How to have Android Service communicate with Activity

Question

I\'m writing my first Android application and trying to get my head around communication between services and activities. I have a Service that will run in the background an

Answer 1

Using a Messenger is another simple way to communicate between a Service and an Activity.

In the Activity, create a Handler with a corresponding Messenger. This will handle messages from your Service.

class ResponseHandler extends Handler {
    @Override public void handleMessage(Message message) {
            Toast.makeText(this, "message from service",
                    Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
    }
}
Messenger messenger = new Messenger(new ResponseHandler());

The Messenger can be passed to the service by attaching it to a Message:

Message message = Message.obtain(null, MyService.ADD_RESPONSE_HANDLER);
message.replyTo = messenger;
try {
    myService.send(message);
catch (RemoteException e) {
    e.printStackTrace();
}

A full example can be found in the API demos: MessengerService and MessengerServiceActivity. Refer to the full example for how MyService works.