How to take snapshot of screen not only app in Android with code

Question

I've developed app that takes screenshot. But it only takes snapshot of app. I want to take snapshot out of app. I've researched answers but I don't find answer yet. Here is my code.

View view = getWindow().getDecorView().getRootView();
view.setDrawingCacheEnabled(true);
Bitmap bitmap = Bitmap.createBitmap(view.getDrawingCache());
view.setDrawingCacheEnabled(false);
saveImageToAppFolder(bitmap);

saveImagetoAppFolder is function that saves image to app folder. That's not problem. Is there anyway to take snapshot of screen?

Only if you have your device rooted,do you want to know how to screenshot using root? — insomniac, Dec 30 '15 at 05:07
OK, then can you share code which works only in rooted device? — Dima, Dec 30 '15 at 05:11

insomniac · Accepted Answer · 2015-12-30T15:09:58.937

To take screen shot of the device screen, Only if you have root call the screencap binary like:

Process sh = Runtime.getRuntime().exec("su", null,null);
OutputStream  os = sh.getOutputStream();
os.write(("/system/bin/screencap -p " + Environment.getExternalStorageDirectory()+ "/img.png").getBytes("ASCII"));
os.flush();
os.close();
sh.waitFor()

And to load that file into a bitmap,Use

public static Bitmap decodeSampledBitmapFromFile(String path,
                                                     int reqWidth, int reqHeight) {

        // First decode with inJustDecodeBounds=true to check dimensions
        final BitmapFactory.Options options = new BitmapFactory.Options();
        options.inJustDecodeBounds = true;
        BitmapFactory.decodeFile(path, options);

        // Calculate inSampleSize
        options.inSampleSize = calculateInSampleSize(options, reqWidth, reqHeight);

        // Decode bitmap with inSampleSize set
        options.inJustDecodeBounds = false;
        return BitmapFactory.decodeFile(path, options);
    }

    public static int calculateInSampleSize(
            BitmapFactory.Options options, int reqWidth, int reqHeight) {
        // Raw height and width of image
        final int height = options.outHeight;
        final int width = options.outWidth;
        int inSampleSize = 1;

        if (height > reqHeight || width > reqWidth) {

            final int halfHeight = height / 2;
            final int halfWidth = width / 2;

            // Calculate the largest inSampleSize value that is a power of 2 and keeps both
            // height and width larger than the requested height and width.
            while ((halfHeight / inSampleSize) > reqHeight
                    && (halfWidth / inSampleSize) > reqWidth) {
                inSampleSize *= 2;
            }
        }

        return inSampleSize;
    }

where files are saved? If i want to save it app folder how can i do it? — Dima, Dec 30 '15 at 05:23
if you want to save it to any other directory,use the directory name or if you want it in app's data folder use Environment.getDataDirectory() or getFilesDir() instead of Environment.getExternalStorage() — insomniac, Dec 30 '15 at 05:25
@insomniac Hi, I give you bounty, btw I want you to find some answer without rooted phone. — JengGe Chao, Jan 08 '16 at 12:58

score 3 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:45

i don't know your code in saveImageToAppFolder is what but you can try this:

Note: you need set background of your app/activity to transparent (100%).

 //your code below is extractly
View view = getWindow().getDecorView().getRootView();
view.setDrawingCacheEnabled(true);
Bitmap bitmap = Bitmap.createBitmap(view.getDrawingCache());
view.setDrawingCacheEnabled(false);

  //try my code for save image file to storage   
  File imgFile = new File(imgPath);

        FileOutputStream os = new FileOutputStream(imageFile);
        int imgQuality = 100;
        bitmap.compress(Bitmap.CompressFormat.JPEG, imgQuality , os);
        os.flush();
        os.close();

Code to set transparent background:

//first: create theme xml below for transparent

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
  <style name="Theme.Transparent" parent="android:Theme">
    <item name="android:windowIsTranslucent">true</item>
    <item name="android:windowBackground">@android:color/transparent</item>
    <item name="android:windowContentOverlay">@null</item>
    <item name="android:windowNoTitle">true</item>
    <item name="android:windowIsFloating">true</item>
    <item name="android:backgroundDimEnabled">false</item>
  </style>
</resources>

after set by this way:

<activity android:name=".SampleActivity" android:theme="@style/Theme.Transparent">

</activity>

note: you can red more detail from here url: How do I create a transparent Activity on Android?

this answer only screenshots the app screen not the whole phone like in the question — insomniac, Dec 30 '15 at 05:09
oh. This is my resolve: everyone can set bacground of your application to transparent so image captured is everything showing on screen and not your own activity — GiapLee, Dec 30 '15 at 05:16
But app has many buttons and something other else. How can i set background transparent? — Dima, Dec 30 '15 at 05:20

How to take snapshot of screen not only app in Android with code

2 Answers2