How do android "app lock" applications work?

Question

I've tried googling, and looking on stackoverflow as well, but I can't seem to find any satisfying answer as to how the "App lock" applications(eg: ZDBox, App Lock, etc..) work. Is there a service that runs in the background continuously polling to see if the app is launched and tries to kill it? Or is there a way to intercept launch intents for new activities?

score 23 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 15 '11 at 07:54

23

there is a service running in the background to read the activity stack. if find new activity, will start the passwordActivity

answered Dec 15 '11 at 07:54

user930177

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Where can I find more details on this? I wonder how much battery it would eat up if service constantly keeps running in background. – ABDroids Aug 26 '13 at 10:03
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@user930177, according to you, the service is running continuously in the background but can you tell me one thing; there are chances when android kills the serivces itself; in that case what is happenning..??? – Custadian Mar 13 '14 at 18:44
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Thanks for your answer. But I got another problem. After user enters correct password, locked app is open. But the service is running, so password activity starts again. – Phuc Tran Nov 16 '14 at 16:03

score 4 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 13 '12 at 11:42

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they are watching logcat output. whenever you start an activity, you can find specific logcat. like this,

I/ActivityManager(  585): Starting activity: Intent { action=android.intent.action...}

if this logcat printed by locked app, locker service starts password screen.

answered Jan 13 '12 at 11:42

chitacan

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is it possible method..... ??? can u explain this idea... how we can read the log cat of other application??? – Vikky May 14 '13 at 15:23
Logs does not a secret, in Android Studio you can catch all logs – Kirill Shalnov Apr 01 '17 at 13:31
Might this be vulnerable to other apps that use the same tag logging the same data? – SOFe Aug 21 '17 at 09:42

How do android "app lock" applications work?

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