Wanted to draw attention to a new plugin we've created for allowing Android apps to behave as a service on Android (without actually being a service!)
https://github.com/MobileChromeApps/cordova-plugin-background-app We use it as part of our chrome.gcm, chrome.notifications, and chrome.alarms plugins. Under-the-hood, it uses less-well-known Android features to have an Activity start without any visual cues, then have it be able to switch to the foreground through "task reparenting". Crazy stuff, but nice results :)
