Which is better for repeated user notifications: A series of broadcasts, a started service or a bound service?

I'm currently developing an android application that will repeatedly ask a question to the user in randomly determined time intervals. This means it will wake up the device if nessecary, pop up an Activity, make a sound or vibration and let the user choose one of the options.

The user will be able to turn the series of pop ups on or off. The user will also be able to temporarily turn it off for a self-determined period of time. Lastly the user will be able to specify designated times of the day in which the series of pop ups will turn on or off automatically.

I already know how to schedule Activities and BroadcastReceivers with AlarmManager. I also know how to wake the device up by looking at the source code for the alarm clock on android.

My question is how to best implement it with the Android framework. When the pop up series start my application needs to randomly determine in which interval the next pop up will occur. When the time has come for the notification to be displayed. The Activity will pop up (already implemented) and immedeately the next pop up time will be randomly calculated. When the user has not answered the question in the pop up when it is already time for the next pop up, the application must know that. The application must also be able to determine when is has to start and stop its pop ups as specified by the user. At all these points something must be called.

I'm wondering if I could best do all this with a BroadcastReceiver receiving a series of different actions by Intent. Or should I use a Service doing all the work. And if I use a service is it best to send it different commands through onS开发者_StackOverflow中文版tartCommand() or should I rather bind to it and call the methods through the Binder?

I found the source for the alarm clock rather confusing on this matter and I'm unsure which method is the best. They all seem to have their strong and weak points.

Services can have 'states', but the system may decide to destroy it to free memory, thus losing this data. Scheduled BroadcastReceivers will be remembered by the AlarmManager, but they are 'stateless'.

With bound Services you can communicate both ways, but it takes some time to accuire the Binder. Started services can be given quick commands through onStartCommand(), but cannot directly communicate with Activities.

The decision remains hard...

The decision remains hard...

There is only one answer: use AlarmManager with a BroadcastReceiver. Nothing else can reliably wake up the phone. That BroadcastReceiver, in turn, should acquire a WakeLock and start up your activity. The activity can use android:keepScreenOn to keep the device awake while the activity is in the foreground; the activity should release the WakeLock acquired by the BroadcastReceiver in onCreate() after the call to setContentView(). The activity can schedule the next alarm based upon user input or lack thereof.