Is it possible to have a RuntimeException 🚫 in your Android app and 𝗻𝗼𝘁 have it crash? 🤔

Yes, it is!

We can do this in two ways:

1. Via Thread.setDefaultUncaughtExceptionHandler 🧵 which is a mechanism of Java’s Thread API. It allows us to catch an exception in the Thread that we have specified - if it was not caught beforehand.

2. Define a component in a separate process 🔄. Defining a component to run in a separate process allows it to be independent of other components that run in distinct processes. Hence, when you have a crash in one process - it will not affect others.

How can we have a component that runs in a separate process?

By specifying the 𝚊𝚗𝚍𝚛𝚘𝚒𝚍:𝚙𝚛𝚘𝚌𝚎𝚜𝚜 attribute in our manifest like so:

<𝚜𝚎𝚛𝚟𝚒𝚌𝚎

𝚊𝚗𝚍𝚛𝚘𝚒𝚍:𝚗𝚊𝚖𝚎=".𝙼𝚢𝚂𝚎𝚙𝚊𝚛𝚊𝚝𝚎𝙿𝚛𝚘𝚌𝚎𝚜𝚜𝚂𝚎𝚛𝚟𝚒𝚌𝚎"

𝚊𝚗𝚍𝚛𝚘𝚒𝚍:𝚙𝚛𝚘𝚌𝚎𝚜𝚜=":𝚜𝚎𝚙𝚊𝚛𝚊𝚝𝚎_𝚙𝚛𝚘𝚌𝚎𝚜𝚜" />

Such service will launch in a separate process, making it independent of your application.

There are also other benefits to having components run in separate processes like:

- Improved security 🔒

- Reduced memory usage 💾

- Reduced likelihood of the app / process being killed ☠️

Do you use separate processes in your apps?