Android Services Nobody Ever Told You About

Android is the most popular mobile operating system globally, with people worldwide relying on Android devices daily. Despite their pervasiveness within human culture as a whole, Android as an operating system is so vast and complex that most people only know about a fraction of the available features Android phones have to offer.

While some of these are extraneous applications that you can download to improve your experience with the device, many of them are quality of life services that run in the background, keeping your phone running smoothly, and keeping you in control of your own device.

What is Android Services?

Android services are the software aspects of your phone that you don’t see but are running behind the scenes to maintain a positive sense of continuity in your experience with the device.

Two kinds of tasks will run on an Android: Long-running tasks and periodic tasks. As their names imply, long-running tasks are continuous tasks such as data analytics that might continue throughout the day.

Periodic tasks are more situational, like a brief file download. In addition to these, there are four main types of services:

1. A bindservice or bound services, binding a component to a particular activity on your phone.
2. A startservice starts with separate activities and continuously runs in the background until told to stop.
3. An intent service, which handles individual jobs one at a time.
4. A hybrid service, which is a mix of a bound and started service.

These might sound complicated written out like this, but the purpose of Android services is to keep your life simple.

Other android services you hear about are:

• Unbindservice
• Stopservice (stopself)
• Foreground service

Here are some of the existing Android services and resources that have been helping you all along, even if you didn’t know about them.

Types of Android Services

1: THE SYSTEM UPDATE SERVICE

Modern smartphones require that you keep up with the latest OS update if you want to have a phone that runs smoothly. Your Android device will automatically notify you when such an update is available, and clicking on that notification will allow you to download the update and install it on your phone.

As long as your phone is connected to a network, it will continue to receive system updates as they come out.

2: THE SYSTEM WEB VIEW SERVICE

Android Web View is a vital part of your smartphone that allows you to access and display web content. Web View is what keeps you connected to the world around you and lets you use the internet functions of the Android device.

Web View requires regular updates, so make sure you keep an eye out for them so that you don’t have any lapses in network accessibility.

3: THE BATTERY HISTORIAN SERVICE

As a service, the Battery Historian is very useful because it lets you figure out how your device is using your battery. You can use this information to inform your usage habits or just to learn what aspects of your phone take up the most battery.

Battery consumption behaviors provide insight into general phone use behaviors and improve your understanding of your phone and its features.

4: THE APP WIDGET SERVICE

Widgets are a fun and helpful feature where you can embed miniature control applications within other applications, such as the home screen. Important apps can be made accessible from the home screen to simplify the process of navigating your mobile device.

Widgets are customizable, and there are a variety of ways to use and create them.

5: THE BATTERY SERVICE

You wouldn’t know it from your day’s worth of battery time, but Android devices have a ton going on behind the scenes to manage battery usage. Your phone’s behavior is actually going to change based on how full the battery is, managing background tasks based on the power the battery has to offer when unplugged.

Your phone also manages the health of your batter and will notify you if there are any issues in that department.

6: THE ALARM MANAGER SERVICE

The alarm service is how your phone manages apps or functions that are set to be used at a later date. Whenever there is a need for a function of your Android device to be set on a timer for a particular date and time, the alarm service is part of the operating system running the show.

Conclusion

Android devices have a slew of internal services that you can use as a user of one of their products. Third-party apps also improve the functioning of your device.

Burner is an application that allows you to use a second phone number to set boundaries and maintain your privacy and anonymity. Burner is a safe and secure way to separate your work life and home life healthily, with various features built around your data security.

With Burner’s voice and SMS capabilities, you stay in the loop without compromising your privacy. Services like these help manage the phone and your existing network, and it is a good idea to familiarize yourself with them like the ones above.

Start your Burner 7-day free trial today.

Sources:

iOS More Popular in Japan and US, Android Dominates in China and India | PC Mag

Creating Android Services | Android

Android System WebView | Apps on Google Play

Analyze power use with Battery Historian | Android

Create a simple widget | Android

BatteryManager | Android

AlarmManager | Android