Android device age

Question

Is it possible to query the age of an android device? I want to know, how long a user owns his device. The age of the battery might be a good indicator, but I cannot find an app

Answer 1

There is no solid way to find out the device age but yes somehow we can figure out the age.

Android devices are packaged with some pre-installed apps(Sytem applications) and when user owns it, he installs other apps(User applications). We can find out date of earliest installed user app and can predict the device age.

* If device has been reset after use, it would be difficult to find device age.

// @return earliest installed app's date.

private static String getOldestAppsAge(Context context) {
    long appsAge = 0;
    try {
        appsAge = System.currentTimeMillis();
        PackageManager pkgManager = context.getPackageManager();
        List lsApp = pkgManager.getInstalledApplications(0);
        for (ApplicationInfo localApplicationInfo : lsApp) {
            String pkgName = localApplicationInfo.packageName;
            if ((localApplicationInfo.flags & ApplicationInfo.FLAG_SYSTEM) == 0) {
                PackageInfo info = pkgManager.getPackageInfo(pkgName, 0);
                long firstInstallTime = info.firstInstallTime;
                if (firstInstallTime < appsAge && firstInstallTime > sGINGER_RELEASE_DATE) {
                    appsAge = info.firstInstallTime;
                }
            }
        }
    } catch (PackageManager.NameNotFoundException ex) {
        ex.printStackTrace();
    }
    return DateUtils.convertIntoDesiredDateFormat(appsAge);
}

• Some android devices return epoch time (1970), so we must use some check condition : if (firstInstallTime > sGINGER_RELEASE_DATE)