How to display Toast from a Service after main Activity finishes?

Question

UPDATE: I don't agree that this is a duplicate - because I am seeking for a way to exit the main app and still show a Toast from the service.

In a very simple test app I have 2 buttons:

Clicking any of the buttons will run a service with a corresponding action string ("open" or "flash") -

OpenActivity.java:

public class OpenActivity extends Activity {
    private Intent mServiceIntent;

    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_open);
        mServiceIntent = new Intent(this, RegionService.class);
   }

    public void openCar(View v) {
        mServiceIntent.setAction("open");
        startService(mServiceIntent);
    }

RegionService.java:

public class RegionService extends IntentService {
    private static final String TAG = "RegionService";

    @Override
    protected void onHandleIntent(Intent intent) {
        Log.d(TAG, "Received an intent: " + intent);
        String action = intent.getAction();
        Log.d(TAG, "Received an action: " + action);

        if(action.equals("open")) {
            Toast.makeText(this, 
                    getString(R.string.car_opened), 
                    Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
        } 

Unfortunately my app crashes with:

D/RegionService(24506): Received an intent: Intent { act=open cmp=de.afarber.mynotification/.RegionService }

D/RegionService(24506): Received an action: open

W/MessageQueue(24506): Handler (android.os.Handler) {422768a8} sending message to a Handler on a dead thread
W/MessageQueue(24506): java.lang.RuntimeException: Handler (android.os.Handler) {422768a8} sending message to a Handler on a dead thread
W/MessageQueue(24506):  at android.os.MessageQueue.enqueueMessage(MessageQueue.java:320)
W/MessageQueue(24506):  at android.os.Handler.enqueueMessage(Handler.java:626)
W/MessageQueue(24506):  at android.os.Handler.sendMessageAtTime(Handler.java:595)
W/MessageQueue(24506):  at android.os.Handler.sendMessageDelayed(Handler.java:566)
W/MessageQueue(24506):  at android.os.Handler.post(Handler.java:326)
W/MessageQueue(24506):  at android.widget.Toast$TN.hide(Toast.java:370)
W/MessageQueue(24506):  at android.app.ITransientNotification$Stub.onTransact(ITransientNotification.java:54)
W/MessageQueue(24506):  at android.os.Binder.execTransact(Binder.java:412)
W/MessageQueue(24506):  at dalvik.system.NativeStart.run(Native Method)

Being an Android programming newbie I wonder How to display a Toast from Service in a correct way?

I think I've already seen Toasts at Android Home (i.e. there was no Activity on the device screen and still there were Toasts).

My background: I would like to monitor a beacon device from my service and show some text Toasts - even when my app has been closed.

Answer 1

OnHandleIntent will run in a differant Thread so you are showing Toast in a thread which is not allowed in android

so change your code like this

Handler handler = new Handler(Looper.getMainLooper());
handler.post(new Runnable() {

    @Override
    public void run() {
         Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(), 
                       getString(R.string.car_opened), 
                       Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();              
    }
});

From this dead thread in service

IntentService will create a thread to handle the new intent, and terminated it immediately once the task has done. So, the Toast will be out of controlled by a dead thread.

You should see some exceptions in the console when the toast showing on the screen.