How to Create a Service that Makes App Always Runs In a Background ?

• General

While Developing a Flutter Mobile Application it may happen that we need to perform a separate operation for Foreground and Background. So in this article, we will discuss How to Create a Service that makes App Always Runs In a Background?

How to Create a Service that makes App Always Runs In a Background?

There isn’t a way to do this directly from flutter right now although that may change at some point – see this bug/feature request. You do have a couple of options though.

The first is to use MethodChannels and simply write the android code you want to create a background service (or if you want it to always be a background service you can probably do that without needing communication from the flutter side).

The second is some combination of these two plugins – android_alarm_manager and android_intent. But that won’t help with all use-cases.

Create a New Flutter project.

• Create BroadcastReceiver class beside MainActivity in android dir.
• Change MainActivity.java and main.dart and AndroidManifest.xml like this

MyReceiver

package com.example.flutter_broadcastreceiver_alarmmanager_repeat;
  import android.content.BroadcastReceiver;
  import android.content.Context;
  import android.content.Intent;
  public class MyReceiver extends BroadcastReceiver {
      @Override
      public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {
          MainActivity.callFlutter();
      }
  }

MainActivity will have a code snippet like below:

package com.example.flutter_broadcastreceiver_alarmmanager_repeat;

import android.app.AlarmManager;
import android.app.PendingIntent;
import android.content.Intent;
import android.os.Bundle;
import io.flutter.app.FlutterActivity;
import io.flutter.plugin.common.MethodChannel;
import io.flutter.plugins.GeneratedPluginRegistrant;
import io.flutter.view.FlutterView;

public class MainActivity extends FlutterActivity {

    private PendingIntent pendingIntent;
    private AlarmManager alarmManager;
    private static  FlutterView flutterView;
    private static final String CHANNEL = "com.tarazgroup";

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {

        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        flutterView=getFlutterView();
        GeneratedPluginRegistrant.registerWith(this);

        Intent intent = new Intent(this, MyReceiver.class);
        pendingIntent = PendingIntent.getBroadcast(this, 1019662, intent, 0);
        alarmManager = (AlarmManager) getSystemService(ALARM_SERVICE);
        alarmManager.setInexactRepeating(AlarmManager.RTC_WAKEUP, System.currentTimeMillis(), 1000, pendingIntent);

    }

    @Override
    protected void onDestroy() {
        super.onDestroy();
        alarmManager.cancel(pendingIntent);
    }

    static void callFlutter(){
        MethodChannel methodChannel=new MethodChannel(flutterView, CHANNEL);
        methodChannel.invokeMethod("I say hello every minute!!","");
    }
}

Our Main.dart will have a code snippet like the below:

import 'package:flutter/material.dart';
import 'package:flutter/services.dart';

void main() => runApp(MyApp());

class MyApp extends StatelessWidget {
  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return MaterialApp(
      title: 'Flutter Demo',
      theme: ThemeData(
        primarySwatch: Colors.blue,
      ),
      home: MyHomePage(),
    );
  }
}

class MyHomePage extends StatefulWidget {
  MyHomePage({Key key}) : super(key: key);

  @override
  _MyHomePageState createState() => _MyHomePageState();
}

class _MyHomePageState extends State<MyHomePage> {

  static const methodChannel = const MethodChannel('com.tarazgroup');

  _MyHomePageState() {
    methodChannel.setMethodCallHandler((call) {
      print(call.method);
    });
  }

  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return Scaffold(
      appBar: AppBar(
      ),
      body: Container()
    );
  }
}

We also need to make changes in AndroidManifest.xml like the below:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    package="com.example.flutter_broadcastreceiver_alarmmanager_repeat">

    <application
        android:name="io.flutter.app.FlutterApplication"
        android:icon="@mipmap/ic_launcher"
        android:label="flutter_broadcastreceiver_alarmmanager_repeat">
        <activity
            android:name=".MainActivity"
            android:configChanges="orientation|keyboardHidden|keyboard|screenSize|locale|layoutDirection|fontScale|screenLayout|density|uiMode"
            android:hardwareAccelerated="true"
            android:launchMode="singleTop"
            android:theme="@style/LaunchTheme"
            android:windowSoftInputMode="adjustResize">

            <meta-data
                android:name="io.flutter.app.android.SplashScreenUntilFirstFrame"
                android:value="true" />

            <intent-filter>
                <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />

                <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
            </intent-filter>
        </activity>

        <receiver android:name=".MyReceiver"></receiver>

    </application>

</manifest>

There is also a plugin called background_fetch

Background Fetch is a very simple plugin that will awaken an app in the background about every 15 minutes, providing a short period of background running-time. This plugin will execute your provided callbackFn whenever a background-fetch event occurs.

Conclusion:

In this article, We have been through How to create a service that makes the app always runs in a background?

Keep Learning !!! Keep Fluttering !!!

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Written by Nirali Patel

Nirali Patel is a dedicated Flutter developer with over two years of experience, specializing in creating seamless mobile applications using Dart. With a passion for crafting user-centric solutions, Nirali combines technical proficiency with innovative thinking to push the boundaries of mobile app development.