"Protected Apps" setting on Huawei phones, and how to handle it

Question

I have a Huawei P8 with Android 5.0 that I'm using for testing an app. The app needs to be running in the background, as it tracks BLE regions.

I've discovered that Huawei has built in a "feature" called Protected Apps, that can be accessed from the phone settings (Battery Manager > Protected Apps). This allows elected apps to keep running after the screen is turned off.

Sensibly for Huawei, but unfortunately for me, it looks like it's opt-in, i.e. apps are out by default, and you have to manually put them in. This isn't a showstopper, as I can advise users in an FAQ or printed documentation about the fix, but I recently installed Tinder (for research purposes!), and noticed that it was put in the protected list automatically.

Does anyone know how I can do this for my app? Is it a setting in the manifest? Is it something Huawei has enabled for Tinder because it's a popular app?

Answer 1

There isn't a setting in the manifest, and Huawei has enabled Tinder because it's a popular app. There isn't a way to know if apps are protected.

Anyway I used ifHuaweiAlert() in onCreate() to show an AlertDialog:

private void ifHuaweiAlert() {
    final SharedPreferences settings = getSharedPreferences("ProtectedApps", MODE_PRIVATE);
    final String saveIfSkip = "skipProtectedAppsMessage";
    boolean skipMessage = settings.getBoolean(saveIfSkip, false);
    if (!skipMessage) {
        final SharedPreferences.Editor editor = settings.edit();
        Intent intent = new Intent();
        intent.setClassName("com.huawei.systemmanager", "com.huawei.systemmanager.optimize.process.ProtectActivity");
        if (isCallable(intent)) {
            final AppCompatCheckBox dontShowAgain = new AppCompatCheckBox(this);
            dontShowAgain.setText("Do not show again");
            dontShowAgain.setOnCheckedChangeListener(new CompoundButton.OnCheckedChangeListener() {
                @Override
                public void onCheckedChanged(CompoundButton buttonView, boolean isChecked) {
                    editor.putBoolean(saveIfSkip, isChecked);
                    editor.apply();
                }
            });

            new AlertDialog.Builder(this)
                    .setIcon(android.R.drawable.ic_dialog_alert)
                    .setTitle("Huawei Protected Apps")
                    .setMessage(String.format("%s requires to be enabled in 'Protected Apps' to function properly.%n", getString(R.string.app_name)))
                    .setView(dontShowAgain)
                    .setPositiveButton("Protected Apps", new DialogInterface.OnClickListener() {
                        public void onClick(DialogInterface dialog, int which) {
                            huaweiProtectedApps();
                        }
                    })
                    .setNegativeButton(android.R.string.cancel, null)
                    .show();
        } else {
            editor.putBoolean(saveIfSkip, true);
            editor.apply();
        }
    }
}

private boolean isCallable(Intent intent) {
    List<ResolveInfo> list = getPackageManager().queryIntentActivities(intent,
            PackageManager.MATCH_DEFAULT_ONLY);
    return list.size() > 0;
}

private void huaweiProtectedApps() {
    try {
        String cmd = "am start -n com.huawei.systemmanager/.optimize.process.ProtectActivity";
        if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.JELLY_BEAN_MR1) {
            cmd += " --user " + getUserSerial();
        }
        Runtime.getRuntime().exec(cmd);
    } catch (IOException ignored) {
    }
}

private String getUserSerial() {
    //noinspection ResourceType
    Object userManager = getSystemService("user");
    if (null == userManager) return "";

    try {
        Method myUserHandleMethod = android.os.Process.class.getMethod("myUserHandle", (Class<?>[]) null);
        Object myUserHandle = myUserHandleMethod.invoke(android.os.Process.class, (Object[]) null);
        Method getSerialNumberForUser = userManager.getClass().getMethod("getSerialNumberForUser", myUserHandle.getClass());
        Long userSerial = (Long) getSerialNumberForUser.invoke(userManager, myUserHandle);
        if (userSerial != null) {
            return String.valueOf(userSerial);
        } else {
            return "";
        }
    } catch (NoSuchMethodException | IllegalArgumentException | InvocationTargetException | IllegalAccessException ignored) {
    }
    return "";
}