Awareness API & Android O using BroadcastReceiver

Introduction

Android O introduced the Awareness API, a powerful tool for creating contextual experiences based on user’s environment. This API leverages various sensors and data sources to provide insights like location, weather, activity, and more. BroadcastReceiver plays a crucial role in receiving real-time updates from the Awareness API.

Understanding Awareness API

What is Awareness API?

The Awareness API provides access to contextual information about the user’s environment and behavior. It offers a set of APIs to obtain data like:

• Location: Current location and recent movement history
• Weather: Current weather conditions
• Activity: User’s activity, such as walking, running, or driving
• Time: Current time and date
• Place: User’s current place, like home, work, or a specific location

How does Awareness API work?

The Awareness API uses a combination of sensors, Google’s location services, and other data sources to collect information. It utilizes a background service to constantly monitor and update the data. This data is then accessible through the API.

Using BroadcastReceiver with Awareness API

Creating a BroadcastReceiver

A BroadcastReceiver is a component that listens for system-wide events. To receive updates from the Awareness API, we need to create a BroadcastReceiver that listens to specific intents.

public class AwarenessReceiver extends BroadcastReceiver {
  @Override
  public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {
    // Get the Awareness data from the intent
    AwarenessData awarenessData = intent.getParcelableExtra(Awareness.EXTRA_DATA);

    // Process the data based on the intent action
    if (intent.getAction().equals(Awareness.ACTION_AWARENESS_API_UPDATE)) {
      // Handle awareness data updates
      // Example:
      // Location location = awarenessData.getLocation();
      // ...
    } else if (intent.getAction().equals(Awareness.ACTION_AWARENESS_API_ERROR)) {
      // Handle errors in retrieving awareness data
    }
  }
}

Registering the BroadcastReceiver

We need to register the BroadcastReceiver in the AndroidManifest.xml file to make it active and receive updates from the Awareness API.

<receiver android:name=".AwarenessReceiver">
  <intent-filter>
    <action android:name="com.google.android.awareness.ACTION_AWARENESS_API_UPDATE" />
    <action android:name="com.google.android.awareness.ACTION_AWARENESS_API_ERROR" />
  </intent-filter>
</receiver>

Requesting Awareness Updates

We can request specific awareness data by using the Awareness API methods.

// Request location updates
Awareness.SnapshotApi.getLocation(context)
    .addOnSuccessListener(location -> {
      // Handle location data
    })
    .addOnFailureListener(exception -> {
      // Handle errors
    });

// Request weather updates
Awareness.SnapshotApi.getWeather(context)
    .addOnSuccessListener(weather -> {
      // Handle weather data
    })
    .addOnFailureListener(exception -> {
      // Handle errors
    });

Example: Displaying User’s Current Location

This example demonstrates how to display the user’s current location using Awareness API and a BroadcastReceiver.

Code

package com.example.awarenessapp;

import android.content.BroadcastReceiver;
import android.content.Context;
import android.content.Intent;
import android.location.Location;
import android.widget.TextView;
import com.google.android.gms.awareness.Awareness;
import com.google.android.gms.awareness.snapshot.LocationResult;

public class AwarenessReceiver extends BroadcastReceiver {
  private TextView locationTextView;

  @Override
  public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {
    if (intent.getAction().equals(Awareness.ACTION_AWARENESS_API_UPDATE)) {
      LocationResult locationResult = intent.getParcelableExtra(Awareness.EXTRA_DATA);
      Location location = locationResult.getLocation();
      if (location != null) {
        locationTextView.setText("Current Location: " + location.getLatitude() + ", " + location.getLongitude());
      }
    }
  }

  // ... Other methods for setting locationTextView ...
}

Output

The output will display the user’s current latitude and longitude in the TextView.

Current Location: 40.7128, -74.0060

Conclusion

The Awareness API is a powerful tool for developers who want to create context-aware Android applications. Using BroadcastReceiver, we can efficiently receive real-time updates from the Awareness API, providing users with personalized and engaging experiences based on their surroundings.