How to capture key events inside a service?

Question

I want to be able to capture key events inside a service I am writing. I can do this inside an activity without problems, but all my attemps to get this working in a service

Answer 1

You can capture hardware key button events by using accessibility service, only you need to enable the service by going to accessibility settings after installing the app. Here is the code

    public class AccessiblityService extends AccessibilityService {

        @Override
        protected void onServiceConnected() {
            super.onServiceConnected();
            Log.d(TAG, "service is connected");
        }

        @Override
        public void onAccessibilityEvent(AccessibilityEvent accessibilityEvent) {

            Log.d(TAG, "onAccessibiltyEvent" + accessibilityEvent.toString());

        }

        @Override
        public void onInterrupt() {

        }
    // here you can intercept the keyevent
        @Override
        protected boolean onKeyEvent(KeyEvent event) {
            return handleKeyEvent(event);
        }

         private boolean handleKeyEvent(KeyEvent event) {
            int action = event.getAction();
            int keyCode = event.getKeyCode();
            if (action == KeyEvent.ACTION_DOWN) {
                switch (keyCode) {
                    case KeyEvent.KEYCODE_VOLUME_DOWN:
                        //do something
                        return true;

                    case KeyEvent.KEYCODE_VOLUME_UP: {
                        //do something
                        return true;
                    }
                }
            }
            return false;
        }

} 

manifest.xml

accessibility_service.xml //create it in "xml" directory