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Android APIs
public class

AlarmManager

extends Object
java.lang.Object
   ↳ android.app.AlarmManager

Class Overview

This class provides access to the system alarm services. These allow you to schedule your application to be run at some point in the future. When an alarm goes off, the Intent that had been registered for it is broadcast by the system, automatically starting the target application if it is not already running. Registered alarms are retained while the device is asleep (and can optionally wake the device up if they go off during that time), but will be cleared if it is turned off and rebooted.

The Alarm Manager holds a CPU wake lock as long as the alarm receiver's onReceive() method is executing. This guarantees that the phone will not sleep until you have finished handling the broadcast. Once onReceive() returns, the Alarm Manager releases this wake lock. This means that the phone will in some cases sleep as soon as your onReceive() method completes. If your alarm receiver called Context.startService(), it is possible that the phone will sleep before the requested service is launched. To prevent this, your BroadcastReceiver and Service will need to implement a separate wake lock policy to ensure that the phone continues running until the service becomes available.

Note: The Alarm Manager is intended for cases where you want to have your application code run at a specific time, even if your application is not currently running. For normal timing operations (ticks, timeouts, etc) it is easier and much more efficient to use Handler.

You do not instantiate this class directly; instead, retrieve it through Context.getSystemService(Context.ALARM_SERVICE).

Summary

Constants
int ELAPSED_REALTIME Alarm time in SystemClock.elapsedRealtime() (time since boot, including sleep).
int ELAPSED_REALTIME_WAKEUP Alarm time in SystemClock.elapsedRealtime() (time since boot, including sleep), which will wake up the device when it goes off.
long INTERVAL_DAY
long INTERVAL_FIFTEEN_MINUTES Available inexact recurrence intervals recognized by setInexactRepeating(int, long, long, PendingIntent)
long INTERVAL_HALF_DAY
long INTERVAL_HALF_HOUR
long INTERVAL_HOUR
int RTC Alarm time in System.currentTimeMillis() (wall clock time in UTC).
int RTC_WAKEUP Alarm time in System.currentTimeMillis() (wall clock time in UTC), which will wake up the device when it goes off.
Public Methods
void cancel(PendingIntent operation)
Remove any alarms with a matching Intent.
void set(int type, long triggerAtMillis, PendingIntent operation)
Schedule an alarm.
void setInexactRepeating(int type, long triggerAtMillis, long intervalMillis, PendingIntent operation)
Schedule a repeating alarm that has inexact trigger time requirements; for example, an alarm that repeats every hour, but not necessarily at the top of every hour.
void setRepeating(int type, long triggerAtMillis, long intervalMillis, PendingIntent operation)
Schedule a repeating alarm.
void setTime(long millis)
Set the system wall clock time.
void setTimeZone(String timeZone)
Set the system default time zone.
[Expand]
Inherited Methods
From class java.lang.Object

Constants

public static final int ELAPSED_REALTIME

Added in API level 1

Alarm time in SystemClock.elapsedRealtime() (time since boot, including sleep). This alarm does not wake the device up; if it goes off while the device is asleep, it will not be delivered until the next time the device wakes up.

Constant Value: 3 (0x00000003)

public static final int ELAPSED_REALTIME_WAKEUP

Added in API level 1

Alarm time in SystemClock.elapsedRealtime() (time since boot, including sleep), which will wake up the device when it goes off.

Constant Value: 2 (0x00000002)

public static final long INTERVAL_DAY

Added in API level 3

Constant Value: 86400000 (0x0000000005265c00)

public static final long INTERVAL_FIFTEEN_MINUTES

Added in API level 3

Available inexact recurrence intervals recognized by setInexactRepeating(int, long, long, PendingIntent)

Constant Value: 900000 (0x00000000000dbba0)

public static final long INTERVAL_HALF_DAY

Added in API level 3

Constant Value: 43200000 (0x0000000002932e00)

public static final long INTERVAL_HALF_HOUR

Added in API level 3

Constant Value: 1800000 (0x00000000001b7740)

public static final long INTERVAL_HOUR

Added in API level 3

Constant Value: 3600000 (0x000000000036ee80)

public static final int RTC

Added in API level 1

Alarm time in System.currentTimeMillis() (wall clock time in UTC). This alarm does not wake the device up; if it goes off while the device is asleep, it will not be delivered until the next time the device wakes up.

Constant Value: 1 (0x00000001)

public static final int RTC_WAKEUP

Added in API level 1

Alarm time in System.currentTimeMillis() (wall clock time in UTC), which will wake up the device when it goes off.

Constant Value: 0 (0x00000000)

Public Methods

public void cancel (PendingIntent operation)

Added in API level 1

Remove any alarms with a matching Intent. Any alarm, of any type, whose Intent matches this one (as defined by filterEquals(Intent)), will be canceled.

