How to clean the Android Recent App List

Question

I'm looking for a way to clean the android recent app list programmatically. The list which pop up when the "2 superposed boxes" button is pressed.

Has anyone a idea or hint for me, how can I do this ?

The background is, I develop a little app and one requirement is, in "safe mode" the list must be empty. My idea is to clean the list on shutdown.

Thanks, André

It is not possible to remove apps that you do not own from that list — cjds, Aug 03 '15 at 19:54
That sounds like an extremely bad user experience. The user might have important things going on in the running apps. Closing them programmatically is very rude. — StilesCrisis, Aug 03 '15 at 19:56
Why in the world would you want to do this? What's the point? — Kevin Krumwiede, Aug 03 '15 at 19:57
I think you're looking for http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/manifest/activity-element.html#exclude why would you care if other apps are in the recent list as long as yours isn't? — JohanShogun, Aug 03 '15 at 21:20
With Android 5 Apps in the hone screen can be startet in safe mode, that sucks. So i develop a small app which modified the Shortcuts and avoid the launching in Safe Mode. But the Apps can be startet from the recent List. This sucks — Andre Kullmann, Aug 06 '15 at 11:32

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 03 '15 at 20:11

Just for your curiosity yeah its possible, But It's a very bad decision since the user might not want his/her important task to be killed.

List<ApplicationInfo> packages;
    PackageManager pm;
    pm = getPackageManager();
    //get a list of installed apps.
    packages = pm.getInstalledApplications(0);

    ActivityManager mActivityManager = (ActivityManager)context.getSystemService(Context.ACTIVITY_SERVICE);

   for (ApplicationInfo packageInfo : packages) {
        if((packageInfo.flags & ApplicationInfo.FLAG_SYSTEM)==1)continue;
        if(packageInfo.packageName.equals("mypackage")) continue;
        mActivityManager.killBackgroundProcesses(packageInfo.packageName);
   }

While this will kill the apps, I'm not convinced that you'll remove them reliably from the recents list. — JohanShogun, Aug 03 '15 at 21:24
No this doesn't work. The Apps are still in the recent Apps List. — Andre Kullmann, Aug 06 '15 at 11:33

How to clean the Android Recent App List

1 Answers1