Disabling "Force Stop" Button in Android

Question

Okay, I'm pretty sure that this is not possible but a client had asked me to do so in one of our Android application we developed for her.

What she had wanted is that if our application is running, and user navigate to:

 Settings > Manage Application > [Our Application]

, the button for "Force Stop" is disabled.

Is this possible? If it is possible, could someone point me out which way I should walk, or if it is not possible, how, using a valid argument based on facts, should I break the news to her.

Update: She just sent me a screenshot that, in her opinion, validates her request that there's an Android application that disables "Force Stop" button. How am I supposed to explain this to her?

Answer 1

How to disable the "Force Stop" button

Short answer: Use the Device Administration API.

How to explain this to my client?

Show this to your client. It is a nice slideshow providing an easy-to-understand overview of the Device Administration API and its uses.

How do I demonstrate that it works?

Yes, back to your job. Use the API link provided above and the Api Demos included in Google's sample collection to figure out how to integrate this into your app.

1. Build the demo and run it on your device.
2. Choose API Demos->App->Device Admin->General->Enable admin.
3. Choose Activate once the Device Administration API prompts you with its enabling screen.
4. Exit the app and attempt to manage the app via your device's settings menu (specifics for this step varies by device).
5. When viewing the Api Demo's "app info" screen, you should see both Force Stop and Uninstall are disabled.

How do I do this in my own app?

Review DeviceAdminSample.java in the Api Demos app for inspiration. You will need the following:

The following code is what brings up the activation screen:

                        // Launch the activity to have the user enable our admin.
                    Intent intent = new Intent(DevicePolicyManager.ACTION_ADD_DEVICE_ADMIN);
                    intent.putExtra(DevicePolicyManager.EXTRA_DEVICE_ADMIN, mDeviceAdminSample);
                    intent.putExtra(DevicePolicyManager.EXTRA_ADD_EXPLANATION,
                            mActivity.getString(R.string.add_admin_extra_app_text));
                    startActivityForResult(intent, REQUEST_CODE_ENABLE_ADMIN);

However, there are a few other pieces you will need to get this to work:

1. A broadcast receiver that derives from DeviceAdminReceiver.
2. Entries in your manifest file that refer to the above broadcast receiver.
3. Permissions in your manifest for using the Device Administrator API.
4. An xml file stating what policies your app can access.

All of this can be found in the above links. Good luck with your client!

Answer 2

This is not remotely possible, for great reason.

You should tell her that making this possible would be a huge security disaster. Imagine what would happen if you could create apps which just ate at your processor time by holding a wake lock, and you couldn't kill them. This would be horrible.

In general, if you're wondering if you can modify the "extra-app" behavior of the device, the answer is usually *no*. You should take the viewpoint that nothing on the device is yours to control besides your app and (to a limited extent) the resources to which you're granted access.

No other app has this kind of control, so it's not reasonable to expect that your client's would either. However, the fact that she's asking for this control usually implies something else: that they are worried the user will stop the app and then something bad will happen (the locations will stop being synced, data will stop being sent out to the net, etc...). This would imply that you should look into improving the resilience of the app to different situations. Remember, your app can even be killed off at any time by Android (for example, in the case of low memory).