How to take a screenshot of what the user can see xamarin forms

Question

I've seen many other posts that use Xamarin.Essentials.Screenshot.CaptureAsync(). The problem with that is that it takes the screenshot of the top-most view and not what the user can see.

My question is, is it is possible to take a screenshot of what the user can see and if it is, how?

EDIT :

I haven't been very clear of what I am trying to achieve, so here is it:

I am trying to take a screenshot of the phone default screen(where all the apps are etc.) and also other apps. So for that I use a foreground service. It works and all but the screenshots are still only the view of the app

Yes, but what I am trying to do I need the application to take the screenshot automatically — Snapper, Dec 16 '21 at 16:13
[This java thread](https://stackoverflow.com/q/2661536/199364) might have some useful ideas that could be adapted to c#. — ToolmakerSteve, Dec 16 '21 at 16:25

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 17 '21 at 05:56

The following code can get the view of the activity with a bitmap, and then you can save the bitmap as a image file to the device.

    private void takeScreenShot(Activity activity)
    {
        View view = activity.Window.DecorView;
        view.DrawingCacheEnabled = true;
        view.BuildDrawingCache();
        Bitmap bitmap = view.DrawingCache;
        Rect rect = new Rect();
        activity.Window.DecorView.GetWindowVisibleDisplayFrame(rect);
        int statusBarHeight = rect.Top;
        int width = activity.WindowManager.DefaultDisplay.Width;
        int height = activity.WindowManager.DefaultDisplay.Height;
        Bitmap screenShotBitmap = Bitmap.CreateBitmap(bitmap, 0, statusBarHeight, width,
         height - statusBarHeight);
        view.DestroyDrawingCache();
        string uri = System.IO.Path.Combine("/sdcard/Download", "screen.jpg");
        using (System.IO.FileStream os = new System.IO.FileStream(uri, System.IO.FileMode.Create))
        {
            screenShotBitmap.Compress(Bitmap.CompressFormat.Png, 100, os);
            os.Close();
        }
    }

At first, you can use the Android native command to do that such as 'Java.Lang.Runtime.GetRuntime().Exec("screencap -p /sdcard/screen.png");' In addition, you can use the MediaProjection class to take the screenshot.It is recommended to read the offical document about them before using them. And there is a example for the MediaProjection class.[link](https://github.com/xamarin/monodroid-samples/blob/master/android5.0/ScreenCapture/ScreenCapture/ScreenCaptureFragment.cs) @Snapper — Liyun Zhang - MSFT, Dec 20 '21 at 06:42

How to take a screenshot of what the user can see xamarin forms

1 Answers1