Android: Starting app from 'recent applications' starts it with the last set of extras used in an intent

Question

Bit of a confusing problem for me here:

I\'ve got a home screen widget which, when clicked, starts my main app Activity with a few extras put in the intent:

Answer 1

You should clear the extras from your intent after using them.

Bundle extras = getIntent().getExtras();
if (extras == null) {
    return;
}
String value1 = extras.getString("Value1");
String value2 = extras.getString("Value2");
extras.clear();

Answer 2

As Martijn says, you can check if your application is opened using an Intent with the flag FLAG_ACTIVITY_LAUNCHED_FROM_HISTORY set, like this:

int flags = getActivity().getIntent().getFlags();       
if ((flags & Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_LAUNCHED_FROM_HISTORY) != 0) {
    // The activity was launched from history
}

Answer 3

I think you can distinguish a "normal" startup from a "recent applications" startup by checking the Intent flags; there is a flag called

Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_LAUNCHED_FROM_HISTORY

which, according to the documentation:

This flag is not normally set by application code, but set for you by the system if this activity is being launched from history (longpress home key).

So when this flag is set, you could choose to ignore the extras.