Figure 3. Notification with a custom layout.
A status notification adds an icon to the system's status bar (with an optional ticker-text message) and a notification message in the notifications window. When the user selects the notification, Android fires an {@link android.content.Intent} that is defined by the {@link android.app.Notification} (usually to launch an {@link android.app.Activity}). You can also configure the notification to alert the user with a sound, a vibration, and flashing lights on the device.
A status notification should be used for any case in which a background service needs to alert the user about an event that requires a response. A background service should never launch an activity on its own in order to receive user interaction. The service should instead create a status notification that will launch the activity when selected by the user.
Figure 1 shows the status bar with a notification icon on the left side.
Figure 1. Status bar with a notification.
Figure 2 shows the notification's message in the notifications window.
Figure 2. The notifications window.
Notification Design
For design guidelines, read Android Design's Notifications guide.
An {@link android.app.Activity} or {@link android.app.Service} can initiate a status notification. Because an activity can perform actions only while it is running in the foreground and its window has focus, you will usually create status notifications from a service. This way, the notification can be created from the background, while the user is using another application or while the device is asleep. To create a notification, you must use two classes: {@link android.app.Notification} and {@link android.app.NotificationManager}.
Use an instance of the {@link android.app.Notification} class to define the properties of your status notification, such as the status icon, the notification message, and extra settings such as a sound to play. The {@link android.app.NotificationManager} is an Android system service that executes and manages all status notifications. You do not instantiate the {@link android.app.NotificationManager} directly. In order to give it your {@link android.app.Notification}, you must retrieve a reference to the {@link android.app.NotificationManager} with {@link android.app.Activity#getSystemService(String) getSystemService()} and then, when you want to notify the user, pass it your {@link android.app.Notification} with {@link android.app.NotificationManager#notify(int,Notification) notify()}.
To create a status notification:
String ns = Context.NOTIFICATION_SERVICE; NotificationManager mNotificationManager = (NotificationManager) getSystemService(ns);
int icon = R.drawable.notification_icon; CharSequence tickerText = "Hello"; long when = System.currentTimeMillis(); Notification notification = new Notification(icon, tickerText, when);
Context context = getApplicationContext(); CharSequence contentTitle = "My notification"; CharSequence contentText = "Hello World!"; Intent notificationIntent = new Intent(this, MyClass.class); PendingIntent contentIntent = PendingIntent.getActivity(this, 0, notificationIntent, 0); notification.setLatestEventInfo(context, contentTitle, contentText, contentIntent);
private static final int HELLO_ID = 1; mNotificationManager.notify(HELLO_ID, notification);
That's it. Your user has now been notified.
A central part of the user's experience with a notification revolves around how it interacts with the application's UI flow. You must implement this correctly to provide a consistent user experience within your app.
Two typical examples of notifications are provided by Calendar, which can send out notifications of upcoming events, and Email, which can send out notifications when new messages arrive. These represent the two recommended patterns for handling notifications: either launching into an activity that is separate from the main application, or launching an entirely new instance of the application showing the appropriate point for the notification.
The following scenario shows how the activity stack should work in these two typical notification flows, first handling a Calendar notification:
Handling an Email notification:
In an Email style of notification, the UI launched by the notification shows the main application in a state representing that notification. For example, when the Email application comes to the foreground from its notification, it displays either the conversion list or a specific conversation depending on whether there are multiple or only one new email. To achieve this, we want to completely replace whatever current state the application is in with a new activity stack representing the new notification state.
The following code illustrates how to show this kind of notification. Of
most interest is the makeMessageIntentStack() method, which constructs
an array of intents representing the app's new activity stack for this state.
(If you are using fragments, you may need to initialize your fragment and
app state so that pressing Back will switch the UI back to its parent state.)
The core of this is the {@link android.content.Intent#makeRestartActivityTask
Intent.makeRestartActivityTask()} method, which constructs the root activity
of the stack with the appropriate flags, such as
{@link android.content.Intent#FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TASK Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TASK}.
In a Calendar style of notification, the UI launched by the notification is a dedicated activity that is not part of the normal application flow. For example, when the user receives a Calendar notification, choosing that notification starts a special activity that displays a list of upcoming calendar events — this view is available only from the notification, not through the Calendar's normal user interface.
The code for posting this type of notification is very straight-forward; it is like the above, but the {@link android.app.PendingIntent} is for just a single activity, our dedicated notification activity.
