android: broadcast receiver for screen on and screen off

Question

I was just wondering if it is possible to register a broadcast receiver that detects Screen ON/OFF in the application manifest. The reason why I don't like the programmable method is that it requires the app to be running in order to detect such a thing, while: "Applications with Broadcast Receivers registered in the manifest don’t have to be running when the Intent is broadcast for the receivers to execute" (source: Professional Android 2 Application Development book)

My app is actually a lockscreen app which by using the programmable way needs to be running all the time :S

Is there a way around it?

I'm trying the following in the manifest:

<receiver android:name=".MyBroadCastReciever">     <intent-filter>         <action android:name="android.intent.action.SCREEN_OFF"/>         <action android:name="android.intent.action.SCREEN_ON"/>     </intent-filter> </receiver> 

and simple MyBroadCastReciever class:

public class MyBroadCastReciever extends BroadcastReceiver {      @Override     public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {         if (intent.getAction().equals(Intent.ACTION_SCREEN_OFF)) {             Log.i("Check","Screen went OFF");             Toast.makeText(context, "screen OFF",Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();         } else if (intent.getAction().equals(Intent.ACTION_SCREEN_ON)) {             Log.i("Check","Screen went ON");             Toast.makeText(context, "screen ON",Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();         }     } } 

Answer 1

The two actions for screen on and off are:

android.intent.action.SCREEN_OFF android.intent.action.SCREEN_ON 

But if you register a receiver for these broadcasts in a manifest, then the receiver will not receive these broadcasts.

For this problem, you have to create a long running service, which is registering a local broadcast receiver for these intents. If you do this way, then your app will look for screen off only when your service is running which won't irritate user.

PS: start the service in foreground to make it running longer.

A simple code snippet will be something like this:

IntentFilter screenStateFilter = new IntentFilter(); screenStateFilter.addAction(Intent.ACTION_SCREEN_ON); screenStateFilter.addAction(Intent.ACTION_SCREEN_OFF); registerReceiver(mScreenStateReceiver, screenStateFilter); 

Don't forget to unregister the receiver in the Service's onDestroy:

unregisterReceiver(mScreenStateReceiver); 

Just in case for people who are asking why the receiver does not work with the declare broadcasts in manifest for ACTION_SCREEN_ON and ACTION_SCREEN_OFF:

https://developer.android.com/reference/android/content/Intent.html#ACTION_SCREEN_ON https://developer.android.com/reference/android/content/Intent.html#ACTION_SCREEN_OFF

You cannot receive this through components declared in manifests, only by explicitly registering for it with Context.registerReceiver().

This is a protected intent that can only be sent by the system.