Android Service design - start with activity or only when needed?
<p>I'm an android noob that is looking for some advice on how to properly use a service in Android. I am building an app that will connect to a server on the Internet to get a data stream via TCP. That data then needs to get send out to another device that is connected via a bluetooth serial port. I want this to continue to function in the background while the user looks at a different activity.</p>

<p>The app will be a NTRIP client, which pulls real time RTK correction data from the Internet and sends it to a RTK GPS receiver that I connect to via bluetooth. The data rate will be about 500 bytes/second. The user interface is a single button to connect or disconnect the data stream and some text to show status of the GPS receiver. There are also a few settings that will need to be configured by the user such as the IP/port of the server to connect to and the bluetooth device to communicate with.</p>

<p>I think I need to have the main activity spawn a local service, and then have the service spawn a thread for the TCP stream and another thread for the bluetooth connection. Does this sound right?</p>

<p>What is the best model for the service in this scenario?</p>

<p>-Start(bind) the service every time the activity starts, and have the connect/disconnect button send commands to the service to start/stop the threads. If I go this route, the service will continue to run after the user disconnects and goes to another app. The service would need an inactivity timer to terminate itself.</p>

<p>-Start and stop the service when the user presses the connect/disconnect button. The service only runs when data is moving. If I do this, the activity will need to see if the service is running when the activity starts, in order to know if it should bind to the service or tell the user that the link is disconnected.</p>

<p>Thanks.</p>
