One of my apps uses a service, and in the first versions I was getting some complaints about the app not working. So I added an option to make the service a foreground service (default, with a text saying that it was needed for proper operation on some phones but that it might affect battery life). This decreased reliablility complaints somewhat, but working back and forth with a couple of the complainers I found that (I think with lower grade phones and/or loaded with many other service apps) my service was sometimes getting killed by the system in order to conserve resources. A service, even a foreground service has no guarantee of immortality and IMHO needs to be backed up by a periodic alarm. This was my ultimate (so far) fix and seems to have pretty much made everybody happy! On Oct 17, 2013 10:24 AM, "Piren" <gpi...@gmail.com> wrote:
> That's what we think being developers (and google thought when they forced > the icon to show up) ... the users however (well, most of them), have no > idea what they are doing... > > I've had a foreground service running, with it's pretty icon and a text > saying what it is (so users wouldn't be surprised it's there, after all, > they chose to use the service). I've got a whole log of complaints that the > app doesn't work, apparently they used task killers and killed the app > since it always shows up high in the list... they never did 1+1 ... > > Also, i found that it's best not to use Foreground services since the > psychological harm they do seriously outweigh their benefits: Many of the > complains the app got was that it sucks the life of the battery since it's > always running, some complaints even claimed it ruined their batteries (as > in drained them in an hour and now the device doesnt work), a version later > i stopped using it as a foreground service (due to other reasons, yet the > service was still always on), all complaints were gone and people started > praising the app claiming all battery issues were solved... *facepalm* > > Users... they're the worst :-P > > > On Thursday, October 17, 2013 4:09:20 PM UTC+3, Kristopher Micinski wrote: >> >> For example, having a foreground services shows some sort of intent that >> users want the app to be running continuously. If the user force kills an >> app with a foreground service, that just seems dumb, since they should have >> just stopped it using the facilities of that app anyway :-/, but I guess >> none of that use case makes sense anyway. >> >> kris >> >> >> >> On Thu, Oct 17, 2013 at 9:07 AM, Kristopher Micinski <krismi...@gmail.com >> > wrote: >> >>> On Thu, Oct 17, 2013 at 2:57 AM, Piren <gpi...@gmail.com> wrote: >>> >>>> A foreground service is sort of the way you build apps that live >>>>> indefinitely. >>>>> >>>> I wouldn't say that, foreground services die like everything else... >>>> they are persistent little buggers, but it doesn't take much to get rid of >>>> them. Especially for the app-killer-click-happy users that think it helps >>>> their device go faster. >>>> >>> >>> So I should say that they are "morally" how you build services that last >>> indefinitely. Since indefinite services don't really exist, they are as >>> close as you can realistically get.. >>> >>> kris >>> >>> >> >> -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups "Android Developers" group. > To post to this group, send email to android-developers@googlegroups.com > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > android-developers+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Android Developers" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to android-developers+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Developers" group. To post to this group, send email to android-developers@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to android-developers+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Developers" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to android-developers+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
