How to determine if an Android Service is running in the foreground?

Question

I have a service which I believe to have running in the foreground, How do I check if my implementation is working?

Answer 1

As of API 26, getRunningService() is deprecated.

One solution now is to bind your Activity to your Service. Then you can call a method of your Service from your Activity, to check if it is running.

1 - In your Service, create a class that extends Binder and returns your Service

  public class LocalBinder extends Binder {
        MyService getService() {
            return MyService.this;
        }
    }

2 - In your Service, declare the binder

private final IBinder binder = new LocalBinder();

3 - In your Service, implement onBind(), which will return the Binder

  @Nullable
    @Override
    public IBinder onBind(Intent intent) {
        return binder;
    }

4 - In your Service, create a method that check if it is running (for example check if variables are initialized)

  public boolean isRunning() {
        // If running
            return true;
        // If not running
            return false;
        
    }

5 - In your Activity, create a variable that holds your Service

private MyService myService;

6 - Now, in your Activity, you can bind to your Service

private void checkIfEnabled() {
    ServiceConnection connection = new ServiceConnection() {

        @Override
        public void onServiceConnected(ComponentName className,
                                       IBinder service) {
            MyService.LocalBinder binder = (MyService.LocalBinder) service;
            myService = binder.getService();
            
            // Calling your service public method
            if(myService.isRunning()) {
                // Your service is enabled
            } else {
                // Your service is disabled
            }
        }

        @Override
        public void onServiceDisconnected(ComponentName arg0) {

        }
    };

    // Bind to MyService
    Intent intent = new Intent(this, MyService.class);
    bindService(intent, connection, Context.BIND_AUTO_CREATE);
}

For more info, check Bound services overview from official documentation.