Does Android Handler Keep App Alive?
===

I have some periodic processing that I want to perform. I'm setting it up like this:

    periodicHandler = new Handler(new Handler.Callback()
    {
        public boolean handleMessage(Message msg)
        {
            doPeriodicStuff();

            // schedule the next call
            periodicHandler.sendEmptyMessageDelayed(0, PERIODIC_INTERVAL);

            return true;
        }
    });

    // schedule the initial call
    periodicHandler.sendEmptyMessageDelayed(0, INITIAL_DELAY);

I have a couple of questions:

- Will these handlers fire when the app is in the background?
- Will these queued messages keep the app "alive"? That is, does the presence of these queued messages prevent Android from killing the application, even if all the activities are gone?