Before we define the Android service categorization and dive deeper into each type, we must answer the question of what Android service really is. Well, Android service is a mechanism provided by the Android Framework by which we can move the execution of long running tasks to the background. Android service provides some nice additional features that can make a developer's work more flexible and easier. To explain how it will make our development easier, we will create a service by extending our Journaler application.
Android service is an application component that does not have any UI. It can be started by any Android application component and continue running as long as it's needed, even if we leave our application or kill it.
There are three main types of Android services:
- Foreground
- Background
- Bound