Start Activity from Service in Android

Question

Android:

public class LocationService extends Service {

    @Override
    public void onStart(Intent intent, int startId) {
        super.onStart(intent, startId);
        startActivity(new Intent(this, activity.class));
    }
}

I launched this service from Activity

In Activity if condition satisfies start

startService(new Intent(WozzonActivity.this, LocationService.class));

from my LocationService mentioned above could not launch Activity, how can I get context of current running Activity in service class?

score 368 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 30 '22 at 04:20

368

From inside the Service class:

Intent dialogIntent = new Intent(this, MyActivity.class);
dialogIntent.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);
startActivity(dialogIntent);

But, this does not work from Android 10+ due to battery optimisation restrictions

edited Apr 30 '22 at 04:20

Sambhav. K

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answered Aug 31 '10 at 09:57

d-man

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Only the FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK is needed since only activities may start activities without it. 'this' can be used in place of getBaseContext and getApplication since the service has its own context. – Sojurn Dec 26 '13 at 14:37
1

How to programmatically remove that activity from recent screen list? – Prashanth Debbadwar Nov 02 '15 at 10:41
2

Does not work if the service is on background. Any fix for this? – Rick Royd Aban Jul 21 '16 at 09:28
4

Please help me for open application from background service I have use Firebase (FCM) service. I want to open My Calling UI screen from My App So please help me for that – Dipanki Jadav Oct 20 '16 at 09:31
Appears to only be needed for Marshmallow and below. – Farid Z Aug 02 '18 at 18:51
You only need to add a flag for android v9 + – Vimukthi Sineth Dec 04 '19 at 14:07
Have you got any solution for this @DipankiJadav – Aravindhan Gs Dec 27 '19 at 07:44
Have you got any solution for this @Rick Royd Aban – Aravindhan Gs Dec 27 '19 at 07:49
3

I have write your code inside my service when the app is in background, and I see that the service worked on xiaomi mi a2, but not working on xiaomi redmi note 7, can you help my why it's working one device and one is not? – Amjad Omari Mar 27 '20 at 17:54
1

Seems like starting from Android 10, it is not possible to start an activity from inside a background or a foreground service. It might be useful to update this answer since it is the accepted one. – John L. Feb 05 '21 at 04:23
@JohnL. I have edited his answer. You can check It now – Sambhav. K Apr 30 '22 at 04:21

score 20 · Answer 2 · edited May 30 '13 at 13:03

20

I had the same problem, and want to let you know that none of the above worked for me. What worked for me was:

 Intent dialogIntent = new Intent(this, myActivity.class);
 dialogIntent.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);
 this.startActivity(dialogIntent);

and in one my subclasses, stored in a separate file I had to:

public static Service myService;

myService = this;

new SubService(myService);

Intent dialogIntent = new Intent(myService, myActivity.class);
dialogIntent.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);
myService.startActivity(dialogIntent);

All the other answers gave me a nullpointerexception.

edited May 30 '13 at 13:03

Nikhil Agrawal

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answered Dec 20 '12 at 00:08

Andy

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you are storing the Service in a static field, which could lead to memory leakage – Murmel Oct 15 '16 at 08:28
1

startActivity is same this.startActivity! you create an useless instance from your service with is equal normal startActivity, why? – Amir Hossein Ghasemi May 25 '17 at 12:29

José Braz · Answer 3 · 2020-08-25T20:26:02.930

20

UPDATE ANDROID 10 AND HIGHER

Start an activity from service (foreground or background) is no longer allowed.

