How can you distinguish onPause() due to onNewIntent vs user action in android

Question

If you have set up an activity in android to fire onNewIntent() when it receives intents when in the stopped or paused state. It goes through the following sequence if it receives an intent while running:

onPause() -> onNewIntent() -> onResume()

But if you are paused due to user action you just get onPause().

Now if you want to do something in the case the user hid your app but not in the case you are getting a new background intent. Doing something like for example cancelling a recording only when your app gets hidden, it seems you are screwed.

You wont know until sometime in the future whether you got the onPause because a user hid your app or because of an incoming background intent.

Am I missing something or is this completely broken?

Why don't they just send the onNewIntent callback if you get an intent while running. Rather than the pause, onNewIntent, resume sequence?

Answer 1

If anyone stumbles upon this again - It would not be possible to detect if onPause() was called due to new intent but onResume() can be detected. Just add BUNDLE_KEY_NEW_INTENT_CALLED when onNewIntent() called and then check the flag in onResume() and take required action.

  @Override
    protected void onNewIntent(Intent intent) {
        super.onNewIntent(intent);
        intent.putExtra(BUNDLE_KEY_NEW_INTENT_CALLED, true);
        setIntent(intent);
    }

    @Override
    protected void onResume() {
        super.onResume();
        Intent intent = getIntent();
        boolean isResumedDueToNewIntent = (intent != null && intent.getBooleanExtra(BUNDLE_KEY_NEW_INTENT_CALLED, false));
        if (isResumedDueToNewIntent) {
            actOnNewIntent();
        }
    }