How to detect user inactivity in Android

Question

User start my app and logs in.
Selects Session Timeout to be 5 mins.
Does some operations on the app. (all in foreground)
Now User bring Myapp to background and starts some other app.
----> Count down timer starts and logs out user after 5 mins
OR user turns the screen OFF.
----> Count down timer starts and logs out user after 5 mins

I want the same behavior even when the app is in the foreground but user doesn't interact with the app for a long-time say 6-7 mins. Assume the screen is ON all the time. I want to detect kind of user inactivity (No interaction with app even though the app is in the foreground) and kick start my count down timer.

Answer 1

I came up with a solution that I find quite simple based on Fredrik Wallenius's answer. This a base activity class that needs to be extended by all activities.

public class MyBaseActivity extends Activity {      public static final long DISCONNECT_TIMEOUT = 300000; // 5 min = 5 * 60 * 1000 ms       private static Handler disconnectHandler = new Handler(new Handler.Callback() {         @Override         public boolean handleMessage(Message msg) {             // todo             return true;         }     });      private static Runnable disconnectCallback = new Runnable() {         @Override         public void run() {             // Perform any required operation on disconnect         }     };      public void resetDisconnectTimer(){         disconnectHandler.removeCallbacks(disconnectCallback);         disconnectHandler.postDelayed(disconnectCallback, DISCONNECT_TIMEOUT);     }      public void stopDisconnectTimer(){         disconnectHandler.removeCallbacks(disconnectCallback);     }      @Override     public void onUserInteraction(){         resetDisconnectTimer();     }      @Override     public void onResume() {         super.onResume();         resetDisconnectTimer();     }      @Override     public void onStop() {         super.onStop();         stopDisconnectTimer();     } } 

Answer 2

I don't know a way of tracking inactivity but there is a way to track user activity. You can catch a callback called onUserInteraction() in your activities that is called every time the user does any interaction with the application. I'd suggest doing something like this:

@Override public void onUserInteraction(){     MyTimerClass.getInstance().resetTimer(); } 

If your app contains several activities, why not put this method in an abstract super class (extending Activity) and then have all you activities extending it.