Singletons vs. Application Context in Android?

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Recalling this post enumerating several problems of using singletons and having seen several examples of Android applications using singleton pattern, I wonder if it's a good idea to use Singletons instead of single instances shared through global application state (subclassing android.os.Application and obtaining it through context.getApplication()).

What advantages/drawbacks would both mechanisms have?

To be honest, I expect the same answer in this post Singleton pattern with Web application, Not a good idea! but applied to Android. Am I correct? What's different in DalvikVM otherwise?

EDIT: I would like to have opinions on several aspects involved:

  • Synchronization
  • Reusability
  • Testing
android singleton design-patterns java
10 Answers

From: Developer > reference - Application

There is normally no need to subclass Application. In most situation, static singletons can provide the same functionality in a more modular way. If your singleton needs a global context (for example to register broadcast receivers), the function to retrieve it can be given a Context which internally uses Context.getApplicationContext() when first constructing the singleton.

user_421980
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