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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-18T08:03:48+00:00

My application is essentially a service that is started on boot (by a boot-completed

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My application is essentially a service that is started on boot (by a boot-completed receiver), and should periodically gather data, send it over the network, and go to sleep (probably using AlarmManager). It has no activities – no UI whatsoever.

Is there any reason to spawn an additional thread to perform the application logic?
if not, where should I perform the logic? in the OnStart method?

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  1. Editorial Team

    Is there any reason to spawn an additional thread to perform the application logic?

    Absolutely. Your service will be killed off if it fails to respond within 5-10 seconds. Nothing can tie up the main application thread for that length of time.

    I recommend an IntentService for use with AlarmManager. In particular, if you want the device to stay awake while you are doing whatever it is you are doing, you might consider my WakefulIntentService.

    Also, regarding “no UI whatsoever”, if you plan on distributing this app via the Android Market, please bear in mind that users seem to dislike applications with no UI. They install it, get confused when there is no icon in the launcher, and give you a one-star rating. Even if you do not need a UI for actual operation, you might consider at least having some activity in the launcher, that shows documentation, perhaps a log of work being done, allows adjustment to the frequency of your work, etc.

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