5

My Android app is playing audio while the app runs in the background with a service that runs as foreground, similar to many other apps such as Google Play Music, Spotify, and other music players / podcast player apps.

Most apps I checked, including Google Play Music, will leave the service running even when the app is cleared from recent. On the other hand, some will stop the audio and close the service (I only found Spotify doing that).

I am wondering what is the right way to handle this? Although most apps leave the service open, it seems that users will expect the audio to stop and the notification to disappear from the status bar together with the app.

Is there a right way here?

Hadas Kaminsky
  • 1,285
  • 1
  • 16
  • 39

6 Answers6

1

You can check this link to see what happens to the process when app is removed from

recents list.

Even if onTaskRemoved() is called, the app is not killed in this case. The service continues to exist. It can be proven by going to the hidden developer menu to check running processes.

You can execute some codes in this callback method, and get the desired behaviour.

nkalra0123
  • 2,281
  • 16
  • 17
  • Thanks for the link, but this doesn't actually answer my question. You can, if you want, stop the service when the app is cleared from recent. By default it won't stop. The question is what's the preferred/right behavior, if there is one. – Hadas Kaminsky Jan 10 '19 at 19:22
1

Since it's a question of opinion, I'm going to give my own as a developer but also a power smartphone user (well, who isn't nowadays):

tl;dr: leave it running

===============================

longer version

The point of using your phone as a music player, is providing you with audio while you're doing other activities, like running, browsing, texting, or even playing music for others connected through a speaker, being the "dj" of your group. You would rarely use a music player as a primary task and I would expect to do that when you're doing something like trying to figure out the lyrics, or watch the videoclip (and hence, you would use YouTube). Thus, it is my belief that your music player should have a separate lifecycle than the rest of your phone activities. Imagine the nightmare of playing music for others and music suddenly stops while you're messing with unrelated stuff on your phone.

However, you have a point when mentioning that "it seems that users will expect the audio to stop and the notification to disappear from the status bar together with the app". I wouldn't get the whole statement as true, rather extract the gist: users want to stop their music app easily.

In that sense, you should make it as easy as possible to stop playback to optimize your user experience. Out of the top of my head, I would imagine the best way of doing that would be a nice "X" button in your notification extended (or even when compact) version. The user then can stop the playback right from the status bar and not have to go through bringing the app to the front.

If you do want to go a step further, you could have an option in your settings to either use a foreground or background service -to make it easier for the user to understand, you could use wording like "stop music when recent apps are cleared", hence delegating the choice to your user, according to their needs. That, of course, would add complexity and too much power to your users so it's up to you to figure out if you need it.

Orestis Gartaganis
  • 586
  • 6
  • 17
  • 1
    Thanks for the comprehensive response! You convinced me that the player should have a separate lifecycle, and that Android users don't necessarily expect the audio to stop in that case, but rather want to stop the music easily, and that this is already achieved by having an "X" button in the notification. I also like very much your "step further" idea! – Hadas Kaminsky Jan 16 '19 at 04:55
1

Leave it running, with a notification.

It's all in the name. According to Android Developers,

"The Recents screen (also referred to as the Overview screen, recent task list, or recent apps) is a system-level UI that lists recently accessed activities and tasks."

Swiping the task away from this list just removes it from the list, not from execution.

Notifications (Certainly under Oreo) are where you let your user know that you still have service(s) running. Use the notification to allow them to re-open the task, and then terminate the service as they see fit.

I.T. Navigate
  • 31
  • 7
1

You are making like music player application, so most of the time user expected that music will be played even if the application is closed from the recent task. Now you are using foreground service so notification will be shown, in this notification you provide STOP button, so the user can stop music from there.

But if you want that your app's background service is stopped after removing from recent task then,

public class CustomService extends Service {

    @Nullable
    @Override
    public IBinder onBind(Intent intent) {
        return null;
    }

    @Override
    public int onStartCommand(Intent intent, int flags, int startId) {
        return super.onStartCommand(intent, flags, startId);
    }

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

    @Override
    public void onTaskRemoved(Intent rootIntent) {
        super.onTaskRemoved(rootIntent);
        //stop service
        stopService(new Intent(this, CustomService.class));
    }

    @Override
    public void onDestroy() {
        super.onDestroy();
        Log.d("CustomService", "Service Destroyed");
    }
}

Now declare service in AndroidMenifest.xml 

<service android:name=".CustomService" android:stopWithTask="false" />

android:stopWithTask="false" will give callback on onTaskRemoved(), so handle stop service over there.

Chandan Sharma
  • 2,803
  • 1
  • 17
  • 25
0

leave the service running when the app is cleared from recent ,user can stop completely the audio and the service in the notification with a button just like this : Here is a picture -> QQ Music

DeHuaLiu
  • 31
  • 5
0
public class OnClearFromRecentService extends Service {

@Override
public IBinder onBind(Intent intent) {
    return null;
}

@Override
public int onStartCommand(Intent intent, int flags, int startId) {
    Log.d("ClearFromRecentService", "Service Started");
    return START_NOT_STICKY;
}

@Override
public void onDestroy() {
    super.onDestroy();
    Log.d("ClearFromRecentService", "Service Destroyed");
}

@Override
public void onTaskRemoved(Intent rootIntent) {
    Log.e("ClearFromRecentService", "END");
    //Code here
    stopSelf();
}
}

Register this service in Manifest.xml like this

<service android:name="com.example.OnClearFromRecentService" android:stopWithTask="false" />

Then start this service on your activity

startService(new Intent(getBaseContext(), OnClearFromRecentService.class));

And now whenever you will clear your app from android recent Then this method onTaskRemoved() will execute.

Praveen
  • 946
  • 6
  • 14