How could Android Service handle 'long-running' operations while it's running on UI thread

Question

I added some network socket code in the onStartCommand() method of my implementation of Service class. But I got NetworkOnMainThread exception. Some folks suggested that a Service runs on UI thread, which makes sense to me. However the doc says Service is intended for long running operations, this is confusing since how could a long-running service not blocking UI if it runs on UI thread?

Answer 1

You still have to spawn a Thread into background for IO or use a IntentService which does that for you.

See the Service as a process running on the UI Thread, although it has no UI itself.