How do I get the CURRENT orientation (ActivityInfo.SCREEN_ORIENTATION_*) of an Android device?

Question

I would like to find out the detailed orientation of a device, preferably one of SCREEN_ORIENTATION_LANDSCAPE, SCREEN_ORIENTATION_PORTRAIT, SCREEN_ORIENTATION_REVERSE_LANDSCAPE, SCREEN_ORIENTATION_REVERSE_PORTRAIT from ActivityInfo or equivalent.

Some of the answers here on StackOverflow included

getWindowManager().getDefaultDisplay().getRotation()

but this doesn't really tell me whether the device is in portrait or landscape mode, only how it's turned with reference to its natural position - which in turn can be landscape or portrait in the first place.

getResources().getConfiguration().orientation

returns one of the following three: ORIENTATION_LANDSCAPE, ORIENTATION_PORTRAIT, ORIENTATION_SQUARE, which then doesn't really tell me which way the phone is turned (whether it's upside down or which of the sides it's turned to).

I know I could use the latter in combination with DisplayMetrics to find out the device's natural orientation, but is there really no better way?

Answer 1

I ended up using the following solution:

private int getScreenOrientation() {
    int rotation = getWindowManager().getDefaultDisplay().getRotation();
    DisplayMetrics dm = new DisplayMetrics();
    getWindowManager().getDefaultDisplay().getMetrics(dm);
    int width = dm.widthPixels;
    int height = dm.heightPixels;
    int orientation;
    // if the device's natural orientation is portrait:
    if ((rotation == Surface.ROTATION_0
            || rotation == Surface.ROTATION_180) && height > width ||
        (rotation == Surface.ROTATION_90
            || rotation == Surface.ROTATION_270) && width > height) {
        switch(rotation) {
            case Surface.ROTATION_0:
                orientation = ActivityInfo.SCREEN_ORIENTATION_PORTRAIT;
                break;
            case Surface.ROTATION_90:
                orientation = ActivityInfo.SCREEN_ORIENTATION_LANDSCAPE;
                break;
            case Surface.ROTATION_180:
                orientation =
                    ActivityInfo.SCREEN_ORIENTATION_REVERSE_PORTRAIT;
                break;
            case Surface.ROTATION_270:
                orientation =
                    ActivityInfo.SCREEN_ORIENTATION_REVERSE_LANDSCAPE;
                break;
            default:
                Log.e(TAG, "Unknown screen orientation. Defaulting to " +
                        "portrait.");
                orientation = ActivityInfo.SCREEN_ORIENTATION_PORTRAIT;
                break;              
        }
    }
    // if the device's natural orientation is landscape or if the device
    // is square:
    else {
        switch(rotation) {
            case Surface.ROTATION_0:
                orientation = ActivityInfo.SCREEN_ORIENTATION_LANDSCAPE;
                break;
            case Surface.ROTATION_90:
                orientation = ActivityInfo.SCREEN_ORIENTATION_PORTRAIT;
                break;
            case Surface.ROTATION_180:
                orientation =
                    ActivityInfo.SCREEN_ORIENTATION_REVERSE_LANDSCAPE;
                break;
            case Surface.ROTATION_270:
                orientation =
                    ActivityInfo.SCREEN_ORIENTATION_REVERSE_PORTRAIT;
                break;
            default:
                Log.e(TAG, "Unknown screen orientation. Defaulting to " +
                        "landscape.");
                orientation = ActivityInfo.SCREEN_ORIENTATION_LANDSCAPE;
                break;              
        }
    }

    return orientation;
}

NOTE: Some users (Geltrude and holtaf in the comments below) pointed out that this solution will not work on all devices as the direction of rotation from the natural orientation is not standardized.