How to get the list of running applications?

Question

I am working on an app which needs the information of the apps running at the system up to now. Is there an API/method to retrieve that kind of information?

score 17 · Answer 1 · edited Nov 28 '16 at 09:56

17

You cannot detect an App launch in Android, but you can get the list of currently open apps and check if the app you're looking for is open or not using the following code:

ActivityManager am = (ActivityManager) getSystemService(Context.ACTIVITY_SERVICE);
List<ActivityManager.RunningAppProcessInfo> runningAppProcessInfo = am.getRunningAppProcesses();

for (int i = 0; i < runningAppProcessInfo.size(); i++) {
  if(runningAppProcessInfo.get(i).processName.equals("com.the.app.you.are.looking.for")) {
    // Do your stuff here.
  }
}

You can also check if the app is running in the foreground using this method

public static boolean isForeground(Context ctx, String myPackage){
    ActivityManager manager = (ActivityManager) ctx.getSystemService(ACTIVITY_SERVICE);
    List< ActivityManager.RunningTaskInfo > runningTaskInfo = manager.getRunningTasks(1); 

    ComponentName componentInfo = runningTaskInfo.get(0).topActivity;
    if(componentInfo.getPackageName().equals(myPackage)) {
        return true;
    }       
    return false;
}

edited Nov 28 '16 at 09:56

Ahmad F

30,560
17
97
143

answered Mar 19 '14 at 10:53

desidigitalnomad

1,443
21
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3

The first code snippet above works great for apps that are running in the background. Thanks. – mbonness Nov 17 '14 at 19:37
1

It's not working in all cases. For instance, I opened chrome and closed by using home button. And I could see "Chrome" on "app history" / "running apps" list. And I swiped away chrome from there. Still the above code says "Chrome" is running on background. – Manu Apr 28 '15 at 10:14
@Manu Maybe the process is still there, then? – android developer Sep 20 '16 at 23:17
The code is Running only for the application which is running. I mean i want to get the information of all running apps on device. it shows only the app which is running this code. I send my app in background and run another application but still it did not show the running forground application. – Umair Iqbal Jul 24 '17 at 08:52
1

I am running the first function and getting only my app, why the other apps are not listed? (I am running kiosk mode) – Meir Feb 13 '18 at 11:33
2

This wont work for people running Android 6.0 and up. Use UsageStats . It worked for me till Android 7 (even though you need to set permissions manually). – adonayresom Aug 24 '18 at 19:02

score 14 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 02 '17 at 15:21

public static String getActiveApps(Context context) {

    PackageManager pm = context.getPackageManager();
    List<ApplicationInfo> packages = pm.getInstalledApplications(PackageManager.GET_META_DATA);

    String value = u.dateStamp(); // basic date stamp
    value += "---------------------------------\n";
    value += "Active Apps\n";
    value += "=================================\n";

    for (ApplicationInfo packageInfo : packages) {

        //system apps! get out
        if (!isSTOPPED(packageInfo) && !isSYSTEM(packageInfo)) {

            value += getApplicationLabel(context, packageInfo.packageName) + "\n" + packageInfo.packageName  + "\n-----------------------\n";

        }
    }

    return value;

    //result on my emulator

    /* 2 Ekim 2017 Pazartesi 14:35:17
    ---------------------------------
    Active Apps
    =================================
    SystemSetting
    com.xyz.systemsetting
    -----------------------
    myMail
    com.my.mail
    -----------------------
    X-plore
    com.lonelycatgames.Xplore
    -----------------------
    Renotify
    com.liamlang.renotify
    -----------------------
    Mail Box
    com.mailbox.email
    -----------------------   */


}

some opened apps

isSTOPPED

private static boolean isSTOPPED(ApplicationInfo pkgInfo) {

    return ((pkgInfo.flags & ApplicationInfo.FLAG_STOPPED) != 0);
}

isSYSTEM

private static boolean isSYSTEM(ApplicationInfo pkgInfo) {

    return ((pkgInfo.flags & ApplicationInfo.FLAG_SYSTEM) != 0);
}

getApplicationLabel

public static String getApplicationLabel(Context context, String packageName) {

    PackageManager        packageManager = context.getPackageManager();
    List<ApplicationInfo> packages       = packageManager.getInstalledApplications(PackageManager.GET_META_DATA);
    String                label          = null;

    for (int i = 0; i < packages.size(); i++) {

        ApplicationInfo temp = packages.get(i);

        if (temp.packageName.equals(packageName))
            label = packageManager.getApplicationLabel(temp).toString();
    }

    return label;
}

Using this code, i am getting the apps that are not even running. For example, my working app and only youtube app were running and were present in the stack, but it was not showing the youtube app in the output. It was showing Insta and few other apps that were not even running. Tested this on Samsung S4 Android 5.0.1 — Harry .Naeem, Aug 21 '19 at 19:52
As of Android 11, this method no longer returns information about all apps; see https://g.co/dev/packagevisibility for details — Sepehr, Sep 16 '20 at 13:48

score 9 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 21 '10 at 23:33

9

You can get information about running processes using the ActivityManager class.

answered Jul 21 '10 at 23:33

David Underhill

15,896
7
53
61

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Nov 07 '22 at 22:04

How to get the list of running applications?

4 Answers4

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