How to handle running service when app is killed by swiping in android?

Question

I just resolved a similar kind of issue.

Here is what you can do if its just about stopping service when application is killed by swiping from Recent app list.

Inside your Manifest file, keep flag stopWithTask as true for Service. Like:

<service
    android:name="com.myapp.MyService"
    android:stopWithTask="true" />

But as you say you want to unregister listeners and stop notification etc, I would suggest this approach:

1. Inside your Manifest file, keep flag stopWithTask as false for Service. Like:

   <service
       android:name="com.myapp.MyService"
       android:stopWithTask="false" />
   

2. Now in your MyService service, override method onTaskRemoved. (This will be fired only if stopWithTask is set to false).

   public void onTaskRemoved(Intent rootIntent) {
   
       //unregister listeners
       //do any other cleanup if required
   
       //stop service
       stopSelf();  
   }
   

Refer my question for more details, which contains other part of code, too.

Hope this helps.

We need to create a service that would clear the application from recent service

public class ClearService extends Service {

    @Override
    public IBinder onBind(Intent intent) {
        return null;
    }

    @Override
    public int onStartCommand(Intent intent, int flags, int startId) {
        Log.d("ClearService", "Service Started");
        return START_NOT_STICKY;
    }

    @Override
    public void onDestroy() {
        super.onDestroy();
        Log.d("ClearService", "Service Destroyed");
    }

    @Override
    public void onTaskRemoved(Intent rootIntent) {
        Log.e("ClearService", "END");
        //Code here
        stopSelf();
    }
}

2. register this service in manifest.xml

<service android:name="com.package.ClearService" android:stopWithTask="false" />

3. Then start this service on your splash activity

startService(new Intent(getBaseContext(), ClearService.class));

And now whenever you will clear your app from android recent Then this method onTaskRemoved() will execute.

I resolved similar issue. If you want after swiping from recent task and on next launch it to behave properly then follow below steps:-

1) Save process ID in shared preference:

SharedPreferencesUtils.getInstance().putInt(SharedPreferencesUtils.APP_PROCESS_ID, android.os.Process.myPid());

2) When application is launched from launcher after clear from recent task then do:

int previousProcessID = mSharedPreferencesUtils.getInt(SharedPreferencesUtils.APP_PROCESS_ID);

int currentProcessID = android.os.Process.myPid();

if ((previousProcessID == currentProcessID)) {
    // This ensures application not killed yet either by clearing recent or anyway
} else {
    // This ensures application killed either by clearing recent or by anyother means
}

When you press home - onPause and onStop of your Activity is being called, so at this time you have to do all savings and cleanup, because Android platform doesn't further guarantee that onDestroy or any other lifecycle method would be invoked, so the process could be killed without any notification.

ViewModel.onCleared() can be useful, if the goal is to release some resource (perhaps a system running somewhere else on the network) when the user executes a surprise exit by swiping, rather than by pressing the "stop" or button. [This is how I originally arrived at this question].

Application doesn't get a notification, and Activity.onDestroy() gets called for configuration changes such as changes in orientation, so the answer isn't there. But ViewModel.onCleared gets called when the Application is swiped away (as well as when the user backs out of the activity). If the resource you want to use is associated with more than one activity in the stack, you can add reference counts or some other mechanism to decide if ViewModel.onClear should release the resource.

This is yet another of many good reasons to use ViewModel pattern