Creating an Android Service with Phonegap? (Have phonegap app run even when closed)

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No, it is not possible to run Javascript code in the background (at least in my opinion) as a service. Phonegap on Android uses an special activity called Droidgap, which hosts a WebView. This browser control executes the JavaScript. This means that JS execution can only handled inside this activity, regardless if it is visible or not.

The code you linked from Google Groups tries to bind a service developed in Java to the DroidGap activity, so the service is NOT written in JS.

You can have some background activity within your JS code inside your child activity derived from the DroidGap activity. For example have a background thread in your activity, have a JS callback function and let the thread call this callback functionality.

If you really need a service you have to go native.

Update:
JS code can only be executed with the Droidgap activity. An activity can have 3 states (based on the Lifecycle of activites):

  1. visible
  2. invisible but still loaded
  3. not loaded

I provided a sample in which I implemented a Phonegap plugin. The plugin allows the activity to register itself to SMS_RECEIVED. When the activies goes out of scope (event onbeforeunload), it deregisters, so only issue 1 is handled.

When you want all 3 issues handled, you have to forward the incoming SMS intent to the activity. When it is not loaded the system will automatically load and activate the activity. But this is not a background service anymore, your app would become visible whenever a SMS is received.

If you don’t want this (if you really want a background service), you have to provide a native implementation.

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