Launch Android application without main Activity and start Service on launching application

Question

I have the following scenario in my application   There is no UI in my application  instead there is a Service which starts on boot up and will continuously run   How can I configure my manifest file without a main Activity  Can I launch my app without any Activity  And on launching my app  my Service should start  Is this possible   I don t want to make a translucent Activity to start the Service

User · Accepted Answer

You said you didn t want to use a translucent Activity  but that seems to be the best way to do this    In your Manifest  set the Activity theme to Theme Translucent NoTitleBar  Don t bother with a layout for your Activity  and don t call setContentView    In your Activity s onCreate    start your Service with startService    Exit the Activity with finish   once you ve started the Service    In other words  your Activity doesn t have to be visible  it can simply make sure your Service is running and then exit  which sounds like what you want   I would highly recommend showing at least a Toast notification indicating to the user that you are launching the Service  or that it is already running   It is very bad user experience to have a launcher icon that appears to do nothing when you press it

User · Answer

Android Studio Version 2 3  You can create a Service without a Main Activity by following a few easy steps  You ll be able to install this app through Android Studio and debug it like a normal app   First  create a project in Android Studio without an activity  Then create your Service class and add the service to your AndroidManifest xml     lt application android allowBackup  true      android label   string app name      android icon   mipmap ic launcher      android roundIcon   mipmap ic launcher round      android supportsRtl  true      android theme   style AppTheme  gt       lt service android name  com whatever myservice MyService  gt           lt intent-filter gt               lt action android name  com whatever myservice MyService    gt           lt  intent-filter gt       lt  service gt   lt  application gt      Now  in the drop down next to the  Run  button green arrow   go to  edit configurations  and within the  Launch Options  choose  Nothing   This will allow you to install your Service without Android Studio complaining about not having a Main Activity   Once installed  the service will NOT be running but you will be able to start it with this adb shell command     am startservice -n com whatever myservice  MyService   Can check it s running with     ps   grep whatever   I haven t tried yet but you can likely have Android Studio automatically start the service too  This would be done in that  Edit Configurations  menu

User · Answer

Yes you can do that by just creating a BroadcastReceiver that calls your Service when your Application boots  Here is a complete answer given by me  Android - Start service on boot  If you don t want any icon launcher for you Application you can do that also  just don t create any Activity with   lt intent-filter gt       lt action android name  android intent action MAIN    gt       lt category android name  android intent category LAUNCHER    gt   lt  intent-filter gt    Just declare your Service as declared normally

User · Answer

The reason to make an App with no activity or service could be making a Homescreen Widget app that doesn t need to be started  Once you start a project don t create any activities  After you created the project just hit run  Android studio will say No default activity found  Click Edit Configuration  From the Run menu  and in the Launch option part set the Launch value to Nothing  Then click ok and run the App    Since there is no launcher activity  No app will be show in the Apps menu

[android] Launch Android application without main Activity and start Service on launching application

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