Home/ Questions/Q 5846085
In Process

The Archive Base Latest Questions

Editorial Team
  • 0
Asked: 2026-05-22T12:31:37+00:00

Take the Gmail app as an example. Whether the phone is on or not,

  • 0

Take the Gmail app as an example. Whether the phone is on or not, it polls every 10 minutes or so to download new emails which may have arrived since you last checked.

I know how to create a new service and bind to it. But I can see a few ways to accomplish this:

  • Bind once, and have the service run in an infinite loop, sleeping for 10 minutes between each loop
  • Bind and unbind right when it’s done, scheduling the next bind somehow in 10 minutes
  • Using the AlarmManager class to schedule future polls

What are the trade offs? How does the Gmail app accomplish it?

Thanks!

Share

Leave an answer

You must login to add an answer.

Need An Account,

1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    Gmail app uses pushing, not polling. I suggest using this technique instead, polling is a battery killer in mobile devices.

    To implement pushing, take a look at C2DM.

    If you still want to poll, the recommended way would be to set up a periodic alarm in the AlarmManager.

    UPDATE: Google has deprecated C2DM and replaced it with Google Cloud Messaging (GCM)

    UPDATE: Google has deprecated GCM and replaced it with
    Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM)

    • 0