Automatically starting Services in Android after booting

To start Services automatically after the Android system starts you can register a BroadcastReceiver to the Android android.intent.action.BOOT_COMPLETED system event.

In the onReceive() method the corresponding BroadcastReceiver would then start the service.

				
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) {
		Intent service = new Intent(context, WordService.class);
		context.startService(service);
	}
}

If you application is installed on the SD card, then it is not available after the android.intent.action.BOOT_COMPLETED event. Register yourself in this case for the android.intent.action.ACTION_EXTERNAL_APPLICATIONS_AVAILABLE event.

Also note that as of Android 3.0 the user needs to have started the application at least once before your application can receive android.intent.action.BOOT_COMPLETED events.

You find more on Services in my Android Service and BroadcastReceiver Tutorial.

I hope this helps. You find me also on Twitter. My Google+ profile can be found Lars Vogels Profile.