Checking if an Android application is running in the background

Question

By background, I mean none of the application\'s activities are currently visible to the user?

Answer 1

GOOGLE SOLUTION - not a hack, like previous solutions. Use ProcessLifecycleOwner

Kotlin:

class ArchLifecycleApp : Application(), LifecycleObserver {

    override fun onCreate() {
        super.onCreate()
        ProcessLifecycleOwner.get().lifecycle.addObserver(this)
    }

    @OnLifecycleEvent(Lifecycle.Event.ON_STOP)
    fun onAppBackgrounded() {
        //App in background
    }

    @OnLifecycleEvent(Lifecycle.Event.ON_START)
    fun onAppForegrounded() {
        // App in foreground
    }

}

Java:

public class ArchLifecycleApp extends Application implements LifecycleObserver {

    @Override
    public void onCreate() {
        super.onCreate();
        ProcessLifecycleOwner.get().getLifecycle().addObserver(this);
    }

    @OnLifecycleEvent(Lifecycle.Event.ON_STOP)
    public void onAppBackgrounded() {
        //App in background
    }

    @OnLifecycleEvent(Lifecycle.Event.ON_START)
    public void onAppForegrounded() {
        // App in foreground
    }
}

in app.gradle

dependencies {
    ...
    implementation "android.arch.lifecycle:extensions:1.1.0"

    //New Android X dependency is this - 
    implementation "androidx.lifecycle:lifecycle-extensions:2.0.0"

}

allprojects {
    repositories {
        ...
        google()
        jcenter()
        maven { url 'https://maven.google.com' }
    }
}

You can read more about Lifecycle related architecture components here - https://developer.android.com/topic/libraries/architecture/lifecycle