Android AlarmManager without turning screen on
My application have a realtime module that should ping the server every 60 seconds. Without this, the connection will be dropped and the device will need to reconnect again.
The first attempt was to use a Thread.Sleep to make the pinging thread runs at the desired frequency. The second attempt was to use the ScheduleExecutorService. Both worked very well, but only when the device was charging or with the screen turned on.
After reading a bit, I realized that this behavior happens because the device's processor sleeps and this interferes on the timers. So, the recommendation is to use the AlarmManager...
After start using it, I noticed the my device's screen started to be turned on frequently and I think that this is caused by the alarmmanager that 'wakes the device up'. I searched o bit to see how to use AlarmManager to execute some background actions even if the device is sleeping, without turning the screen on, but nothing was found.
So, there is anyway to use AlarmManager or other approach to accomplish this? Execute a background task even if the device is sleeping, without turning the screen on?
PS1: I know the battery consumption implications due this approach and the request about not turning the screen on is to minimize it's impact.
PS2: The AlarmManager's intent is being consumed by a background service.
Alarm Manager does not turn the screen on. From the docs,
When an alarm goes off, the Intent that had been registered for it is broadcast by the system, automatically starting the target application if it is not already running.
I am using it in my code and it does not turn the screen on unless I explicitly set a wake lock policy that turns it on. Take a look at WakeLock
The last 3 are deprecated as of API level 17.
I recommend you to use a PARTIAL_WAKE_LOCK for your task. or you can take a look at WakefulBroadcastReceiver