Accessibility Service Overlay MVP #329

AdamNiederer · 2022-09-15T02:40:29Z

I'm not going to pretend that this is the finest code I've written, but this should be daily-usable and I want to prevent as much eye-searing as possible among our Android 12 users. This should be in a reasonable state to build upon as well.

It adds a link in the settings to the accessibility services page, and will always use the accessibility service instead of a standard overlay when said service is enabled. It all goes through the existing FilterService, so it should work with all the possible ways one can toggle and set filters.

Good news:

Covers up everything (home screen, notifications, navigation, incl. notches/cutouts) on every API level tested 7/11/12L/13 + 11 IRL device
Appears to work with the scheduling thing
Miraculously fixed the busted vibration motor on my phone (not kidding)

Bad news:

Is not animated (I think this can be added though)
Probably doesn't work with the privileged app monitor (can also probably be added later)
Some stuff is hardcoded b/c I can't seem to get info about cutouts or screen size on the newer API levels (ScreenManager uses a bunch of deprecated stuff)
Didn't bother to make it particularly discoverable; maybe we should add this to the welcome slideshow if we detect you're running Android 12+ at some later point

Resolves #309
Resolves #253
Resolves #252
Resolves #312
Resolves #236 (repro'd + confirmed fixed on Android 11)
Probably Resolves #234
Probably Resolves #277

app/src/main/java/com/jmstudios/redmoon/fragment/SettingsFragment.kt

app/src/main/java/com/jmstudios/redmoon/Overlay.kt

smichel17 · 2022-09-17T13:37:31Z

app/src/main/res/xml/settings.xml

+        <Preference
+            android:key="@string/pref_key_use_accessibility_service"
+            android:title="@string/pref_title_use_accessibility_service"
+            android:summary="@string/pref_summary_use_accessibility_service"
+            >
+            <intent
+                android:action="Settings.ACTION_ACCESSIBILITY_SETTINGS" />
+        </Preference>


I have mixed feelings about adding a setting here, as opposed to making it like our current approach for the overlay permission, where we just request it when the filter is first enabled.

On one hand, I'd prefer to avoid unnecessary preferences, especially since I can't really imagine anyone using Red Moon an Android 12+ and not enabling the accessibility service. (Maybe it should default on, with the "prompt when filter is turned on" flow if the setting is enabled?).

On the other hand, it has always annoyed me that you can't even open Night Screen if your device isn't rooted, so for the longest time I couldn't look at it to compare features. And I suppose some people might want to use Red Moon but not trust it with accessibility permissions.

Overall I lean towards leaving the setting out and just requiring the accessibility service on Android 12+, but I won't insist on it and am happy to be convinced otherwise.

I agree that we should probably make this part of the onboarding process in Android 12+, but I do think there is some utility to the versions between 8 and 12 in being able to choose the method of filtering; This will cover up /everything/, including emergency controls, and I've actually been surprised by how strong a 90% darkness filter can be over the system stuff, even when your eyes are adjusted to full darkness.

This was just the most integrated/not-super-high effort way I could think of to make it discoverable; there's no app-level state involved. It's just a link to the settings page which has a toggle by necessity.

smichel17 · 2022-09-17T14:02:17Z

app/src/main/java/com/jmstudios/redmoon/service/FilterService.kt

+        } else if (isAccessibilityServiceOn(applicationContext)) {
+            EventBus.post(accessibilityServiceCommand(Command.getCommand(intent)))
+            mCurrentAppMonitor.monitoring = Command.getCommand(intent).turnOn && Config.secureSuspend
+            Log.i("$filterIsOn")
+            Command.getCommand(intent).onAnimationStart(this@FilterService)
+            Command.getCommand(intent).onAnimationEnd(this@FilterService)


My first reaction here was, why proxy commands through the regular filter service, when you could modify Command.toggle() to send the event directly (and thus, avoid running two separate services).

But then I thought, now that we have 3 different ways of filtering (normal overlay, accessibility, root), it might be good to keep the shared logic in FilterService and pull out the logic which differs. But I'm not sure — it might be ideal to make them each their own service (or, well, I'm not sure root mode needs a service running at all times at all).

I guess the bottom line is, it would be good to put some thought into what the multiple-filters architecture should actually look like, and I haven't done that yet. But I do worry that we're creating an even messier ball of code to work with in the future (and I kind of regret my getting rid of the Presenter for the filter service back in the day— that architecture was much easier to work in; I was new to coding and just didn't understand it at the time, and got rid of it in a misguided attempt to "simplify" the app by reducing lines of code. Here's what it looked like way back before I touched anything: https://github.com/LibreShift/red-moon/blob/333bf352336c792acbca8237fe33c7d4f19cf679/app/src/main/java/com/jmstudios/redmoon/presenter/ScreenFilterPresenter.java

I've toyed with the idea of moving back in that direction, in as part of fixing #208 but mostly if I were going to spend that amount of time coding, I'd put it into other projects.

My phone isn't rooted, so I'm actually a bit curious as to what the root overlay offers over the accessibility one. I understand that some people have experienced the services getting killed, but I'm pretty sure the accessibility ones are the very last in line (and as such are effectively never killed). Perhaps we could go back down to one true way of filtering once Android 8~11 become fully obsolete.

