I have searched for days on a way to do this but none of them really suite my needs or I have a hard time understanding them. I am looking to get all of the apps that would normally show up on the recent screen. All of the questions that have been asked on this question are like 5 years old so I am looking for an up to date answer.
If this is impossible, is there a way to open the recent apps dialogue programmatically?
This was a pretty good answer but I'm not really sure how to use it so it isn't getting the apps from just 10 seconds ago How to get recent tasks on Android "L"?
