How to launch an Activity without a UI?

Question

Is it in any way possible to launch an activity from the main function without having a UI? i.e. is there a way to create a sort of \"wrapper\" around another activity, i.e.

Answer 1

Looks similar to the question asked here: Removing an activity from the history stack

If it is, then you can use:

FLAG_ACTIVITY_NO_HISTORY

This should work to wipe activities off of the stack.

If you need to exclude from recent apps (long press home key) you can use this flag:

FLAG_ACTIVITY_EXCLUDE_FROM_RECENTS

Answer 2

Using

<activity android:name="yourActivityName" android:label="@string/app_name" android:theme="@android:style/Theme.Translucent.NoTitleBar">

mentioned by Brian515 works great. This method is useful for creating an entry point Activity that decides on which activity to call, start, services, etc without having to show a UI to the user. Remember to use finish() after you have started your intent.

Answer 3

In your manifest add @android:style/Theme.Translucent.NoTitleBar" as mentioned in some of the answers above.

Also remove the setContentView(R.layout.your_activity); line from your activity.java file.

Answer 4

Android also provides a theme specifically for this:

android:theme="@android:style/Theme.NoDisplay"

Answer 5

I am using AppCompatActivity and the solutions provided in this SO did not solve my problem. Here is what worked for me.

I added the following in my styles.xml.

<style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.NoActionBar">
        <!-- Customize your theme here. -->
</style>

<style name="AppTheme.NoDisplay">
    <item name="android:windowBackground">@null</item>
    <item name="android:windowContentOverlay">@null</item>
    <item name="android:windowIsTranslucent">true</item>
    <item name="android:windowAnimationStyle">@null</item>
    <item name="android:windowDisablePreview">true</item>
    <item name="android:windowNoDisplay">true</item>
</style>

Then, for any activity that I want to disable the display, I modified like so:

<activity 
    android:name=".NoDisplayActivity"
    android:theme="@style/AppTheme.NoDisplay">

Cheers!