On Android API 19 (4.4) the intent.createChooser method causes IntentServiceLeak

Question

Running my app on the new Android KitKat device (API 19, 4.4) I get "Copied to Clipboard" everytime I try to create an Intent chooser. This is happening on Youtube, Tumblr and various other apps on Android KitKat. Looking at the logs I'm seeing the following exception:

com.android.internal.app.ChooserActivity has leaked IntentReceiver com.android.internal.app.ResolverActivity$1@4150aac8

This used to be an issue caused when a device didn't have multiple apps to Intent to (see Why does Intent.createChooser() need a BroadcastReceiver and how to implement?). However, this is not the case on my device. Seems like something is broken in Android API 19.

Answer 1

Here's my workaround solution for this issue. I first detect if the device is running on KIT_KAT or higher, and instead of creating a chooser, I simply try to start the intent. This will cause Android to ask the user which application they want to complete the action with (unless the user already has a default for all ACTION_SEND intents.

Intent sendIntent = new Intent();
sendIntent.setAction(Intent.ACTION_SEND);
sendIntent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_SUBJECT, subject);
sendIntent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_TEXT, message);
sendIntent.setType("text/plain");

if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.KITKAT) {
    // This will open the "Complete action with" dialog if the user doesn't have a default app set.
    context.startActivity(sendIntent);
} else {
    context.startActivity(Intent.createChooser(sendIntent, "Share Via"));
}