Start a background service on boot in Oreo

Question

I have a very specific use case. I need to start a background service that runs a web server on boot in Android 8. Can anyone recommend a way to achieve this? (In Android O).

It seems that you can't start a background service on boot anymore... Is there another way of doing it? JobService or running a foreground service instead? My code works on Android below 8 but it doesn't seems to work on O.

Manifest:

<receiver android:name=".ServiceStarter" android:enabled="true">
    <intent-filter>
        <action android:name="android.intent.action.BOOT_COMPLETED"></action>
    </intent-filter>
</receiver>

ServiceStarter (extends BroadcastReceiver):

@Override
public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {
    HTTPServerService.startService(context);
}

HTTPServerService.startService()

context.startService(new Intent(context, HTTPServerService.class));

I've looked on other similar questions but none seem to answer my specific problem. I appreciate any pointers.

Answer 1

Answer

if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.O) {
    context.startForegroundService(new Intent(context, HTTPServerService.class));
} else {
    context.startService(new Intent(context, HTTPServerService.class));
}

+ permission in AndroidManifest.xml:

<manifest ...>
     ...
     <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.FOREGROUND_SERVICE" />
     ...
     <application ...>
     ...
</manifest>