Starting Activity from background and hiding MainActivity - Popup Window

Question

I was wondering if it is possible to start Acitivty from service running in background and then move MainActivity to background. I don't want to finish() MainActivity. Just hide it.

    Intent it=new Intent(context, NewPopupRecognizer.class);
    it.setFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);
    context.startActivity(it);

I tried this code but it is always starting Activity with delay.

I want to create popup Activity which i can turn on/off with floating button. I used to use WindowManger but it was very problematic so I decided to try doing it with Activity.

The popup should be like: Facebook Messenger or Google Assistant.

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 21 '18 at 14:40

I have read this in another post that this may help you:

   Intent intent = new Intent();
    intent.setAction(Intent.ACTION_MAIN);
    intent.addCategory(Intent.CATEGORY_LAUNCHER);
    intent.setFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);
    ComponentName cn = new ComponentName(this, NewPopupRecognizer.class);
    intent.setComponent(cn);
    startActivity(intent);

found here How to start an Activity from a Service? service/3456099

Doron Yakovlev Golani · Answer 2 · 2018-03-21T15:13:04.370

1

What you can do is to send a Broadcast to your activity from the service:

Intent intent = new Intent("com.yourcompany.testIntent");
intent.putExtra("value","test");
sendBroadcast(intent);

Then your MainActivity picks it up and does:

IntentFilter filter = new IntentFilter("com.yourcompany.testIntent");
        BroadcastReceiver receiver = new BroadcastReceiver() {
            @Override
            public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {
                  Intent it=new Intent(context, NewPopupRecognizer.class);
                  it.setFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);
                  it.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_RECEIVER_FOREGROUND);
                  startActivity(it);
            }
        };
registerReceiver(receiver, filter);

You can add a mechanism that will open the activity directly from the service if the main activity is not there. For more options check out the answers to this question.

edited Mar 21 '18 at 15:13

answered Mar 21 '18 at 14:41

Doron Yakovlev Golani

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Works too but activity starts with delay. – Kmopsuy Mar 21 '18 at 14:51
How long is the delay? You can log and check, perhaps your service takes longer to react than you expect. – Doron Yakovlev Golani Mar 21 '18 at 14:55
3-4 seconds but only from background when mainactivity is on foreground everything is ok – Kmopsuy Mar 21 '18 at 15:06
Maybe You know other solution how to create popup? – Kmopsuy Mar 21 '18 at 15:07
Is it 3 seconds from when you get the initial trigger or from when you send the broadcast? – Doron Yakovlev Golani Mar 21 '18 at 15:09
when i send broadcast – Kmopsuy Mar 21 '18 at 15:11
I think adding Intent.FLAG_RECEIVER_FOREGROUND flag may help (see https://stackoverflow.com/questions/20283440/broadcast-receiver-is-taking-too-long-to-receive-in-onreceive-after-airplane-m) – Doron Yakovlev Golani Mar 21 '18 at 15:13

Starting Activity from background and hiding MainActivity - Popup Window

2 Answers2