Question

I found the following function in package android.app.ActivityManager.

public static boolean isUserAMonkey ()

The reference describes:

public static boolean isUserAMonkey () Since: API Level 8

Returns "true" if the user interface is currently being messed with by a monkey.

I was shocked by this strange function. And have a few questions.

• What does this (user interface is currently being messed with by a
  monkey) mean?

• What is the practical use of this function?

• Why do they use isUserAMonkey for the function name?

Answer 1

This method is for checking whether the current user is a test user by some automatic testing, called ‘monkey’ by Android devs.