How do I keep a service running, when all activities of an application are viewable. and close the service only when I leave the app?
Is there a way to start a service in one activity of an app and stop that same service in another activity of that same application?
I don`t want that service to continue running when the user leaves the application.
There is really no concept of ‘application’ and leaving it. What happens if open a link from one of your activities, launch the browser to view it, then come back via the back button? Did you really leave the app?
What does your service do? Do activities bind to it? If so, it will be automatically shut down after the last client unbinds. If not, it should shut itself when it has finished doing it’s work (Cf.
IntentService). If it doesn’t fit either of those patterns, maybe you don’t need a service at all, just some background thread(s)?Edit (based on comments below):
For a service running a media player, the usual way is to have an ongoing notification for the service that lets the user bring up an activity to control the service. Or have buttons on the notification in JB to achieve something similar. Additionally, if you make the service a foreground one, that will give it higher priority and it is less likely to be killed if resources are low.