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androidipcaidl

Can Messenger (lightweight alternative to AIDL) be used for cross-application communication?

A quick question: the Android docs say very clearly that Messenger is an alternative for AIDL for IPC (inter process communication). They never explicitly say though if this extends to processes running in different applications, or just within one app. I strongly suspect the former, but wanted to check.

Thanks! Jan

Solution

  • AIDL is only really used for inter-app IPC. While it is possible to use AIDL for internal communication, it doesn't buy you anything and puts limitations on your Binder implementations.

    Moreover, one application does not have more than one process, in the vast majority of cases. There is little reason for most apps to have multiple processes.

    Messenger, createPendingResult(), ResultReceiver, private broadcast Intents -- all of these are ways for a service to communicate with a client across process boundaries.