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

See the comment in the onActivityDestroyed function.

Works with SDK target version 14> :

import android.app.Activity;
import android.app.Application;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.util.Log;

public class AppLifecycleHandler implements Application.ActivityLifecycleCallbacks {

    public static int active = 0;

    @Override
    public void onActivityStopped(Activity activity) {
        Log.i("Tracking Activity Stopped", activity.getLocalClassName());
        active--;
    }

    @Override
    public void onActivityStarted(Activity activity) {
        Log.i("Tracking Activity Started", activity.getLocalClassName());
        active++;
    }

    @Override
    public void onActivitySaveInstanceState(Activity activity, Bundle outState) {
        Log.i("Tracking Activity SaveInstanceState", activity.getLocalClassName());
    }

    @Override
    public void onActivityResumed(Activity activity) {
        Log.i("Tracking Activity Resumed", activity.getLocalClassName());
        active++;
    }

    @Override
    public void onActivityPaused(Activity activity) {
        Log.i("Tracking Activity Paused", activity.getLocalClassName());
        active--;
    }

    @Override
    public void onActivityDestroyed(Activity activity) {
        Log.i("Tracking Activity Destroyed", activity.getLocalClassName());
        active--;

        // if active var here ever becomes zero, the app is closed or in background
        if(active == 0){
            ...
        }

    }

    @Override
    public void onActivityCreated(Activity activity, Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        Log.i("Tracking Activity Created", activity.getLocalClassName());
        active++;
    }
}