AppGatekeeper without Google Play
Posted by sky | Tags: Amazon , Android , Java , Mobile , Personal , addiction , appgatekeeper , gae , git , health , testing
In this update, AppGatekeeper now runs without requiring Google Play, and is able to show the Settings "Apps with usage access" screen even if the device hides it from user.
Other changes:
- ACRA crash report backend is changed to android_crash_reports
- fix / catch getCalendarView exception for Android >= 7
- move the "save to database" code (when the service is stopped), to the end of the service thread
- minor fix
Codes to show the "Apps with usage access" Settings screen by specifying the activity name:
intent.setFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);
intent.setComponent(new ComponentName(
"com.android.settings",
"com.android.settings.Settings$UsageAccessSettingsActivity"));
startActivity(intent);
Testing is done on Samsung Galaxy S3 and Nexus 7 and Amazon Fire.
For devices that originally does not come with Google Play (like Amazon Fire), users will still have to install Google Play first, at least to download and install apps that are only released on Google Play. For reference, see AppGatekeeper on Amazon fire.
AppGatekeeper dependency on Google Play is due to using Google Play billing service to allow user to purchase the upgrade.
If user has purchased the upgrade on another device, then user should used the same user account to install AppGatekeeper. When user runs AppGatekeeper with the internet connected, the app will query billing service whether the user has purchased the upgrade. If the answer is positive, the app will be updated to premium version automatically. (The Upgrade menu in navigation dropdown will not be shown thereafter)
Subsequently, if the user wishes, Google Play and its dependencies can be uninstalled from the device. Internally, the app does not change its status if the billing service is not available.
This release fix a bug which crashes the app when the billing service is being set up without Google Play.
Tested on Amazon Fire 7 (with account that has upgraded), Fire HD 8.
App Gatekeeper (version 1.4.0) is released.
Past release:
- Enhance AppGatekeeper service
- Fix scroll recursion on showing edit limit
- Custom keyboard to edit limit
- App Gatekeeper updated to version 1.1 (refer to it for explanation of usage access.)