I want my Android app to know when another application has been started

Question

I would like my app to do something when another application is opened.

The current approach I have taken is to create a broadcast receiver that monitors all

android.intent.action.MAIN

events, but either I am not doing it correctly or the way I am going about it is incorrect. The section of the manifest looks like this:

<receiver android:name=".GetApp"> 
        <intent-filter>
            <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
            <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
        </intent-filter>
    </receiver>

I included the launcher category just as a test. GetApp currently is only set to make a log entry when called.

If anyone has any experience doing something like this your help would be greatly appreciated!

Answer 1

After doing some more digging in the Android documentation I found that a broadcast receiver would not pick up on an app starting because it goes through createActivity(). Calls to createActivity() are not considered broadcasts and therefore cannot be received by broadcast receiver.