I took this approach largely because it was the least likely to introduce bugs; I personally really didn't want a -90% night filter coming on while my phone is sitting on the dash of my car with a map pulled up, so I decided to be as conservative as possible with the architecture. I also have some ideas on refactors/improvements I'd like to see done (I was a big fan of Lux back when it used to work, which gave you a unified screen brightness bar from -90% to 100%) but I also have limited bandwidth.

app/src/main/java/com/jmstudios/redmoon/service/AccessibilityFilterService.kt

Uranusek · 2023-07-01T15:03:09Z

Maybe you could merge it now and release as beta only on Github?

AdamNiederer · 2024-02-21T00:36:45Z

I've been using this for the past year or so on my phone and it's worked well. If there's no major blocking issues then I think approving and merging this would be a net benefit.

Uranusek · 2024-02-21T08:22:19Z

Could you add the apk version with your changes here? Then people could install and test it. I tried to compile it myself, but Android Studio throws errors :/

AdamNiederer · 2024-02-23T05:27:41Z

I'm pretty sure the (rightfully-added) anti-scam measures on newer android versions would prevent you from actually testing the accessibility service if I gave you an APK. I did just push a change which fixes the failing APK build, though, which might fix your issue.

Uranusek · 2024-03-08T21:28:25Z

I managed to compile. It works perfectly, thanks a lot! This should definitely be merged.

Commenter25 · 2024-04-11T02:36:23Z

I'm pretty sure the (rightfully-added) anti-scam measures on newer android versions would prevent you from actually testing the accessibility service if I gave you an APK.

Actually, it is still possible to use accessibility services from an APK. It will stop you from doing it the normal way, but if you know where to look, in the app details menu, in a kebab menu in the top right, you can disable this safeguard. So an APK actually would be useful. Assuming you're trustworthy ;D

smichel17

I dropped off the face of the earth a bit, didn't I 🙃

After upgrading to a phone that supports newer versions of Android, I no longer use Red Moon regularly (Android's built in filtering, plus "Extra dim" is enough for me). Thus I'm not really committed to future maintenance. I should update the README to reflect this.
I haven't tried this on any device, only reviewed the code here on GitHub. And tbh I haven't looked that closely; given the above, I don't care strongly about code quality. If someone else wants to take responsibility for un-spaghetti-ing the code base, great! If not-- there are some reports of it working and it doesn't look malicious, so that's good enough for me.
I found some Pending comments of mine from over two years ago. That makes this my longest-ever code review!

I think anything is probably better than nothing, so feel free to address or ignore my comments :)

app/src/main/java/com/jmstudios/redmoon/Overlay.kt

smichel17 · 2022-09-18T14:51:35Z

app/src/main/java/com/jmstudios/redmoon/Overlay.kt

    override fun onOrientationChanged() {
-        updateLayoutParams()


The width/height doesn't need to be updated on rotation?

smichel17 · 2024-12-11T20:39:02Z

app/src/main/java/com/jmstudios/redmoon/fragment/SettingsFragment.kt

@@ -121,6 +114,11 @@ class SettingsFragment : PreferenceFragmentCompat() {
            return@setOnPreferenceChangeListener true
        }

+        accessibilityServicePref.setOnPreferenceClickListener { _ ->
+            startActivity(Intent(Settings.ACTION_ACCESSIBILITY_SETTINGS))


Wouldn't this be called even when disabling the setting?

app/src/main/java/com/jmstudios/redmoon/Overlay.kt

Uranusek · 2025-01-25T11:25:34Z

On Android 14 (LineageOS 21) the app crashes when I turn on filtering :( On Android 11 it worked perfectly. The version without Accessibility Service works. Do you have any ideas?

AdamNiederer · 2025-01-26T23:32:16Z

I've been using it on 14/15 and haven't experienced any crashes, logs would probably be needed to figure out what's going on.

AdamNiederer added 6 commits September 12, 2022 20:58

Add option to use AccessibilityService to create overlay

c60b8b8

Use whether the svc is on in system settings as source of truth

ffa84a9

Make it work with "Next Filter" and pause buttons

cfda618

Update string per testing on Android <=11 :(

47ac3f8

Add accessibility service description and fix the link when it's on

81552b6

Unify LayoutParams and draw over cutouts

70a2f7f

smichel17 reviewed Sep 17, 2022

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app/src/main/java/com/jmstudios/redmoon/fragment/SettingsFragment.kt Outdated Show resolved Hide resolved

smichel17 reviewed Sep 17, 2022

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smichel17 mentioned this pull request Sep 17, 2022

option to auto-restart #310

Open

AdamNiederer added 3 commits September 17, 2022 20:03

Code review feedback & remove unneeded stuff

6e17911

Remove one more unused thing

457fc88

Fix embarrassing typo

f24ae9e

Uranusek approved these changes Jun 7, 2023

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AdamNiederer enabled auto-merge February 21, 2024 00:31

Remove unused and build-blocking test classes

5a9b036

smichel17 approved these changes Dec 11, 2024

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AdamNiederer merged commit 868b22e into LibreShift:master Dec 11, 2024
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Accessibility Service Overlay MVP #329

Accessibility Service Overlay MVP #329

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Accessibility Service Overlay MVP #329

Accessibility Service Overlay MVP #329

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