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How to check current running applications in Android?

android

I want to check current running applications in android programmatically, similar to how it shows 6 applications if we press and hold the HOME button.
I'm mostly interested in the application names.

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UMAR
22.8k 79 168 244

Asked
Jul 19 '10 at 6:33

Rob Hruska
65.2k 21 126 165

Edited
Nov 11 '11 at 12:58

3 Answers

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You can get current name package using

ActivityManager am = (ActivityManager) mContext
.getSystemService(Activity.ACTIVITY_SERVICE);
String packageName = am.getRunningTasks(1).get(0).topActivity
.getPackageName();

You can use this package name to get current active application

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Anoop
16.4k 7 35 63

Answered
Mar 26 '11 at 16:16

Awesome answer. I was looking for this forever! This gives the task that the user is currently doing (program they are currently in). Great! Camille Svigny Jul 13 '12 at 13:07

11

Requires permission: android.permission.GET_TASKS Sebouh Nov 16 '13 at 8:28

saved my day..!! thanks ! Nirav Dangi May 23 '14 at 14:55

The getRunningTasks method has been truncated in the latest API for Android Lollipop. Do you have any suggestions on an alternative way to do this? prajitdas Nov 11 '14 at
12:59

BTW, on Android 5 you can even get the list of 0 size as a result of getRunningTasks, so get(0) raises the "IndexOutOfBoundsException: Invalid index 0, size is 0". This information
comes from Google Play ANR reporting tool for a published application. Stan Jan 1 '15 at 14:48
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A long press of the HOME key brings up a list of recent (not necessarily running) tasks.
ActivityManager has what you need. Look at getRunningAppProcesses or getRunningTasks.

You can view this information (and much more) by running dumpsys activity via 'adb shell'.

Running processes (most recent first):

App #11: adj=fore /F 43fe7c20 233:com.android.browser/10004 (top-activity)
App #10: adj=bak /B 43dcec80 190:android.process.media/10009 (bg-empty)
App # 9: adj=vis /F 43f495c8 107:com.android.inputmethod.latin/10014 (service)
com.android.inputmethod.latin.LatinIME<=ProcessRecord{43dbe0e8 59:system/1000}
PERS # 8: adj=sys /F 43dbe0e8 59:system/1000 (fixed)
PERS # 7: adj=core /F 43f534c0 111:com.android.phone/1001 (fixed)
App # 6: adj=bak+1/B 43ea1f58 148:android.process.acore/10006 (bg-empty)
App # 5: adj=home /B 43f601c0 114:com.android.launcher/10000 (home)
App # 4: adj=bak+2/B 43f85128 133:com.android.settings/1000 (bg-empty)
App # 3: adj=bak+3/B 43eacae0 223:com.android.music/10029 (bg-empty)
App # 2: adj=bak+4/B 43dfc500 206:com.android.mms/10028 (bg-empty)
App # 1: adj=bak+5/B 43f8fcd0 166:com.android.alarmclock/10025 (bg-empty)
App # 0: adj=bak+6/B 43fcbe50 182:com.android.email/10008 (bg-empty)
PID mappings:
PID #59: ProcessRecord{43dbe0e8 59:system/1000}
PID #107: ProcessRecord{43f495c8 107:com.android.inputmethod.latin/10014}
PID #111: ProcessRecord{43f534c0 111:com.android.phone/1001}
PID #114: ProcessRecord{43f601c0 114:com.android.launcher/10000}
PID #133: ProcessRecord{43f85128 133:com.android.settings/1000}

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Tim Kryger
8,798 3 35 37

Answered
Jul 19 '10 at 7:56

Damian Helme
301 3 17

Edited
Jul 27 '14 at 20:28

i am talking about pro grammatically. UMAR Aug 5 '10 at 13:31

add a comment

You can check the processName of each element in the list to see if it's the process you're looking for. You can use this code

boolean isNamedProcessRunning(String processName){

if (processName == null)
return false;
ActivityManager manager =
(ActivityManager) this.getSystemService(ACTIVITY_SERVICE);
List<RunningAppProcessInfo> processes = manager.getRunningAppProcesses();
for (RunningAppProcessInfo process : processes)
{
if (processName.equals(process.processName))
{
return true;
}
}
return false;
}

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ZuzooVn
3,109 2 27 66

Answered
Apr 27 '11 at 9:11

Spynet
500 1 6 24

Edited
Nov 25 '14 at 10:12

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