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01 Overview
Orbit is an Android app designed to help users understand their application usage and device activity. It collects app usage history through Android's UsageStatsManager and presents the information in a clean, simple interface.
The app provides daily usage insights along with a dedicated Running Apps section that identifies the currently active application and recently used applications using information legitimately exposed by Android.
Orbit is built with a privacy-focused approach. It only displays data that Android reliably exposes to a normal third-party application and intentionally avoids showing unavailable metrics such as per-app CPU usage, per-app RAM usage, or hidden background process information.
02 Challenge
Android places strict restrictions on third-party applications that try to inspect other applications' processes. Building a useful activity monitor without root access, accessibility services, or privileged permissions required careful selection of publicly available Android APIs.
Another challenge was distinguishing genuine system information from data that could only be estimated. Metrics such as per-app CPU and RAM usage were intentionally excluded because modern Android does not reliably expose them to normal applications.
The new Running Apps feature also had to be added without affecting Orbit's existing background usage tracking, local storage, synchronization, and scheduled WorkManager tasks.
03 Solution
Orbit uses UsageStatsManager to detect the most recent foreground application and retrieve recently used application activity. PackageManager provides application names and icons, while Android's standby bucket information is used where available.
A separate native Running Apps module was introduced to keep the new functionality isolated from the existing usage-tracking architecture. The interface refreshes while the Running Apps screen is active and displays only information that can be obtained legitimately.
When Android does not expose a metric, Orbit simply omits it instead of displaying an estimated or fabricated value. This keeps the monitoring experience transparent while respecting Android's security and privacy restrictions.
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