A thread certainly does not depend on Activity.
Java Threads do not "die" or do anything else when an activity is
closed, because they have no knowledge of activities and have nothing to
do with Android (as should be apparent by the package name: Thread is
defined in java.lang).
A service does not necessarily use threads, either. By default, a
Service's callbacks are executed on the UI thread, just like Activity
callbacks or BroadcastReceiver callbacks. Not every service is an
IntentService (which does use threads) or creates threads in some other way.
And that's really the difference: a Service is a thing that Android is
aware of, which can be used to various ends.
A service can be started or bound by other components, and/or given a
foreground priority, which affect the process's lifetime, can be
communicated with using Intents or AIDL, possibly by other applications.
Last but not least, a service is visible to the user via the Settings
app. None of this applies to a Java Thread.
On the other hand, plain Threads have their use too, where none of the
above is needed or desired.
-- Kostya
11.04.2011 18:24, luiX_ ?????:
well... I'll say "very little" in common, but that's true: you cannot
do the same with a service and an extra thread as the thread depends
on the main Activity and it "dies" when the Activity does :P
2011/4/11 Mark Murphy <[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>>
On Mon, Apr 11, 2011 at 5:54 AM, Tushar Baviskar
<[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
> What is the need of services in android, as same thing can be
achieved
> by starting new task also?
No, the "same thing" (whatever that is) cannot "be achieved by
starting new task also". Services and tasks have virtually nothing in
common and certainly are not interchangeable.
http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/fundamentals/services.html
--
Mark Murphy (a Commons Guy)
http://commonsware.com | http://github.com/commonsguy
http://commonsware.com/blog | http://twitter.com/commonsguy
_The Busy Coder's Guide to Android Development_ Version 3.6 Available!
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