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

Idolon's answer is error prone and much more complicated althought repeatead here check android application is in foreground or not? and here Determining the current foreground application from a background task or service

There is a much more simpler approach:

On a BaseActivity that all Activities extend:

protected static boolean isVisible = false;

 @Override
 public void onResume()
 {
     super.onResume();
     setVisible(true);
 }


 @Override
 public void onPause()
 {
     super.onPause();
     setVisible(false);
 }

Whenever you need to check if any of your application activities is in foreground just check isVisible();

To understand this approach check this answer of side-by-side activity lifecycle: Activity side-by-side lifecycle