finishAndRemoveTask() available on API 21

Question

I would terminate my app and cancel it from the list of recent task.

finishAndRemoveTask() is available only on API 21.

What should I use on API lower than 21??

I don't think there is such an easy way to do that in lower API levels, but... why would anyone want to do that? — thelawnmowerman, Dec 08 '14 at 23:11
I want to prevent the user to re-open the app from the recent task.. — user3253955, Dec 08 '14 at 23:18
If you just finish all your activities is your app still appearing in the recent task list? Have you tried just finishing all your activities with an Intent with flags? — thelawnmowerman, Dec 08 '14 at 23:21
I posted kind of a solution (I haven't tested it, but you can get the idea). — thelawnmowerman, Dec 08 '14 at 23:53

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 08 '14 at 23:53

3

Make an intent to the first activity in the stack and finish the current activity:

Intent intent  = new Intent(this, FirstActivity.class);
intent.putExtra(EXTRA_FINISH, true);
intent.setFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TOP);        
startActivity(intent);
finish();

And, in the onResume method of the FirstActivity, something like this to finish the last activity in the stack (and hopefully removing the app from the recent apps list):

if (getExtras() != null && getIntentExtra(EXTRA_FINISH, false)) {
   finish();
}

answered Dec 08 '14 at 23:53

thelawnmowerman

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This would work in a very specific use case where `FirstActivity` is the only activity in the stack and it's the only instance of that activity in that task and it would not remove the task from recent tasks. In other words that does not have a similar effect as `finishAndRemoveTask` – Alex.F Dec 11 '16 at 17:32
I agree, it's a very specific use case, but fortunately it's the most common one, too. There are many more simple apps with a single launcher/menu activity than more complex flows. Correction: this do have a *similar* effect as `finishAndRemoveTask`, not the *same one*, of course (and, as you can see, no other suggestions have been made, so it's the best we have for now). The rest of your analysis is mistaken: many activities can be in stack and even many instances of them, thanks to the FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TOP flag. Anyway and most important: this is just a workaround for legacy devices. – thelawnmowerman Dec 12 '16 at 13:15
does't finish just close the current activity. in this case First activity. – Vikas Pandey May 19 '17 at 07:25

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 12 '17 at 11:13

I had a similar use case where I needed to finish all activities. Here is one way to do it without finishAndRemoveTask().

Make all your activities extend a base class with the following things in it:

private Boolean mHasParent = false;

@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

    Intent intent = getIntent();
    Bundle extras = intent.getExtras();
    if (extras != null) {
        mHasParent = extras.getBoolean("hasParent", false);
    }
}

// Always start next activity by calling this.
protected void startNextActivity(Intent intent) {
    intent.putExtra("hasParent", true);
    startActivityForResult(intent, 199);
}

@Override
protected void onActivityResult(int requestCode, int resultCode, Intent intent) {
    super.onActivityResult(requestCode, resultCode, intent);  
    if (requestCode == 199 && resultCode == FINISH_ALL) {
        finishAllActivities();
    }
}

protected void finishAllActivities() {
    if (mHasParent) {
        // Return to parent activity.
        setResult(FINISH_ALL);
    } else {
        // This is the only activity remaining on the stack.
        // If you need to actually return some result, do it here.
        Intent resultValue = new Intent();
        resultValue.putExtra(...);
        setResult(RESULT_OK, resultValue);
    }

    finish();
}

Simply call finishAllActivities() in any activity, and all the activities will unwind. Ofcourse if you don't care what result the last activity returns, the code can be made much simpler.

finishAndRemoveTask() available on API 21

2 Answers2

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