Checking if an Android application is running in the background

Question

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

Answer 1

DO NOT USE THIS ANSWER

user1269737's answer is the proper (Google/Android approved) way to do this. Go read their answer and give them a +1.

I'll leave my original answer here for posterity's sake. This was the best available back in 2012, but now Android has proper support for this.

Original answer

The key is using ActivityLifecycleCallbacks (note that this requires Android API level 14 (Android 4.0)). Just check if the number of stopped activities is equal to the number of started activities. If they're equal, your application is being backgrounded. If there are more started activities, your application is still visible. If there are more resumed than paused activities, your application is not only visible, but it's also in the foreground. There are 3 main states that your activity can be in, then: visible and in the foreground, visible but not in the foreground, and not visible and not in the foreground (i.e. in the background).

The really nice thing about this method is that it doesn't have the asynchronous issues getRunningTasks() does, but you also don't have to modify every Activity in your application to set/unset something in onResumed()/onPaused(). It's just a few lines of code that's self contained, and it works throughout your whole application. Plus, there are no funky permissions required either.

MyLifecycleHandler.java:

public class MyLifecycleHandler implements ActivityLifecycleCallbacks {
    // I use four separate variables here. You can, of course, just use two and
    // increment/decrement them instead of using four and incrementing them all.
    private int resumed;
    private int paused;
    private int started;
    private int stopped;

    @Override
    public void onActivityCreated(Activity activity, Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    }

    @Override
    public void onActivityDestroyed(Activity activity) {
    }

    @Override
    public void onActivityResumed(Activity activity) {
        ++resumed;
    }

    @Override
    public void onActivityPaused(Activity activity) {
        ++paused;
        android.util.Log.w("test", "application is in foreground: " + (resumed > paused));
    }

    @Override
    public void onActivitySaveInstanceState(Activity activity, Bundle outState) {
    }

    @Override
    public void onActivityStarted(Activity activity) {
        ++started;
    }

    @Override
    public void onActivityStopped(Activity activity) {
        ++stopped;
        android.util.Log.w("test", "application is visible: " + (started > stopped));
    }

    // If you want a static function you can use to check if your application is
    // foreground/background, you can use the following:
    /*
    // Replace the four variables above with these four
    private static int resumed;
    private static int paused;
    private static int started;
    private static int stopped;

    // And these two public static functions
    public static boolean isApplicationVisible() {
        return started > stopped;
    }

    public static boolean isApplicationInForeground() {
        return resumed > paused;
    }
    */
}

MyApplication.java:

// Don't forget to add it to your manifest by doing
// 

---

@Mewzer has asked some good questions about this method that I'd like to respond to in this answer for everyone:

onStop() is not called in low memory situations; is that a problem here?

No. The docs for onStop() say:

Note that this method may never be called, in low memory situations where the system does not have enough memory to keep your activity's process running after its onPause() method is called.

The key here is "keep your activity's process running..." If this low memory situation is ever reached, your process is actually killed (not just your activity). This means that this method of checking for backgrounded-ness is still valid because a) you can't check for backgrounding anyway if your process is killed, and b) if your process starts again (because a new activity is created), the member variables (whether static or not) for MyLifecycleHandler will be reset to 0.

Does this work for configuration changes?

By default, no. You have to explicitly set configChanges=orientation|screensize (| with anything else you want) in your manifest file and handle the configuration changes, or else your activity will be destroyed and recreated. If you do not set this, your activity's methods will be called in this order: onCreate -> onStart -> onResume -> (now rotate) -> onPause -> onStop -> onDestroy -> onCreate -> onStart -> onResume. As you can see, there is no overlap (normally, two activities overlap very briefly when switching between the two, which is how this backgrounding-detection method works). In order to get around this, you must set configChanges so that your activity is not destroyed. Fortunately, I've had to set configChanges already in all of my projects because it was undesirable for my entire activity to get destroyed on screen rotate/resize, so I've never found this to be problematic. (thanks to dpimka for refreshing my memory on this and correcting me!)

One note:

When I've said "background" here in this answer, I've meant "your app is no longer visible." Android activities can be visible yet not in the foreground (for example, if there's a transparent notification overlay). That's why I've updated this answer to reflect that.

It's important to know that Android has a weird limbo moment when switching activities where nothing is in the foreground. For this reason, if you check if your application is in the foreground when switching between activities (in the same app), you'll be told you're not in the foreground (even though your app is still the active app and is visible).

You can check if your app is in the foreground in your Activity's onPause() method after super.onPause(). Just remember the weird limbo state I just talked about.

You can check if your app is visible (i.e. if it's not in the background) in your Activity's onStop() method after super.onStop().