Starting the app from Notification remove it from recent app history

Question

I have a problem in one of my apps when I start it from a notification. It never appears in the "recent app" list.

Without notifications, every thing works as expected: I start the app, navigate into and when I quit it (with home button or back button) after that I can go back into it with a long press on home button => ok.

The problem starts when I receive a notification. If I start the app from the notification, it starts the correct screen and I can use the app => ok. But when I quit the app (with home or back button) it do not appears anymore in the "recent app" list. More precisely:

If the app was present in the "recent app" list before launching the app from the notification, it removes it
If the app was not present in the "recent app" list, it does not add it

Below, my original code to add the notification in the status bar:

mNotification = new Notification(R.drawable.ic_notif, message, System.currentTimeMillis());
mNotification.flags |= Notification.FLAG_AUTO_CANCEL;

Intent notificationIntent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW,Uri.parse(link));
notificationIntent.putExtra(...);

PendingIntent contentIntent = PendingIntent.getActivity(context, 0, notificationIntent, 0);
mNotification.setLatestEventInfo(context, context.getString(R.string.app_name), message, contentIntent);
notificationManager.notify(ConfigApp.NOTIFICATION_ID, mNotification);

I tried adding a FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK but it did not help:

Intent notificationIntent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW,Uri.parse(link));
notificationIntent.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);
notificationIntent.putExtra(...);

Manifest declaration of the Activity started by the notification:

<activity
    android:name=".activity.ActivityMessages"
    android:label=""
    android:windowSoftInputMode="stateHidden">
    <intent-filter>
        <action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW" />
        <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
        <data
            android:host="hostapp"
            android:pathPrefix="/prefixapp"
            android:scheme="schemeapp" />
    </intent-filter>
</activity>

Does anyone knows how to keep the app in the "recent app" list after being started form a notification?

What happens if you remove ``? Also, try removing the entier `intent-filter` group. — Cat, Sep 11 '12 at 21:19
@Eric Because I use implicit intents to launch the app from the notification I need to specify a category. If I don't the implicit Pendingintent of the notification do nothing (because it can't find the corresponding Activity) — ol_v_er, Sep 14 '12 at 06:51
@kyogs Unfortunately I didn't. The apps is used by 5k users and nobody complains... — ol_v_er, Sep 16 '13 at 13:59
@ol_v_er I guess I found root of problem. Posted in http://stackoverflow.com/a/26389879/1170154 answer. Just interesting if it solves your problem. — Yuriy, Oct 17 '14 at 17:21

score 8 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 15 '12 at 19:05

Add the action android.intent.action.MAIN and the category android.intent.category.LAUNCHER to the specification of your activity. Having two actions and categories seem like a hack but it's actually supported by Android.

<activity
    android:name=".activity.ActivityMessages"
    android:label=""
    android:windowSoftInputMode="stateHidden">
    <intent-filter>
        <action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW" />
        <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
        <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
        <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
        <data
            android:host="hostapp"
            android:pathPrefix="/prefixapp"
            android:scheme="schemeapp" />
    </intent-filter>
</activity>

That should add it to the recent applications list. The reason is described in the Android developer documentation:

An intent filter of this kind causes an icon and label for the activity to be displayed in the application launcher, giving users a way to launch the activity and to return to the task that it creates any time after it has been launched.

This second ability is important: Users must be able to leave a task and then come back to it later using this activity launcher. For this reason, the two launch modes that mark activities as always initiating a task, "singleTask" and ""singleInstance", should be used only when the activity has an ACTION_MAIN and a CATEGORY_LAUNCHER filter. Imagine, for example, what could happen if the filter is missing: An intent launches a "singleTask" activity, initiating a new task, and the user spends some time working in that task. The user then presses the Home button. The task is now sent to the background and is not visible. Now the user has no way to return to the task, because it is not represented in the application launcher.

I've added the new action and the new category to the manifest => No change. I also tried to change the Intent creation with the following data, not better: `notificationIntent.setAction(Intent.ACTION_MAIN);` `notificationIntent.addCategory(Intent.CATEGORY_LAUNCHER);` `notificationIntent.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);` With that it should start a new task but it's sill not. — ol_v_er, Sep 17 '12 at 15:47
Try to set the `android:launchMode` to `singleTop`. I've read others that tried that and made it work. If not - it might be a bug in Android. — Nicholas, Sep 17 '12 at 18:32
:-( Must be a bug then. Surely one should be able to add it to the recent applications list... — Nicholas, Sep 19 '12 at 08:41
Sorry I couldn't help you figure it out - and thank you very much. — Nicholas, Sep 20 '12 at 11:47

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 18 '12 at 15:45

0

Try adding to the manifest the following:

android:excludeFromRecents = "false"

Good luck, Luis

answered Sep 18 '12 at 15:45

Luis

11,978
3
27
35

It's the default value as specified in the documentation: http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/manifest/activity-element.html#exclude – ol_v_er Sep 19 '12 at 07:07
@ol_v_er I know it's the default, but as you said somehow the application when started from notification is not registering the event in the recents history, so notification could be adding this flag to the starting intent with the value of true, and this test would check if you could overwrite it, if it was the case. Good luck – Luis Sep 21 '12 at 14:33

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Sep 18 '12 at 20:38

You need to use separate Intent Filters for each action/category pair:

<activity
    android:name=".activity.ActivityMessages"
    android:label=""
    android:windowSoftInputMode="stateHidden">
    <intent-filter>
        <action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW" />
        <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
        <data
            android:host="hostapp"
            android:pathPrefix="/prefixapp"
            android:scheme="schemeapp" />
    </intent-filter>
    <intent-filter>
        <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
        <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
        <data
            android:host="hostapp"
            android:pathPrefix="/prefixapp"
            android:scheme="schemeapp" />
    </intent-filter>
</activity>

Even with separating the different intent filters, it does not work — ol_v_er, Sep 19 '12 at 07:32
Hmm... It may need that label attribute set. Have you tried `android:label="@string/app_name"`? — Phil, Sep 19 '12 at 13:40

Yuriy · Answer 4 · 2014-10-15T18:59:27.217

0

I bumped into same issue. The problem was that my activity had android:label="". When I open Activity from the Notification then it replaces root activity in the app task with current one. And Android excludes activities with empty label from Recents (see source code).

To hide title of activity you should use:

getActionBar().setDisplayShowTitleEnabled(false);

edited Oct 15 '14 at 18:59

answered Oct 15 '14 at 18:47

Yuriy

1,466
2
14
30

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Feb 25 '15 at 12:17

Old topic but I discover solution (and I can't find in web anyone), maybe it will be helpful for sb. It doesn't give possibility to set any activity as a parent but I think (not sure) that you can change it programmatically (in OpenFromNotificationActivity) if it is necessary.

In manifest

<activity android:name=".OpenFromNotificationActivity" 
            android:label="@string/label">
            <meta-data
            android:name="android.support.PARENT_ACTIVITY"
            android:value=".StartSplashActivity" />
 </activity>

 <activity android:name=".StartSplashActivity"
            android:label="@string/app_name">
            <intent-filter>
                <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
                <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
            </intent-filter>
 </activity>

Starting the app from Notification remove it from recent app history

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