Android O – Old start foreground service still working?

This worked for me.

1. In Activity class, start service using startForegroundService() instead of startService()

    Intent myService = new Intent(this, MyService.class);

    if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.O) {
        startForegroundService(myService);
    } else {
        startService(myService);
    }

2. Now in Service class in onStartCommand() do as following

@Override
public int onStartCommand(Intent intent, int flags, int startId) {
    ......
    if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.O) {

        Notification.Builder builder = new Notification.Builder(this, ANDROID_CHANNEL_ID)
                .setContentTitle(getString(R.string.app_name))
                .setContentText(text)
                .setAutoCancel(true);

        Notification notification = builder.build();
        startForeground(1, notification);

    } else {

        NotificationCompat.Builder builder = new NotificationCompat.Builder(this)
                .setContentTitle(getString(R.string.app_name))
                .setContentText(text)
                .setPriority(NotificationCompat.PRIORITY_DEFAULT)
                .setAutoCancel(true);

        Notification notification = builder.build();

        startForeground(1, notification);
    }
    return START_NOT_STICKY;
}

Note: Using Notification.Builder instead of NotificationCompat.Builder made it work. Only in Notification.Builder you will need to provide Channel ID which is new feature in Android Oreo.

Hope it works!

EDIT:

If you target API level 28 or higher, you need FOREGROUND_SERVICE permission otherwise, your app will crash.

Just add this to the AndroidManifest.xml file.

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.FOREGROUND_SERVICE" />