There are still some restrictions that can be seen in the documentation

https://developer.android.com/guide/components/activities/background-starts

edited Aug 25 '20 at 20:26

answered Jul 31 '20 at 13:15

José Braz

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@RahulBhobe I found this answer helpful, because adding the `SYSTEM_ALERT_WINDOW` (and enabling it in the settings) solved my issue on Android 10. – Daniel F Sep 05 '20 at 07:32
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SYSTEM_ALERT_WINDOW can not be granted in Go Edition devices. – Shrdi Mar 29 '21 at 11:25
@Shrdi, so, do you have any solutions for AndroidGo? – AlexS Aug 12 '21 at 16:45
@AlexS I don't think this can work on Android 10+Go because this is the system limitation. Any feature about this should offer another alternative way or hint, user might not agree this permission as well. – Shrdi Aug 14 '21 at 04:30

score 10 · Answer 4 · answered Aug 08 '11 at 07:45

10

Another thing worth mentioning: while the answer above works just fine when our task is in the background, the only way I could make it work if our task (made of service + some activities) was in the foreground (i.e. one of our activities visible to user) was like this:

    Intent intent = new Intent(storedActivity, MyActivity.class);
    intent.setAction(Intent.ACTION_VIEW);
    intent.setFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);
    intent.setFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_REORDER_TO_FRONT);
    storedActivity.startActivity(intent);

I do not know whether ACTION_VIEW or FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK are of any actual use here. The key to succeeding was

storedActivity.startActivity(intent);

and of course FLAG_ACTIVITY_REORDER_TO_FRONT for not instantiating the activity again. Best of luck!

answered Aug 08 '11 at 07:45

kellogs

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This does not work. All this gives me is the error "Calling startActivity() from outside of an Activity context requires the FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK flag. Is this really what you want?" – Cerin Jul 18 '12 at 00:49
3

This is because the second call to setFlags overrides the first one. This solution should use addFlags, or a single call to set flags that passes Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK && Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_REORDER_TO_FRONT. – Fergusmac Jul 12 '13 at 00:23
8

You don't want to combine flags with &&; you want to use | (a single bar for bitwise or) – Jon Watte Sep 20 '13 at 21:02
Intent intent = new Intent(storedActivity, MyActivity.class); intent.setAction(Intent.ACTION_VIEW); intent.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK); intent.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_REORDER_TO_FRONT); storedActivity.startActivity(intent); – Prakhar Kulshreshtha Oct 03 '17 at 10:49

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Feb 12 '17 at 15:17

1

one cannot use the Context of the Service; was able to get the (package) Context alike:

Intent intent = new Intent(getApplicationContext(), SomeActivity.class);

answered Feb 12 '17 at 15:17

Martin Zeitler

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I think this works only with `FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK` flag – Cerlin Oct 29 '19 at 05:22

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Aug 14 '14 at 13:16

0

Alternately,

You can use your own Application class and call from wherever you needs (especially non-activities).

public class App extends Application {

    protected static Context context = null;

    @Override
    public void onCreate() {
        super.onCreate();
        context = getApplicationContext();
    }

    public static Context getContext() {
        return context;
    }

}

And register your Application class :

<application android:name="yourpackage.App" ...

Then call :

App.getContext();

answered Aug 14 '14 at 13:16

james

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Take care of using a static instance of the context, it can lead severals memor leaks – crgarridos Oct 31 '17 at 11:10
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@crgarridos Nope. This is Application context which is Singleton by its nature and it won't lead to memory leaks – GV_FiQst Oct 09 '18 at 13:07
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I would change the line `context = getApplicationContext();` to `context = this;` – GV_FiQst Oct 09 '18 at 13:08

score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Dec 24 '21 at 15:41

0

You can also use getApplicationContext() method in your Service to run the startActivity() method as written below:

Intent myIntent = new Intent();
myIntent.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);
getApplicationContext().startActivity(myIntent);

answered Dec 24 '21 at 15:41

Suraj Gaur

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score -1 · Answer 8 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:34

-1

If you need to recal an Activity that is in bacgrounde, from your service, I suggest the following link. Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK is not the solution.

https://stackoverflow.com/a/8759867/1127429

edited May 23 '17 at 12:34

Community

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answered Jul 24 '14 at 13:02

GMG

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Start Activity from Service in Android

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