What are the types of services in Android?

Services in Android with Example

Services in Android are a special factor that facilitates an application to run in the related in order to perform long-running operation tasks. The prime aim of a service is to ensure that the application remains active in the background so that the user can operate multiple applications at the similar time. A user-interface is not necessary for android services as it is planned to operate long-running processes without any user involvement. A service can run endlessly in the background even if the application is shut or the user switches to another request. Further, application mechanisms can bind itself to service to transmit out inter-process communication (IPC). There is a major difference between machine services and threads, one must not be disordered between the two. Thread is a feature providing by the Operating system to allow the user to perform actions in the background. While facility is an android component that performs a long-running process about which the user might not be conscious of as it does not have UI.

What are the types of services in Android?

Types of Android Services

1. Foreground Services:

Services that inform the user about its constant operations are named as Foreground Services. Users can cooperate with the service by the notifications provided about the constant task. Such as in transferring a file, the user can keep track of the development in downloading and can also pause and resume the procedure.

2. Background Services:

Background services do not need any user involvement. These services do not inform the user about ongoing background tasks and users also cannot access them. The procedure like schedule syncing of data or storing of data fall under this facility.

3. Bound Services:

This type of android service allows the mechanisms of the application like activity to muddle themselves with it. Bound services achieve their task as long as any application component is bound to it. More than one component is allowed to bind themselves with a facility at a time. In order to bind an application component with a facility bind Service () method is used.

The Life Cycle of Android Services

In android, services have 2 possible tracks to complete its life cycle namely Started and Bounded.

1. Started Service (Unbounded Service):

By following this trail, a service will initiate when an application section calls the start Service () method. Once started, the service can run incessantly in the background even if the component is destroyed which was accountable for the start of the service. Two option are accessible to stop the execution of service:

· By calling stop Service() method,

· The service can stop itself by using stop Self () method.

2. Bounded Service:

It can be preserved as a server in a client-server interface. By following this path, android application mechanisms can send requests to the service and can fetch results. A service is termed as bounded when an application component binds itself with a service by calling bind Service () method. To stop the execution of this service, all the components must unbind themselves from the service by using unbind Service () method.