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I would like to know Is it possible for me as an android developer to know if the browser app is currently open, and if it is, what page is being viewed? (URL?)

If so, how would I go about doing this? If not, I would also love to know so I wouldn't search anymore.

Thanks, Omri.

Omri
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2 Answers2

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I don't know, is it possible or not, to know if the browser app is currently open.

But, yes, you can get the page that is viewed. That is all the pages searched, browsed or bookmarked. And then, using that url, you can get the page.

Luckily I have done an application to parse html of page in browser.
The code to get the url of last page viewed in browser is:

Cursor c1 = Browser.getAllVisitedUrls(getContentResolver());    
Cursor c2 = Browser.getAllBookmarks(getContentResolver());    
c1.moveToFirst();    
c1.moveToPosition((c1.getCount() - c2.getCount()) - 1);    
String url = c1.getString(0);   
c1.close();   
c2.close();

Url is what you needed.

nrofis
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Hello, I would like to know Is it possible for me as an android developer to know if the browser app is currently open, and if it is, what page is being viewed?

No, that is not possible -- it would be a privacy violation.

CommonsWare
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  • Well, I thought that there might be some permission I could ask for this, but OK, good to know. Thanks A lot! – Omri Dec 19 '10 at 05:36
  • @CommonsWare what if this were to be used within a case study where the users involved consented? – gonzobrains Apr 26 '13 at 22:52
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    @gonzobrains: It's more that it's not strictly technically possible. If you have the right permissions, you can access the `Browser` `ContentProvider`, per the other answer on this question. However, not all browsers use that provider, the proposed algorithm is dubious, and at best that's merely the last page the user viewed. – CommonsWare Apr 26 '13 at 23:01
  • Personally, I'm not after the current web page. I want to log all URLs, so perhaps I'm better of monitoring network traffic in general? – gonzobrains Apr 26 '13 at 23:13
  • @gonzobrains: "I want to log all URLs" -- only what you can get out of `Browser`, or only if the user sets you up as a proxy server. "perhaps I'm better of monitoring network traffic in general?" -- fortunately, in general, this is not possible, for obvious privacy and security reasons, except on rooted devices. – CommonsWare Apr 26 '13 at 23:42