Asynchronous Android Programming - Second Edition

Scheduling repeating alarms

As well as setting a one-off alarm, we have the option to schedule repeating alarms using setRepeating() and setInexactRepeating(). Both methods take an additional parameter that defines the interval in milliseconds at which to repeat the alarm. Generally, it is advisable to avoid setRepeating() and always use setInexactRepeating(), allowing the system to optimize device wake-ups and giving more consistent behavior on devices running different Android versions:

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

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

AlarmManager provides some handy constants for typical repeat ...