but of course, when a notification is received, the screen will probably be off. I am looking into this currently, but I was wondering if anyone had some guidance in the meantime.
Does anyone have ideas on how I could accomplish this goal? Are there alternative ways to listen for key presses, or some creative combination of flags that could get me there?
Techniques that would normally be frowned on for Market apps are completely on the table, since the phones are owned by my employer and will only be used by other employees. I just want to avoid using private or deprecated APIs to make switching phone models easier for the developer who eventually inherits this project.
Thank you to everyone for reading!
Does anyone have ideas on how I could accomplish this goal?
You'd have to hold a WakeLock, specifically a FULL_WAKE_LOCK, in order to respond to button presses. This means that battery life will be sucktastic, unless you put some time limit on that (e.g., hold the WakeLock for a minute or two, but otherwise assume the user's not near the device, so don't keep it awake).
You would also need to try to interrupt the keyguard with KeyguardManager. I have not done this so I do not know all of the details. Your "watch for the magic button" logic would have to be in the activity that appears on top of the keyguard.
Also, bear in mind that not all Android devices have physical buttons -- in fact, I would not be the least bit surprised if the whole physical button metaphor goes "poof" with Ice Cream Sandwich later this year. Hence, the button in question really should be an on-screen Button for future-proofing.

Application for Child Monitoring

I am starting an application for child monitoring. This would involve mainly the logging of the SMS messages sent and received and logging other activities that may be of interest to the parents. It will also be nice to have something like access control lists for these, too.
Now, as far as I know:
It is not possible to make an app "not uninstallable".
It is not possible to prompt for a password to uninstall an app.
It is not possible to assure that your app is "always" running even if it's getting killed with something like Task Killer, although I think you can respawn the application at given time intervals.
So, any ideas on how to overcome these problems?
There is no way to work around these problems directly without creating your own build of the Android OS. Android always assumes the current user is the owner of the phone and should always be allowed to do whatever they need to do.
It's easy to see why the functionality you need isn't available if you replace "child monitoring" with "malicious data logging" in your question; if Android allowed an app to prevent the user from removing it, it would clearly be open to abuse.
The only thing I can think to do is to have your keep a log of when it is running. This would allow a parent to seen when the app had been running when they viewed the log of the collected data. So if the child had disabled the app the parent would know, but they wouldn't know what had been missed. Although you'd had to be able differentiate between when the phone was switched off and when the app just wasn't running which might not be straightforward.
What you said is true.
Also remember that applications like Task Killer have some sort of blacklist/ignore list so re spawning your app might not make it work.
PS: Without a rooted phone, there is no way you can save your app from a geek kid :)
I was thinking about writing a similar app and considered the same exact scenario. "What if the kid uninstalls the app?"
The only solution I was able to come up with was to have the app periodically ping a server with the a unique ID. Affectively having the app "Check in" with the server a few times a day. Kind of like when prisoner goes on parole. The app is the prisoner and the server is the Parole officer :)
If the app misses a checkin you could treat this as a potential uninstall. However, this could be caused by a lack of network connectivity. I'm sure you could come up with some interesting ways to flag and treat missed checkins. Maybe you could have the app send an SMS checkin or something instead of over HTTP. Then you wouldn't have to depend on Network connectivity.
Once you figure out how to translate missed checkins to an uninstall, you could shoot out an email to the interested party (i.e. the kids parent).
With this option in place, the parent can then have a "Conversation" with their kid before giving them the phone. Something along the lines of:
- "This phone's got parental controls on it. Yes, you do have the ability to uninstall them. However, if you uninstall them I'll know about it and I'll take the phone away."
I think there's definitely a market for this. Need some type of web-interface/dashboard for that parents can log into for monitoring too.
Hope this helps & best of luck.
Cheers!

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