Listen to ActivityManager events? - android

is it possible somehow to listen to the events of the ActivityManager, e.g. when activities are started? Does the ActivityManager send broadcasts? I havn't found anything indicating that it does.
What I basically need to do: I want my app to launch one of my activities whenever a certain (thirdparty) app is launched/takes focus. Problem is this needs to happen before the thirdparty app is actually displayed.
What I have tried so far as workarounds:
Logcat output: I query logcat every 0.8s (filtered to show ActivityManager events only) but this eats up to many ressources
getRunningTasks: Slows down the phone a lot too and is not very safe, as an activity might be running but not currently in focus
Any ideas?

I suppose there is no actually other legacy way to handle glabal system state, only
(ActivityManager)getSystemService(Context.ACTIVITY_SERVICE);
ActivityManager.getRecentTasks() - Return a list of the tasks that are currently running, with the most recent being first and older ones after in order.
For details check docs
Perhaps though Android is a Linux you can run system tools like
Runtime.getRuntime().exec("ps -aux | grep smth")
But I think it would be hard to detect particular java application.

I think you can use the launch mode to determine which activity to launch to top level. Please check the question: Android singleTask or singleInstance launch mode?. Maybe it will help you.

I had a look in the android source, but there doesn't seem to be any events broadcasted.
https://android.googlesource.com/platform/packages/providers/ApplicationsProvider

Related

Avoid Screen Overlay Detected for service that uses SYSTEM_ALERT_WINDOW

My app main usage is overlay, the overlay is running from a service.
Android Security add the nice "Screen Overlay Detected"
I want to avoid "Screen Overlay Detected" when user tries to change permissions. so... I've add an AccessiblityService that detects:
if ( event.getPackageName().equals("com.google.android.packageinstaller") ){
stopService(myServiceIntent);
}
However, even now I see this message popping. (when my service is stopped...).
I saw Twilight does it without problem.
What am I missing?
p.s. - I've also tried building a signed apk but saw exact same behavior.
It seems I've been able to resolve this.
a) stopService isn't assured your service will be stopped.
as described here :
It will not be destroyed until all of these bindings are removed. See > the Service documentation for more details on a service's lifecycle.
b) I was able to kill my service by sending intent that called stopSelf().
However process killing/starting can be slow.
c) Best resolution: so it seems Android checks for view visibility. no need to kill services or do anything more complicated.
Current way I'm doing it:
- AccessibilityService (already used by my app) monitor "com.google.android.packageinstaller" though it can be refined to class: "com.android.packageinstaller.permission.ui.ManagePermissionsActivity"
Once detected in this class, we send Intent to "duck", and when we're out, we send another intent that we're back on.
The service handles those calls by:
[ourView].setVisibility(View.INVISIBLE); // when permission settings shown
[ourView].setVisibility(View.VISIBLE); // when normal flow
As long as Android 6.x is buggy on some devices where this "overlay alert" is displayed without any reason (on 2 to 5% of the devices according to my analytics data), the best solution is to avoid the whole permission process by defining the targetSdk to 22. Take care that you can't downgrade the target sdk for a new version or this will induce a INSTALL_FAILED_PERMISSION_DOWNGRADE error when the user updates requiring an unisntall/install of the app.

Android: Is it possible to ForceStop and Cleardata of an app programatically?

I am trying to kill an application programatically as Android does when there is overload in memory.. I had searched many post in stackoverflow itself regarding killing of an application, all concluded by saying it is not possible by the user to do at a point of time but it can be done by following the standards like finishing a activity once it moved and at last call killProcess(pid) fn.
My doubt is killing an app is force stopping it and clearing the data it holds.. Is it possible to do these programattically? If so we can acheive killing process programatically..
Regards,
Deepak
yes you can do it with one line .
but you your device need to be rooted first
android.os.Process.killProcess(pid);
You can stop any other running application by it's name like this:
ActivityManager am = (ActivityManager) context.getSystemService(Activity.ACTIVITY_SERVICE);
am.killBackgroundProcesses(appPackageName);
This code will work in API8 or hier.
What do you mean by "clean data"? If you mean release memory that is used by currently running process - it will be done automatically.
I could get a solution to Clear the Application data programatically.. I could acheive it by Reflecting the method which is used to do clear data when we click the Clear Data button in the Settings->Application->Manage Application->App Name.. I had found that method from the android source..
Note:
The clear data fn only clears the data but not Force Stopping the app in 4.0+ , but the app is force stopping also while clearing the data in 2.3..
Thanks for the replies

Can I use android app to track user activities?

