This small library can get a list of running apps and does not require any permissions.

Android 5.0+ killed getRunningTasks(int) and getRunningAppProcesses(). Both of those methods are now deprecated and only return your application process. You can get a list of running apps using UsageStatsManager, however, this requires your users to grant your application a special permission in Settings. It has been reported that some OEMs have removed this preference.

Google has significantly restricted access to /proc in Android Nougat. This library will not work on Android 7.0. Please star this issue. To get a list of running processes on Android Nougat you will need to use UsageStatsManager or have root access. Really Google?

Get a list of running apps:

List<AndroidAppProcess> processes = AndroidProcesses.getRunningAppProcesses();

Get some information about a process:

AndroidAppProcess process = processes.get(location);
String processName = process.name;

Stat stat = process.stat();
int pid = stat.getPid();
int parentProcessId = stat.ppid();
long startTime = stat.stime();
int policy = stat.policy();
char state = stat.state();

Statm statm = process.statm();
long totalSizeOfProcess = statm.getSize();
long residentSetSize = statm.getResidentSetSize();

PackageInfo packageInfo = process.getPackageInfo(context, 0);
String appName = packageInfo.applicationInfo.loadLabel(pm).toString();

Check if your app is in the foreground:

if (AndroidProcesses.isMyProcessInTheForeground()) {
  // do stuff
}

Get a list of application processes that are running on the device:

List<ActivityManager.RunningAppProcessInfo> processes = AndroidProcesses.getRunningAppProcessInfo(ctx);

• System apps will not be included on some Android versions because they have a higher SELinux context.
• This is not a full replacement of getRunningAppProcesses(). The library does not provide a processes' pkgList, lru, or importance.
• This is currently not working on the N developer preview.

Download the latest AAR or grab via Gradle:

compile 'com.jaredrummler:android-processes:1.0.8'

or Maven:

<dependency>
  <groupId>com.jaredrummler</groupId>
  <artifactId>android-processes</artifactId>
  <version>1.0.8</version>
  <type>aar</type>
</dependency>

Copyright (C) 2015 Jared Rummler

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
You may obtain a copy of the License at

   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
limitations under the License.