Parameters
operation IntentSender which matches a previously added IntentSender.

public void set (int type, long triggerAtMillis, PendingIntent operation)

Added in API level 1

Schedule an alarm. Note: for timing operations (ticks, timeouts, etc) it is easier and much more efficient to use Handler. If there is already an alarm scheduled for the same IntentSender, it will first be canceled.

If the time occurs in the past, the alarm will be triggered immediately. If there is already an alarm for this Intent scheduled (with the equality of two intents being defined by filterEquals(Intent)), then it will be removed and replaced by this one.

The alarm is an intent broadcast that goes to a broadcast receiver that you registered with registerReceiver(BroadcastReceiver, IntentFilter) or through the <receiver> tag in an AndroidManifest.xml file.

Alarm intents are delivered with a data extra of type int called Intent.EXTRA_ALARM_COUNT that indicates how many past alarm events have been accumulated into this intent broadcast. Recurring alarms that have gone undelivered because the phone was asleep may have a count greater than one when delivered.

Parameters
type One of ELAPSED_REALTIME, ELAPSED_REALTIME_WAKEUP, RTC or RTC_WAKEUP.
triggerAtMillis time in milliseconds that the alarm should go off, using the appropriate clock (depending on the alarm type).
operation Action to perform when the alarm goes off; typically comes from IntentSender.getBroadcast().

public void setInexactRepeating (int type, long triggerAtMillis, long intervalMillis, PendingIntent operation)

Added in API level 3

Schedule a repeating alarm that has inexact trigger time requirements; for example, an alarm that repeats every hour, but not necessarily at the top of every hour. These alarms are more power-efficient than the strict recurrences supplied by setRepeating(int, long, long, PendingIntent), since the system can adjust alarms' phase to cause them to fire simultaneously, avoiding waking the device from sleep more than necessary.

Your alarm's first trigger will not be before the requested time, but it might not occur for almost a full interval after that time. In addition, while the overall period of the repeating alarm will be as requested, the time between any two successive firings of the alarm may vary. If your application demands very low jitter, use setRepeating(int, long, long, PendingIntent) instead.

Parameters
type One of ELAPSED_REALTIME, ELAPSED_REALTIME_WAKEUP}, RTC or RTC_WAKEUP.
triggerAtMillis time in milliseconds that the alarm should first go off, using the appropriate clock (depending on the alarm type). This is inexact: the alarm will not fire before this time, but there may be a delay of almost an entire alarm interval before the first invocation of the alarm.
intervalMillis interval in milliseconds between subsequent repeats of the alarm. If this is one of INTERVAL_FIFTEEN_MINUTES, INTERVAL_HALF_HOUR, INTERVAL_HOUR, INTERVAL_HALF_DAY, or INTERVAL_DAY then the alarm will be phase-aligned with other alarms to reduce the number of wakeups. Otherwise, the alarm will be set as though the application had called setRepeating(int, long, long, PendingIntent).
operation Action to perform when the alarm goes off; typically comes from IntentSender.getBroadcast().

public void setRepeating (int type, long triggerAtMillis, long intervalMillis, PendingIntent operation)

Added in API level 1

Schedule a repeating alarm. Note: for timing operations (ticks, timeouts, etc) it is easier and much more efficient to use Handler. If there is already an alarm scheduled for the same IntentSender, it will first be canceled.

Like set(int, long, PendingIntent), except you can also supply a rate at which the alarm will repeat. This alarm continues repeating until explicitly removed with cancel(PendingIntent). If the time occurs in the past, the alarm will be triggered immediately, with an alarm count depending on how far in the past the trigger time is relative to the repeat interval.

If an alarm is delayed (by system sleep, for example, for non _WAKEUP alarm types), a skipped repeat will be delivered as soon as possible. After that, future alarms will be delivered according to the original schedule; they do not drift over time. For example, if you have set a recurring alarm for the top of every hour but the phone was asleep from 7:45 until 8:45, an alarm will be sent as soon as the phone awakens, then the next alarm will be sent at 9:00.

If your application wants to allow the delivery times to drift in order to guarantee that at least a certain time interval always elapses between alarms, then the approach to take is to use one-time alarms, scheduling the next one yourself when handling each alarm delivery.

Parameters
type One of ELAPSED_REALTIME, ELAPSED_REALTIME_WAKEUP}, RTC or RTC_WAKEUP.
triggerAtMillis time in milliseconds that the alarm should first go off, using the appropriate clock (depending on the alarm type).
intervalMillis interval in milliseconds between subsequent repeats of the alarm.
operation Action to perform when the alarm goes off; typically comes from IntentSender.getBroadcast().

public void setTime (long millis)

Added in API level 8

Set the system wall clock time. Requires the permission android.permission.SET_TIME.

Parameters
millis time in milliseconds since the Epoch

public void setTimeZone (String timeZone)

Added in API level 1

Set the system default time zone. Requires the permission android.permission.SET_TIME_ZONE.

Parameters
timeZone in the format understood by TimeZone