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

Starting support library version 26 you can use ProcessLifecycleOwner, just add it to your dependency like described here, for example:

dependencies {
    def lifecycle_version = "1.1.1"

    // ViewModel and LiveData
    implementation "android.arch.lifecycle:extensions:$lifecycle_version"
    // alternatively - Lifecycles only (no ViewModel or LiveData).
    //     Support library depends on this lightweight import
    implementation "android.arch.lifecycle:runtime:$lifecycle_version"
    annotationProcessor "android.arch.lifecycle:compiler:$lifecycle_version" // use kapt for Kotlin
}

And then just query ProcessLifecycleOwner whenever you want for app state, examples:

//Check if app is in background
ProcessLifecycleOwner.get().getLifecycle().getCurrentState() == Lifecycle.State.CREATED;

//Check if app is in foreground
ProcessLifecycleOwner.get().getLifecycle().getCurrentState().isAtLeast(Lifecycle.State.STARTED);