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

If you turn on developer settings "Don't keep actvities" - check only count of created activites is not enough. You must check also isSaveInstanceState. My custom method isApplicationRunning() check is android app is running:

Here my work code:

public class AppLifecycleService implements Application.ActivityLifecycleCallbacks {
    private int created;
    private boolean isSaveInstanceState;
    private static AppLifecycleService instance;

    private final static String TAG = AppLifecycleService.class.getName();

    public static AppLifecycleService getInstance() {
        if (instance == null) {
            instance = new AppLifecycleService();
        }
        return instance;
    }

    public static boolean isApplicationRunning() {
        boolean isApplicationRunning = true;
        if (getCountCreatedActvities() == 0 && !isSaveInstanceState()) {
            isApplicationRunning = false;
        }
        return isApplicationRunning;
    }

    public static boolean isSaveInstanceState() {
        return AppLifecycleService.getInstance().isSaveInstanceState;
    }

    public static int getCountCreatedActvities() {
        return AppLifecycleService.getInstance().created;
    }

    private AppLifecycleService() {
    }

    @Override
    public void onActivitySaveInstanceState(Activity activity, Bundle outState) {
        this.isSaveInstanceState = true;
    }

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

    @Override
    public void onActivityDestroyed(Activity activity) {
        --created;
    }

    @Override
    public void onActivityResumed(Activity activity) {   }

    @Override
    public void onActivityPaused(Activity activity) { }


    @Override
    public void onActivityStarted(Activity activity) { }

    @Override
    public void onActivityStopped(Activity activity) { }        

}