Create a service inside Thread or Thread inside Service

Question

What is recommended to do for networking job that should fetch and update new data? I see different answers on that issue.

To create a Service that will run inside a new Thread that should make all the network job OR to create a new Thread that will start a Service inside that Thread?

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 02 '14 at 08:11

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You can't make a Service that runs inside a Thread, so that possibility is impossible. You need a Thread (or AsyncTask) to do any network request. If you want the app to continue to do network requests even if the current Activity is finished, then yes you need to create that Thread (or AsyncTask) in a Service.

answered Aug 02 '14 at 08:11

Gabe Sechan

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well technically you can, but lets not be fickle :-) – Blundell Aug 02 '14 at 08:12
Well yes you can call startService in a Thread. But it won't actually cause the onStartCommand to run on that Thread, which is what I meant. – Gabe Sechan Aug 02 '14 at 08:14
And services are ran on the "main thread" :-) , all the things are threads! – Blundell Aug 02 '14 at 08:41

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 02 '14 at 08:16

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In android all The network operations are to be done within a thread. Even if you are creating a service all network operations will be done within a thread. Service within a thread is not possible.

Now if You want your network operations to be available in multiple activities you should create a service otherwise A separate network thread within an activity will do the job.

answered Aug 02 '14 at 08:16

Praveen

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and.... then what about the THread that was created inside the service... is it going to be destroyed if from one Activity he moves to another Activities @user2452587? – gumuruh Aug 20 '14 at 10:51
No, it will Continue to process until network operation Is Completed. – Praveen Aug 25 '14 at 20:51
and... if after the network operation that Thread is trying the components... wouldn't it be in danger? such as Exception will be thrown...? @user2452587 – gumuruh Aug 26 '14 at 01:46
I hope [This](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2633334/application-threads-vs-service-threads) will give you answer to your Question. – Praveen Aug 26 '14 at 09:53
i see... it is depend upon the Service itself... thanks @user2452587 – gumuruh Aug 26 '14 at 15:40

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 02 '14 at 08:35

IntentService initializes on the main thread in onCreate and runs in a separate thread otherwise. No need to deal with extra threads in this case. A Service runs in the main thread and requires that you handle the threading (if needed). It would be best to prototype an IntentService since you're just making a network call. If the network call is short, then just use an AsyncTask.

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Aug 02 '14 at 08:36

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I think you need IntentService. No need to confuse on Service inside Thread. Start Service inside background thread or start a service with background thread .Both are same.

answered Aug 02 '14 at 08:36

Ranjit

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score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Jun 17 '17 at 10:40

It is always better to call thread inside service rather than service inside thread because service is a component of android so it is having some priority level. On the other hand Thread is not a part of Android component so it is having no priority compared to service.

So in case of low memory when Android system starts killing application, it will first kill thread that contains the service because of its lower or no priority. And if you have used Service containing thread then you are good. Hope it helps :)

Create a service inside Thread or Thread inside Service

5 Answers5