Question

Is there any difference between Android’s Service and a web service? Or both are similar concepts? If I want to connect to an online database from my Android phone then should I use an Android Service or a Web Service?

Answer 1

Android services and webservices are totally different from each other.

1. Android services are used for doing background processing whereas webservices are used to get and send responses from/to a server.
2. Services run in the background whereas webservices are used to get data.
3. Android services are an android internal part whereas a weservice is a concept that we can apply every where eg: in iPhone also in black-Barry or other languages or platforms
4. See here for more information about services and for webservices, see here