Intentservice And Alarmmanager Communication

Should alarm manager send PendingIntent to IntentService or is it better to send it to a broadcast receiver which then issues startService() targeting the pending intent?

Solution 1:

That depends a bit on whether this is a _WAKEUP alarm or not.

If not, feel free to use a getService()PendingIntent.

If, however, it is a _WAKEUP alarm, not only do you need to use a BroadcastReceiver intermediary, but that BroadcastReceiver must also acquire a WakeLock which the IntentService later releases. The BroadcastReceiver requirement is due to the way AlarmManager handles its own WakeLock. I have wrapped all of this up as a WakefulIntentService to simplify the implementation.