Long running background task, Android

Question

I am parsing all text messages from the device and extracting words from them. For doing this I first used Service , but the issue with it was that it made application slower or sometimes I got notification that Application is taking longer to run. Alternative to this I used IntentService . But problem with intent service is that whenever I stopped the application, I couldn't see my service running anymore. Alongside I also have to use Alarm Manager to schedule the things. I am planning to use SyncAdapter for doing both of the things, but I don't think it would be a good option to use it. It would be really helpful if there is a better possible for doing this.

Background task might take upto 5-10 minutes for completion and I am planning to run it in every 12 hours. Though I won't be parsing old messages again. So it won't take longer after first time. The task should not end even when application is closed.

Answer 1

Basically IntentService is apt for background tasks which are not tied to the application lifecycle.

But problem with intent service is that whenever I stopped the application, I couldn't see my service running anymore.

You can send updates to UI from intent service by using:

LocalBroadcastManager : how to use LocalBroadcastManager?

Handler : How to Collect info from IntentService and Update Android UI

Also you might want to see this video: The Zen of IntentService. (Android Performance Patterns)

EDIT :
Forget about using IntentService , it stops as the app stops because it runs on the same process as the app.

Since you want your service to work as a job every 12 hours, you could use a 'Scheduled Service'. You can use JobScheduler or Firebase JobDispatcher API