Android - How to close app after opening a website

Question

I developed a very simple app which just opens our companies website.

I had to program it in a way, so that it asks the user in which browser he wants to open the website, because WebView is missing some features and has some bugs.

Full code:

package XXX;

import android.annotation.SuppressLint;
import android.content.Intent;
import android.net.Uri;
import android.support.v7.app.AppCompatActivity;
import android.os.Bundle;

public class FullscreenActivity extends AppCompatActivity
{
    public void openWebPage(String url)
    {
        Uri webpage = Uri.parse(url);
        Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW, webpage);
        if (intent.resolveActivity(getPackageManager()) != null) {
            startActivity(intent);
        }
    }

    @SuppressLint("ClickableViewAccessibility")
    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState)
    {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        openWebPage("https://www.example.com");
        finish();   // I also tried: System.exit(0);
    }
}

The user is getting asked which browser he likes the website to be opened with. After that, the browser opens and loads the website.

Problem: The app is still open, even though I need it to get closed at this point.

How can I close the app after it startet the browser?

I tried finish() and even System.exit(0), both failed.

Also when you want to close your app, why are you calling `startActivityForResult()` ? — Vivek Mishra, Nov 04 '19 at 10:12
Perhaps you should try calling `finish()` in onPause/onStop method of the activity before super.onPause/Stop. Have you tried that by any chance? — r2rek, Nov 04 '19 at 10:14
@VivekMishra, im not sure. It was at `startActivity(intent)` previously. — Black, Nov 04 '19 at 10:14
Looks like you don't know it. Android shows the **recent** apps, not open — Vladyslav Matviienko, Nov 04 '19 at 10:17
you basically can't. You can only set your app to not to show in recent apps at all — Vladyslav Matviienko, Nov 04 '19 at 10:17
@VivekMishra, this won't *remove* it from recents, but will **prevent it from appearing there** — Vladyslav Matviienko, Nov 04 '19 at 10:20
@VladyslavMatviienko if it will not appear, then there is no need to worry about removing — Vivek Mishra, Nov 04 '19 at 10:26
@VivekMishra not if he wants it to disappear after the browser is open. — Vladyslav Matviienko, Nov 04 '19 at 10:27
@VladyslavMatviienko but the flag will be added to the activity which will open the browser so it will done before the browser is opened — Vivek Mishra, Nov 04 '19 at 10:50

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 04 '19 at 10:18

3

You can use this flag when starting your activity:

https://developer.android.com/reference/android/content/Intent.html#FLAG_ACTIVITY_EXCLUDE_FROM_RECENTS

This means it will be excluded from the the recents (i.e. when you call finish() it won't appear anywhere else as recently opened).

Other questions:

Remove app from recent apps programmatically

Close application and remove from recent apps/

answered Nov 04 '19 at 10:18

Blundell

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any reason for answering instead of marking as duplicate? – Vladyslav Matviienko Nov 04 '19 at 10:20
1

because the question is worded differently, they may want to clarify etc etc. Always find it a bit ruthless when ppl's questions just get closed straightaway. – Blundell Nov 04 '19 at 10:21
I aggree, you're right. – Vladyslav Matviienko Nov 04 '19 at 10:22

Harikrishnan · Accepted Answer · 2019-11-04T10:27:09.487

Your Activity is finished,it is just showing in recent apps. Doesn't mean it is open. What you need to do it to exclude your activity from recent apps. It is as simple as adding a tag in Manifest file. If you set android:excludeFromRecents="true" like shown below, it will stop the activity from showing up in recent apps list, which is what you are looking for:

<activity
    android:name=".FullscreenActivity"
    android:excludeFromRecents="true" >
    <intent-filter>
        <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />

        <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
    </intent-filter>
</activity>

Android - How to close app after opening a website

2 Answers2