Should I use SyncAdapter or AlarmManager to sync critical data with server in 2020?

Question

I have some critical data to be synced with the server every half an hour or so. I tried using WorkManager but turns out that it cannot run reliably even if I have REQUEST_IGNORE_BATTERY_OPTIMIZATIONS . So then I thought I should use AlarmManager, but they wrote in the docs :

This is a case where you might be tempted to use a repeating alarm. But if you own the server that is hosting your app's data, using Google Cloud Messaging (GCM) in conjunction with sync adapter is a better solution than AlarmManager.

So then I went to SyncAdapter docs and they mentioned with a star:

We recommended WorkManager as the recommended solution for most background processing use cases. Please reference the background processing guide to learn which solution works best for you.

I also read in quite a few blog posts that Sync Manager will be phased out or replaced in the near future.

So I am back again with WorkManager. Is it a good idea to use SyncAdapter in 2020?

Answer 1

If you need to have a sync reliably every 30 minutes, use Firebase Cloud Messaging (the evolution of GCM) and use WorkManager to enqueue a Worker that does the actual backup upload when the application on the device receives the message.

If your application is going to be always in the background you can expect that it will drift into having less and less execution time while in the background. Ignoring battery optimization helps in that case.

Here you have the information regarding the different power buckets .

Note This is for stock Android, some OEMs add additional battery optimization that further reduce background tasks. You can see a collection on issues on https://dontkillmyapp.com/