How to close another app in Android?

Question

I have been developing an app, and I need to close another app in my code. Does anyone know any api to call to close an app?

BTW: my app will be pre-installed.

Answer 1

Since Android 2.2 (i.e. going forward), you can only close the background processes of other apps, you are no longer able to close their main activities.

If your app is targeting Android <2.2, look atandroid.permission.RESTART_PACKAGE.

If you want it to work properly on 2.2 and above (which you should :-)), look at android.permission.KILL_BACKGROUND_PROCESSES, but again, this only closes background services and such and might "mess up" the other app rather than doing any good.

With the right permissions, you can then do the following:

private ActivityManager am = (ActivityManager) this.getSystemService(ACTIVITY_SERVICE);
am.restartPackage("com.jimmy.appToBeClosed");