Is it possible to write an Android broadcast receiver that detects when the phone wakes up?

Question

I want to figure out how to detect when the phone wakes up from being in the black screen mode and write a handler for that event. Is that possible? It seems like this would be something a Broadcast Receiver should handle? Or is there a better or more proper way?

Thanks

Answer 1

If you have a Service that it active you can catch these events with

registerReceiver(new BroadcastReceiver() {

  @Override
  public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {
    // do something
  }
}, new IntentFilter(Intent.ACTION_SCREEN_ON));

However this relies on having a perpetually running service which I have recently learned is discouraged because it is brittle (the OS likes to close them) and uses resources permanently.

Disappointingly, it seems it is not possible to have a receiver in your manifest that intercepts SCREEN_ON events.

This has come up very recently:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2575242/android-intent-action-screen-on-doesnt-work-as-a-receiver-intent-filter

also

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1588061/android-how-to-receive-broadcast-intents-action-screen-on-off

Answer 2

You are right on the broadcast receiver. You could listen to the SCREEN_ON and SCREEN_OFF broadcast events.