How to detect when the user launches another app? (Android)

Question

I\'m trying to build an application where my application runs in the background and detects when the user launches another application so that I can control the flow from th

Answer 1

I have made a service which can detect if other application launches. I have made it for dialer. similarly that can be replaced by any package name.

@Override
public int onStartCommand(Intent intent, int flags, int startId){
    Toast.makeText(this,"Service Started", Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();

    final String str = "";
    Timer timer  =  new Timer();
    timer.scheduleAtFixedRate(new TimerTask() {
        int phonelaunched = 0,phoneclosed =0;
        int phonelaunches = 1;
        @Override
        public void run() {
            ActivityManager am = (ActivityManager) getSystemService(Context.ACTIVITY_SERVICE);
            List runningAppProcessInfo = am.getRunningAppProcesses();

            for ( ActivityManager.RunningAppProcessInfo appProcess: runningAppProcessInfo ) {
                Log.d(appProcess.processName.toString(),"is running");
                if (appProcess.processName.equals("com.android.dialer")) {
                    if ( appProcess.importance == ActivityManager.RunningAppProcessInfo.IMPORTANCE_FOREGROUND  /*isForeground(getApplicationContext(),runningAppProcessInfo.get(i).processName)*/){
                        if (phonelaunched == 0 ){
                            phonelaunched = 1;
                            Log.d(str,"dude phone has been launched");
                        }
                        else if (phoneclosed == 1){
                            phonelaunches++;
                            phoneclosed = 0;
                            Log.d(String.valueOf(phonelaunches),"dude that was counter");
                        }
                    }
                    else {
                        phoneclosed = 1;
                        Log.d(str,"dude phone has been closed");

                    }
                }
            }
        }
    },2000,3000);

    return START_STICKY;
}

Here I go through all the running tasks and check if it is our intended application. If so I check if the application is foreground and application is never launched using 'phonelaunched' variable. phoneclosed is used when intended application is in background and variable is set accordingly.

All this is implemented in Service class