I wish to know is it possible to write an android app that when it runs at the background, it can track user activities?(Such as what other app did the user used, what phone number did user dial, the GPS location for user, etc) Cause I am not sure can a single android app react to other application, does anyone know the answer? Thanks
In the general case, no, you can't. And users would probably prefer it so.
Once this has been said, there are certain partial solutions. Sometimes the system is so helpful that it will publish Intents reflecting user actions: for example when the user uninstalls an app -- with the caveat that you don't get that intent on the app itself being uninstalled.
It used to be the case that before Jelly Bean (4.1) apps could read the log that other applications publish and try to extract info from there, but it was a cumbersome, error prone, ungrateful task. For example, the browser shows nothing when it navigates to a certain page. You may read the logs for a while with adb logcat to get a feeling of what was possible and what isn't. This action requires the relevant permission, which cannot be held by regular apps now.
Thanks to #WebnetMobile for the heads up about logs and to #CommonsWare for the link, see the comments below.
Yes you can.
You can look here for instance about phone info:
Track a phone call duration
or
http://www.anddev.org/video-tut_-_querying_and_displaying_the_calllog-t169.html
There is a way to let Android and users know you are using and accessing their data for them to determine if they will allow it.
I am unsure you can simply access any app, but in theory if you know how to read the saved files that might be possible.
For instance Runtime.getRuntime().exec("ls -l /proc"); will get you the "proc" root folder with lots of data you might need there. This might have been changed, I am not sure, and I also don't know what you need.
Perhaps to get running process try:
public static boolean getApplications(final Context context) {
ActivityManager am = (ActivityManager) context.getSystemService(Context.ACTIVITY_SERVICE);
List<RunningTaskInfo> tasks = am.getRunningTasks(1);
}
For this to work you should include this in your AndroidManifest.xml
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.GET_TASKS" />
See more about it: http://developer.android.com/reference/android/app/ActivityManager.html#getRunningAppProcesses%28%29
You certainly could but I think reporting that data back to you, unbeknownst to the user, via the internet, would be considered spyware and almost certainly illegal in most jurisdictions.
Fortunately spying users at that level should not be possible. Certain features can be achieved with abusing bugs in android which sooner than later will be fixed. I see absolutely no reason for you to know what number I am calling and where I've been lately. It's basically none of your business.

Aware of other Apps' start

What I want is: when there is an App start, my App can know it and do something about it.
I had look up the android API but can't resolve it.
Is there any way to make it possible?
Not really. The general philosophy of Android is that one app should not affect the behaviour of other apps unless it's a system app or a device administrator. And there are no APIs for this for device administrators, so you can't do anything about it. Unless, of course, you modify the platform.
What are you trying to do?
Please explain what do you mean by "do something"
However there is a topActivity field defined in the RunningTaskInfo class. You can get a list of running tasks via the getRunningTasks(int) method in the ActivityManager and can traverse through that list to find the currently active task by checking the topActivity field.

Get event on launching the native application

1 . can we get any event when user tap/touch native application(i.e. messaging,contacts).
2 . i know that any application launch by intent in android, there is any way to know which application launch with launch of application.
Thanks
No, We can not get any event directly or by any receiver.
what I have figured it that it can not be done directly......
But there are two work around for this :
Start a service that will check top-activity always by this way can know what activity got launched and do whatever you do under this condition.
Catch the logcat, read the line, and you can easily get what event what even took place, and by using your required filters you can even do whatever you like :)
can we get any event when user
tap/touch native application(i.e.
messaging,contacts).
Not generally. Most of these icons are tied to their applications.
there is any way to know which application launch with launch of application.
This makes no sense to me, sorry.
I am agree with #K_Rapid's answer..
Check code of AppLocker
I hope you will got solution from that code...
For (1): what do you mean by 'tap/touch'? Do you mean when the built-in applications are launched, or when they're interacted with?
If you mean launching, you can listen to any intents being fired by the system by registering a broadcast receiver. If you set your IntentFilter to receive intents with CATEGORY_LAUNCHER, you should be able to see when the launcher starts applications.
See:
http://developer.android.com/reference/android/content/Intent.html#CATEGORY_LAUNCHER
http://developer.android.com/reference/android/content/BroadcastReceiver.html
If you mean interacting, I don't think you can do that.
For (2): I don't believe that intents remember where they were constructed, so I don't think this is possible. I could be wrong, however.

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