Question

I’m making an app that use the flashlight of the camera.

I open the camera with :

 Camera cam = Camera.open();

When I start my app, if another app is already using the camera, I get an error :

java.lang.RuntimeException: Fail to connect to camera service

First, is there any way to still use the camera if it has already been opened by another app ?

If it’s not possible, I would like my app to display a message “Camera already in use” instead of crashing.

In this case, how can I detect if the camera is already opened by another app ?

Answer 1

If the camera is in use by another application I don’t believe there is much you can do until that app releases it one way or another. However you can implement a try-catch block to catch the exception:

try {
    Camera cam = Camera.open();
}
catch(RuntimeException exception) {
    Toast.makeText(this, "The camera and flashlight are in use by another app.", Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
    // Exit gracefully
}