Testing Android background services during development without rebuilding app UI flows is accomplished using Activity Manager (am) commands via adb shell.

ADB Service Control Commands

ADB Commandsbash
# Start background service with Intent extras
adb shell am startservice -n com.example.myapp/.MyBackgroundService --es "action" "sync"
 
# Start Foreground Service (Android 8.0+)
adb shell am start-foreground-service -n com.example.myapp/.MyForegroundService
 
# Stop running service
adb shell am stopservice -n com.example.myapp/.MyBackgroundService