Beginner Help - How to create App that Screencaptures Home Screen, then displays this as Background

[jscotts]

Hello,
I am creating an Android app for a class. (Or trying to, anyway.)
Please note that this is an art class, not a programming class so consequently I know almost nothing about programming and you helping me would not be considered cheating. The assignment is about the concept, not the process.

So I'm trying to create a simple app that when it opens, it takes a screen capture of the home screen, and then sets that screen capture as the app's background.
As an app, this would be confusing and annoying, and that is the whole point of my art project.

I've gotten Android Studio up and running, and I've managed to create an App that says "Hello World", and I'm super proud of this. But this is as far as i've gotten, and as you can see, I'm a bit out of my element.

Any help, or advice, or direction to terminology i should be hunting down would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you for your time!

 

[Deleted User]

Well done getting your first app up and running. It's possible to programmatically take a screen capture, there are some technical details of how to do this, for example this

https://demonuts.com/android-take-screenshot/

But that would take a screen capture of the currently running app, and I guess this isn't what you want.

Are you trying to create a programmatic version of the standard screenshot feature provided by your phone? You know that this can be done by pressing a button combination on the phone, which then saves the screenshot to the phone's photos folder.

 

[jscotts]

Are you trying to create a programmatic version of the standard screenshot feature provided by your phone? You know that this can be done by pressing a button combination on the phone, which then saves the screenshot to the phone's photos folder.

Thank you for your help. I'm looking over that link now.

Yes I realize screenshots are easily done manually. I'm trying to create an app that causes confusion, without being malicious.
The idea was that the app would display a screenshot of the homescreen, so it wouldn't be obvious if you were looking at the app, or the homescreen.
As I said, this is for an Art Theory class. The app itself and the experience it gives the user will be the art project.
It isn't intended to be a useful app.
My original idea was just an app that didn't do anything, (which is certainly something my level of experience could allow) my teacher suggested the screenshot idea, but i didn't realize how complicated this would be. So i'm trying to learn how to do this, thinking that a by-product of this ordeal will be to learn something about app development.

 

[Deleted User]

Well you could do the following:-

1. Take a screenshot of your home screen using the phone's standard mechanism. This would create an image file.
2. You could place that image in the app's resources folder.
3. When run, the app could read that image and set it as the background.

The user would see the standard launcher icons, but be unable interact with them, because it's just an image.
That would certainly create confusion for the user, if nothing else

To get you started, see if you can create a simple app that reads an image file, and sets it as the background.

 

[jscotts]

Well you could do the following:-

1. Take a screenshot of your home screen using the phone's standard mechanism. This would create an image file.
2. You could place that image in the app's resources folder.
3. When run, the app could read that image and set it as the background.

The user would see the standard launcher icons, but be unable interact with them, because it's just an image.
That would certainly create confusion for the user, if nothing else

To get you started, see if you can create a simple app that reads an image file, and sets it as the background.

Oh my god. Of course! That's awesome.
I mean, it's not ideal… (i wanted it to be an image of the user's home screen, but you're right—any home screen would work.) That would totally get the desired effect.
Thank you. Oh wow. I can totally do that. (I think.)

Thank you! LV426. (Oh, i just got that reference! Ha!) Thank you so much!

 

[jscotts]

Hey LV426,
I wanted to thank you again for your excellent idea. I was stuck in a rut, and couldn't think of alternatives and you really sparked me.
I just uploaded my first finished App to the Google Play Store and it's currently "Pending Publication."
I realize it likely won't be approved for being so frivolous, but it was fun, and I learned a great deal about the process. I just wanted to thank you for taking the time to be helpful.
Thank you.

 

[Deleted User]

You're welcome jscotts. Btw coding is a very creative process, and you could argue that software development is almost an art form in some ways.
I hope your app is successful.