Android application restarts when opened by clicking the application icon

Question

I am new to the Android development world and I've built a simple "Hello World" app. First, activity requests a text. When the "Go" button is clicked, the app launches the second activity displaying the input text.

If I click the HOME button and then click the application icon, the app launches the first activity again but if I press-hold the home button and click the icon from the "Recent apps" bar, it resumes the app where I left.

How do I avoid this?

I need my app to resume even if the launcher icon is clicked.

MainActivity.java,

package com.example.myfirstandroidapp;
import android.app.Activity;
import android.content.Intent;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.view.Menu;
import android.view.View;
import android.widget.EditText;

public class MainActivity extends Activity {
  public final static String EXTRA_MESSAGE = "com.example.myfirstapp.MESSAGE";
  @Override
  protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
  }

  @Override
  public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
    // Inflate the menu; this adds items to the action bar if it is present.
    getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.main, menu);
    return true;
  }
  /** Called when the user clicks the Send button */
  public void sendMessage(View view){
    // Do something in response to button
    Intent intent = new Intent(this, DisplayMessageActivity.class);
    EditText editText = (EditText) findViewById(R.id.txtName);
    String message = editText.getText().toString();
    intent.putExtra(EXTRA_MESSAGE, message);
    startActivity(intent);
  }
}

DisplayActivity.java,

package com.example.myfirstandroidapp;

import android.annotation.TargetApi;
import android.app.Activity;
import android.content.Intent;
import android.os.Build;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.support.v4.app.NavUtils;
import android.view.Menu;
import android.view.MenuItem;
import android.widget.TextView;

public class DisplayMessageActivity extends Activity {

  @Override
  protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

    // Get the message from the intent
    Intent intent = getIntent();
    String message = intent.getStringExtra(MainActivity.EXTRA_MESSAGE);

    // Create the text view
    TextView textView = new TextView(this);
    textView.setTextSize(40);
    textView.setText(message);

    // Set the text view as the activity layout
    setContentView(textView);

    // Show the Up button in the action bar.
    setupActionBar();
  }

  /**
   * Set up the {@link android.app.ActionBar}, if the API is available.
   */
  @TargetApi(Build.VERSION_CODES.HONEYCOMB)
  private void setupActionBar() {
    if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.HONEYCOMB) {
      getActionBar().setDisplayHomeAsUpEnabled(true);
    }
  }

  @Override
  public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
    // Inflate the menu; this adds items to the action bar if it is present.
    getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.display_message, menu);
    return true;
  }

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

  @Override
  public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item) {
    switch (item.getItemId()) {
    case android.R.id.home:
      // This ID represents the Home or Up button. In the case of this
      // activity, the Up button is shown. Use NavUtils to allow users
      // to navigate up one level in the application structure. For
      // more details, see the Navigation pattern on Android Design:
      //
      // http://developer.android.com/design/patterns/navigation.html#up-vs-back
      //
      NavUtils.navigateUpFromSameTask(this);
      return true;
    }
    return super.onOptionsItemSelected(item);
  }


}

activity_main.xml,

    <RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
        xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"
        android:paddingBottom="@dimen/activity_vertical_margin"
        android:paddingLeft="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"
        android:paddingRight="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"
        android:paddingTop="@dimen/activity_vertical_margin"
        tools:context=".MainActivity" >

        <EditText
            android:id="@+id/txtName"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:layout_marginTop="70dp"
            android:ems="10" >

            <requestFocus />
        </EditText>

        <Button
            android:id="@+id/btnGo"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:layout_alignBottom="@+id/txtName"
            android:layout_alignParentRight="true"
            android:onClick="sendMessage"
            android:text="Go!" />

        <TextView
            android:id="@+id/textView1"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:layout_alignLeft="@+id/txtName"
            android:layout_alignParentTop="true"
            android:layout_marginTop="18dp"
            android:text="Please input your name:"
            android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium" />

    </RelativeLayout>

activity_display_message.xml,

<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:paddingBottom="@dimen/activity_vertical_margin"
    android:paddingLeft="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"
    android:paddingRight="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"
    android:paddingTop="@dimen/activity_vertical_margin"
    tools:context=".DisplayMessageActivity" >

    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/textView2"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:text="@string/hello_world" />



</RelativeLayout>

AndroidManifest.xml,

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    package="com.example.myfirstandroidapp"
    android:versionCode="1"
    android:versionName="1.0" >

    <uses-sdk
        android:minSdkVersion="9"
        android:targetSdkVersion="10" />

    <application
        android:allowBackup="true"
        android:icon="@drawable/ic_launcher"
        android:label="@string/app_name"
        android:theme="@style/AppTheme" >
        <activity
            android:name="com.example.myfirstandroidapp.MainActivity"
            android:label="@string/app_name" >
            <intent-filter>
                <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />

                <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
            </intent-filter>
        </activity>
        <activity
            android:name="com.example.myfirstandroidapp.DisplayMessageActivity"
            android:label="@string/title_activity_display_message"
            android:parentActivityName="com.example.myfirstandroidapp.MainActivity" >
            <meta-data
                android:name="android.support.PARENT_ACTIVITY"
                android:value="com.example.myfirstandroidapp.MainActivity" />
        </activity>
    </application>

</manifest>

Answer 1

Problem:

I'm not qualified to say this a bug, but there is a behaviour with release builds when starting the application from the launcher. It seems that instead of resuming the previous Activity, it adds a new Activity on top. There is a related bug report on this topic here.

Solution:

I'm working around this this by closing the Launcher Activity if it's not the root of the task, as a result the previous Activity in that task will be resumed.

if (!isTaskRoot()) {
    finish();
    return;
}