setExactAndAllowWhileIdle

Like setExact, but this alarm will be allowed to execute even when the system is in low-power idle modes. If you don't need exact scheduling of the alarm but still need to execute while idle, consider using setAndAllowWhileIdle. This type of alarm must only be used for situations where it is actually required that the alarm go off while in idle -- a reasonable example would be for a calendar notification that should make a sound so the user is aware of it. When the alarm is dispatched, the app will also be added to the system's temporary allow-list for approximately 10 seconds to allow that application to acquire further wake locks in which to complete its work.

These alarms can significantly impact the power use of the device when idle (and thus cause significant battery blame to the app scheduling them), so they should be used with care. To reduce abuse, there are restrictions on how frequently these alarms will go off for a particular application. Under normal system operation, it will not dispatch these alarms more than about every minute (at which point every such pending alarm is dispatched); when in low-power idle modes this duration may be significantly longer, such as 15 minutes.

Unlike other alarms, the system is free to reschedule this type of alarm to happen out of order with any other alarms, even those from the same app. This will clearly happen when the device is idle (since this alarm can go off while idle, when any other alarms from the app will be held until later), but may also happen even when not idle. Note that the OS will allow itself more flexibility for scheduling these alarms than regular exact alarms, since the application has opted into this behavior. When the device is idle it may take even more liberties with scheduling in order to optimize for battery life.

Parameters

See also