How to keep an Android Service running?

Why is it that Android apps like Facebook, Whatsapp and Viber keep running a background service in spite of having the option of push notifications?

  • Answer:

    I was on the Mobile team working on the first version of the Facebook for Android application, among other mobile applications at various companies. I will not answer specifically for the apps listed but in general, especially for messaging apps. The success of a mobile application is that it needs to be immediate in responding when a user interacts, while being aware of the the limitations of bandwidth and latency present in the mobile environment. Mobile applications will often do background fetches to have content that is immediately available when it is brought to the foreground. And for messaging apps, the most important thing is to have a current "buddy list" or list of who is currently active on the network. This often described as presence. Apps will remain running in the background to do periodic updates to the who is on list, such that when a user goes to the app, they have as up to date list of who to message to as possible. it is most likely that the apps listed, run a background service for that purpose since users get testy if they have to wait for a request to update the buddy list.

Charles Wu at Quora Visit the source

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Do you want to click on a notification and then wait for 2 minutes before the app opens up the relevant information? Facebook especially is pretty heavy! If you want to try this out, go to application manager and force stop the apps and check out the time taken in opening up the application once you click on a push notification!

Anonymous

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