Close application and remove from recent apps/

I based my solution on guest’s above, as well as gilsaints88’s comments below (for Android L compatibility):

Add this activity to your AndroidManifest.xml file:

<activity
    android:name="com.example.ExitActivity"
    android:theme="@android:style/Theme.NoDisplay"
    android:autoRemoveFromRecents="true"/>

Then create a class ExitActivity.java:

public class ExitActivity extends Activity
{
    @Override protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState)
    {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

        if(android.os.Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= 21)
        {
            finishAndRemoveTask();
        }
        else
        {
            finish();
        }
    }

    public static void exitApplication(Context context)
    {
        Intent intent = new Intent(context, ExitActivity.class);

        intent.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK | Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TASK | Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NO_ANIMATION | Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_EXCLUDE_FROM_RECENTS);

        context.startActivity(intent);
    }
}

Then whenever you want to force close your application and remove it from the recent’s list, call:

ExitActivity.exitApplication(context);

This solution works for me instead of declaring android:excludeFromRecents=”true” because I want the user to be able to see the app in the recents list UNTIL the point where my app triggers closing the app programmatically.