title: Is it safe to use Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_MULTIPLE_TASK?
body: <h2>Background</h2>
  
  <p>Let's take the next sceneraio:</p>
  
  <ol>
  <li>the user uses an app X which has multiple activities (like the gmail app).</li>
  <li>after navigating the app X a bit, he goes to your app.</li>
  <li>in your app, you need to start this X app using an intent, to go to a specific activity within it.</li>
  <li>now the user goes to this specific activity on the app X. </li>
  <li>the user presses the back button, hoping to go back to your app instead of staying on the app X.</li>
  </ol>
  
  <p>another similar scenario:</p>
  
  <ol>
  <li>the user navigates on your app between activities.</li>
  <li>your app went to the background (using the home button, for example).</li>
  <li>your app shows a notification that once clicked, it will open a specific activity of your app.</li>
  <li>the user clicks on the notification and goes to the specific activity of your app.</li>
  <li>the user presses the back button, hoping to return to the app that was shown before clicking on the notification, instead of going to the previous activity on your app that was shown the last time it left it.</li>
  </ol>
  
  <p>It seems that the last step on both scenarios isn't the default behavior.</p>
  
  <p>This is why I've searched what is the best combination of flags for this purpose.</p>
  
  <h2>The problem</h2>
  
  <p>It seems that the only flag that can achieve the behavior i've described is <a href="http://developer.android.com/reference/android/content/Intent.html#FLAG_ACTIVITY_MULTIPLE_TASK" rel="noreferrer"><strong>Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_MULTIPLE_TASK</strong></a> (together with <a href="http://developer.android.com/reference/android/content/Intent.html#FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK" rel="noreferrer"><strong>Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK</strong></a>).</p>
  
  <p>According to the android API, however, this flag isn't recommended for normal use:</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>Do not use this flag unless you are implementing your own top-level
    application launcher. 
    ... </p>
    
    <p>Because the default system does not include
    graphical task management, you should not use this flag unless you
    provide some way for a user to return back to the tasks you have
    launched.</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>This information seems as confusing as the rest of the descriptions about intents.</p>
  
  <p>There are other intents flags that I've seen, like <a href="http://developer.android.com/reference/android/content/Intent.html#FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TASK" rel="noreferrer"><strong>Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TASK</strong></a> that achieve a similar result, but they have weird behaviors and/or they use high API </p>
  
  <h2>The question</h2>
  
  <p>Is it safe to use this flag? Are there any good alternatives to it?</p>
  
  <p>What is the danger of using this flag and what is the meaning of the description on the API of using it?</p>