Starting your app on boot
the BEST way to accomplish this is setting your app as the launcher
<activity ...
android:launchMode="singleInstance"
android:windowActionBar="false">
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.HOME" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
</intent-filter>
</activity>
Locking your app
the most reliable way is to use a device with Lollipop or greater and make use of
startLockTask
first you must set your app as the device owner. NB your device must be unprovisioned: if you registered it you should do a factory reset and skip the account registration.
to be able to register your app you must first setup a DeviceAdminReceiver component:
package com.example.myapp;
public class MyDeviceAdminReceiver extends android.app.admin.DeviceAdminReceiver {
@Override
public void onEnabled(Context context, Intent intent) {
Toast.makeText(context, "Device admin permission received", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
}
@Override
public CharSequence onDisableRequested(Context context, Intent intent) {
return "are you sure?";
}
@Override
public void onDisabled(Context context, Intent intent) {
Toast.makeText(context, "Device admin permission revoked", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
}
@Override
public void onLockTaskModeExiting(Context context, Intent intent) {
// here you must re-lock your app. make your activity know of this event and make it call startLockTask again!
}
}
once you have an unprovisioned device you can launch the following command from adb (no root required)
adb shell dpm set-device-owner com.example.myapp/.MyDeviceAdminReceiver
to avoid android asking the user permissions to pin your app you must call
setLockTaskPackages
finally!
@Override
public void onResume(){
super.onResume();
DevicePolicyManager mDevicePolicyManager = (DevicePolicyManager) getSystemService(
Context.DEVICE_POLICY_SERVICE);
ComponentName mAdminComponentName = new ComponentName(getApplicationContext(), MyDeviceAdminReceiver.class);
mDevicePolicyManager.setLockTaskPackages(mAdminComponentName, new String[]{getPackageName()});
startLockTask();
}
@Override
public void finish(){
stopLockTask();
super.finish();
}
