AccessibilityService is started but does not receive AccessibilityEvents on JellyBean

Question

I have a AccessibilityService that shall read out any incoming notification. It does work fine with ICS and below, but stopped working with JB.

Below are the Manifest and the code:

<service
        android:name=".Services.InstantMessengerJb"
        android:enabled="@bool/is_post_jb"
        android:permission="android.permission.BIND_ACCESSIBILITY_SERVICE"
        tools:ignore="ExportedService" >
        <meta-data
            android:name="android.accessibilityservice"
            android:resource="@xml/accessibility_service_config" />

        <intent-filter>
            <action android:name="android.accessibilityservice.AccessibilityService" />
        </intent-filter>
    </service>

---

@Override
public void onAccessibilityEvent(AccessibilityEvent event) {
    SettingsClass.logMe(tag, "New event!");
    new AccessibilityProcessing(this, event);
}

@Override
protected void onServiceConnected() {
    if (isInit) {
        return;
    }
    SettingsClass.logMe(tag, "We are connected!");
    AccessibilityServiceInfo info = new AccessibilityServiceInfo();
    info.eventTypes = AccessibilityEvent.TYPE_NOTIFICATION_STATE_CHANGED;
    info.feedbackType = AccessibilityServiceInfo.FEEDBACK_SPOKEN;
    setServiceInfo(info);
    isInit = true;
}

As said before it does work on all preJB-Devices like a charm, however on JB the service starts (I get the "We are connected"), but not a single event is fired.

Is there anything wrong with the code?

Answer 1

This is the way I got it to work:

1. Subclass the service class so there are 2 versions of it.

2. Have a bools.xml file in the res/values directory and also one in the res/values-v16 directory

3. Have a is_jelly_bean boolean set to true in v16 and a is_not_jelly_bean in the res/values directory version

4. In the manifest have something like this

   <service android:name=".service.MainRunningService" android:enabled="@bool/is_jelly_bean"
       android:permission="android.permission.BIND_ACCESSIBILITY_SERVICE">
       <intent-filter >
            <action android:name="android.accessibilityservice.AccessibilityService" />
       </intent-filter>
   
       <meta-data
           android:name="android.accessibilityservice"
           android:resource="@xml/accessibilityservice" />
   </service>
   
   <service android:name=".service.MainRunningServicePreJellyBean" 
       android:enabled="@bool/is_not_jelly_bean">
       <intent-filter >
           <action android:name="android.accessibilityservice.AccessibilityService" />
       </intent-filter>
   
       <meta-data
           android:name="android.accessibilityservice"
           android:resource="@xml/accessibilityservice" />
   </service>
   

Have an accessibility service xml file in the res/xml directory call accessibilityservice.xml

In it have something like this:

<accessibility-service xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:accessibilityEventTypes="typeNotificationStateChanged"
android:accessibilityFeedbackType="feedbackSpoken"
android:notificationTimeout="100"
android:description="@string/description_that_shows_on_the_accessibility_page" />

Answer 2

I experienced this problem in Android 4.1.1. The accessibility service didn't receive events until I disabled and re-enabled the accessibility service.

To fix the problem, I defined the accessibility service parameters in both setServiceInfo() and accessibilityservice.xml.

In my case, there was no need to define two different Android-version-dependent accessibility services.