How to choose Android Scheduling Framework
This article shows brief description of frameworks for scheduling tasks and how to choose the best of them when you would like to implement background task.
Android Frameworks for scheduling background tasks
There are several frameworks available to help your app schedule work: AlarmManager, JobScheduler, WorkManager, Firebase JobDispatcher, SyncAdapter, Services. This section provides brief descriptions to them.
AlarmManager
This API is useful in cases in which an app needs to post a notification or set off an alarm at a very specific time.
JobScheduler
JobScheduler is implemented in the platform, which allows it to collect information about jobs that need to run across all apps. This information is used to schedule jobs to run at, or around, the same time. Batching job execution in this fashion allows the device to enter and stay in sleep states longer, preserving battery life. This API is available from Android 5.0 (API level 21).
WorkManager
The function of this API is similar to JobScheduler. Unlike JobScheduler, WorkManager is available in Android 4.0 (API level 14) or higher.
This API chooses the appropriate way to run your task based on such factors as the device API level (API level 14–22: Firebase Dispatcher or AlarmManager + BroadcastReceiver, API level 23+: JobDispatcher ) and the app state.
Firebase JobDispatcher
This is a library for scheduling background jobs in your Android app. It provides a JobScheduler-compatible API that works on all recent versions of Android (API level 14+) that have Google Play services installed.
SyncAdapter
The framework continues to provide the SyncAdapter class for managing tasks that sync data between the device and a server. Sync adapters are designed specifically for syncing data between a device and the cloud. Wherever possible, you should instead use JobScheduler, WorkManager, or FCM because SyncAdapter is more complex to implement than others.
Services
The Services framework allows you to perform long-running operations in the background. Google strongly recommends foreground services for tasks, such as playing music, which need to stay resident for the user. It is recommended to call it in the foreground in the same way as Activity, and since Android 8.0 and later, background execution restriction was entered, even if you try to launch Service in the background it will not start.
How to choose the best of frameworks or libraries for background task
You can select the best one by using the figure below.
