How to programmatically take a screenshot on Android?

Question

How can I take a screenshot of a selected area of phone-screen not by any program but from code?

Answer 1

Here is the code that allowed my screenshot to be stored on an SD card and used later for whatever your needs are:

First, you need to add a proper permission to save the file:

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE"/>

And this is the code (running in an Activity):

private void takeScreenshot() {
    Date now = new Date();
    android.text.format.DateFormat.format("yyyy-MM-dd_hh:mm:ss", now);

    try {
        // image naming and path  to include sd card  appending name you choose for file
        String mPath = Environment.getExternalStorageDirectory().toString() + "/" + now + ".jpg";

        // create bitmap screen capture
        View v1 = getWindow().getDecorView().getRootView();
        v1.setDrawingCacheEnabled(true);
        Bitmap bitmap = Bitmap.createBitmap(v1.getDrawingCache());
        v1.setDrawingCacheEnabled(false);

        File imageFile = new File(mPath);

        FileOutputStream outputStream = new FileOutputStream(imageFile);
        int quality = 100;
        bitmap.compress(Bitmap.CompressFormat.JPEG, quality, outputStream);
        outputStream.flush();
        outputStream.close();

        openScreenshot(imageFile);
    } catch (Throwable e) {
        // Several error may come out with file handling or DOM
        e.printStackTrace();
    }
}

And this is how you can open the recently generated image:

private void openScreenshot(File imageFile) {
    Intent intent = new Intent();
    intent.setAction(Intent.ACTION_VIEW);
    Uri uri = Uri.fromFile(imageFile);
    intent.setDataAndType(uri, "image/*");
    startActivity(intent);
}

If you want to use this on fragment view then use:

View v1 = getActivity().getWindow().getDecorView().getRootView();

instead of

View v1 = getWindow().getDecorView().getRootView();

on takeScreenshot() function

Note:

This solution doesn't work if your dialog contains a surface view. For details please check the answer to the following question:

Android Take Screenshot of Surface View Shows Black Screen

Answer 2

Call this method, passing in the outer most ViewGroup that you want a screen shot of:

public Bitmap screenShot(View view) {
    Bitmap bitmap = Bitmap.createBitmap(view.getWidth(),
            view.getHeight(), Config.ARGB_8888);
    Canvas canvas = new Canvas(bitmap);
    view.draw(canvas);
    return bitmap;
}

Answer 3

Note: works only for rooted phone

Programmatically, you can run adb shell /system/bin/screencap -p /sdcard/img.png as below

Process sh = Runtime.getRuntime().exec("su", null,null);
OutputStream os = sh.getOutputStream();
os.write(("/system/bin/screencap -p " + "/sdcard/img.png").getBytes("ASCII"));
os.flush();
os.close();
sh.waitFor();    

then read img.png as Bitmap and use as your wish.