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

In my activities onResume and onPause I write an isVisible boolean to SharedPrefences.

    SharedPreferences sharedPrefs = PreferenceManager.getDefaultSharedPreferences(this);
    Editor editor = sharedPrefs.edit();
    editor.putBoolean("visible", false);
    editor.commit();

And read it elsewhere when needed via,

    // Show a Toast Notification if App is not visible (ie in background. Not running, etc) 
    SharedPreferences sharedPrefs = PreferenceManager.getDefaultSharedPreferences(context);
    if(!sharedPrefs.getBoolean("visible", true)){...}

Maybe not elegant, but it works for me...