Undial — foreground service demonstration

Package com.undial.app · Synergy Software Sol · for Google Play review

If the player above does not start, open the file directly: undial-fgs-demo.mp4 (H.264 baseline, 25s, 1.4 MB)

What the video shows

1. Undial is open. The user has previously chosen which apps to wall off; here that list includes Chrome.
2. Chrome is launched. Undial's foreground service (WatcherService, type specialUse) notices that a user-selected app has come to the foreground and immediately displays the user's own wall over it — “A breath first. What are you here to do?”
3. The user chooses “I have a reason — open it”, the wall steps aside and Chrome opens normally. The user is never locked out; the wall only interrupts.

Why a foreground service is required

The wall has to appear at the moment a walled app is opened, otherwise the feature does nothing. That requires the service to observe foreground-app changes continuously while the user has the feature switched on. A background service or a periodic job cannot react in time and is killed by the system, so the interruption would simply be missed.

Why specialUse and not another type

The work is user-initiated app blocking on the user's own device. It is not location, media playback, media projection, camera, microphone, health, data sync, phone call, or any other defined foreground-service type, so FOREGROUND_SERVICE_SPECIAL_USE is the only applicable declaration.

User control and data

The service runs only after the user turns the feature on and grants Usage Access and Display-over-other-apps, and it stops when the user turns the feature off. A persistent notification is posted for the whole time it runs. Nothing is transmitted — the list of selected apps and everything the service observes stay on the device.

Recorded on a Google Play system image, Android 16 (API 36), from the exact bundle submitted for review. This page exists only to host the demonstration video for policy review.