{@sample development/samples/ApiDemos/src/com/example/android/apis/app/IncomingMessage.java interstitial_notification}This is not enough, however. Normally Android considers all activities within
an application to be part of that application's UI flow, so simply launching the
activity like this can cause it to be mixed with your normal application back stack
in undesired ways. To make it behave correctly, in the manifest declaration
for the activity the attributes
android:launchMode="singleTask",
android:taskAffinity="" and
android:excludeFromRecents="true"
must be set. The full activity declaration for this sample is:
You must be careful when launching other activities from this initial activity,
because this is not a top-level part of the application, does not appear in
recents, and needs to be relaunched at any point from the notification with new data
to show. This best approach is to make sure any activity launched from it is
launched in its own task. When doing this care must be taken to make sure this
new task interacts well with the current state of your exiting application's
task. This is essentially
the same as switching to the main application as described for the Email style
notification shown before. Given the makeMessageIntentStack()
method previously shown, handling a click then would look something like this:
The {@link android.app.NotificationManager} is a system service that manages all notifications. You must retrieve a reference to it with the {@link android.app.Activity#getSystemService(String) getSystemService()} method. For example:
String ns = Context.NOTIFICATION_SERVICE; NotificationManager mNotificationManager = (NotificationManager) getSystemService(ns);
When you want to deliver your status notification, pass the {@link android.app.Notification} to the {@link android.app.NotificationManager} with {@link android.app.NotificationManager#notify(int,Notification)}. The first parameter is the unique ID for the notification and the second is the {@link android.app.Notification} object. The ID uniquely identifies the notification from within your application. The ID is necessary if you need to update the notification or (if your application manages different kinds of notifications) select the appropriate action when the user returns to your application via the intent defined in the notification.
To clear the status notification when the user selects it from the notifications window, add the "FLAG_AUTO_CANCEL" flag to your {@link android.app.Notification}. You can also clear it manually with {@link android.app.NotificationManager#cancel(int)}, passing it the notification ID, or clear all your notifications with {@link android.app.NotificationManager#cancelAll()}.
A {@link android.app.Notification} object defines the details of the notification message that is displayed in the status bar and notifications window, and any other alert settings, such as sounds and blinking lights.
A status notification requires all of the following:
Optional settings for the status notification include:
The starter-kit for a new notification includes the {@link android.app.Notification#Notification(int,CharSequence,long)} constructor and the {@link android.app.Notification#setLatestEventInfo(Context,CharSequence,CharSequence,PendingIntent)} method. These define all the required settings for a notification. The following snippet demonstrates a basic notification setup:
int icon = R.drawable.notification_icon; // icon from resources CharSequence tickerText = "Hello"; // ticker-text long when = System.currentTimeMillis(); // notification time Context context = getApplicationContext(); // application Context CharSequence contentTitle = "My notification"; // message title CharSequence contentText = "Hello World!"; // message text Intent notificationIntent = new Intent(this, MyClass.class); PendingIntent contentIntent = PendingIntent.getActivity(this, 0, notificationIntent, 0); // the next two lines initialize the Notification, using the configurations above Notification notification = new Notification(icon, tickerText, when); notification.setLatestEventInfo(context, contentTitle, contentText, contentIntent);
You can update the information in your status notification as events continue to occur in your application. For example, when a new SMS text message arrives before previous messages have been read, the Messaging application updates the existing notification to display the total number of new messages received. This practice of updating an existing notification is much better than adding new notifications, because it avoids clutter in the notifications window.
Because each notification is uniquely identified by the {@link android.app.NotificationManager} with an integer ID, you can revise the notification by calling {@link android.app.Notification#setLatestEventInfo(Context,CharSequence,CharSequence,PendingIntent) setLatestEventInfo()} with new values, change some field values of the notification, and then call {@link android.app.NotificationManager#notify(int,Notification) notify()} again.
You can revise each property with the object member fields (except for the {@link android.content.Context} and the notification title and text). You should always revise the text message when you update the notification by calling {@link android.app.Notification#setLatestEventInfo(Context,CharSequence,CharSequence,PendingIntent) setLatestEventInfo()} with new values for contentTitle and contentText. Then call {@link android.app.NotificationManager#notify(int,Notification) notify()} to update the notification. (Of course, if you've created a custom notification layout, then updating these title and text values has no effect.)
You can alert the user with the default notification sound (which is defined by the user) or with a sound specified by your application.
To use the user's default sound, add "DEFAULT_SOUND" to the defaults field:
notification.defaults |= Notification.DEFAULT_SOUND;
To use a different sound with your notifications, pass a Uri reference to the sound field. The following example uses a known audio file saved to the device SD card:
notification.sound = Uri.parse("file:///sdcard/notification/ringer.mp3");
In the next example, the audio file is chosen from the internal {@link android.provider.MediaStore.Audio.Media MediaStore}'s {@link android.content.ContentProvider}:
notification.sound = Uri.withAppendedPath(Audio.Media.INTERNAL_CONTENT_URI, "6");
In this case, the exact ID of the media file ("6") is known and appended to the content {@link android.net.Uri}. If you don't know the exact ID, you must query all the media available in the {@link android.provider.MediaStore} with a {@link android.content.ContentResolver}. See the Content Providers documentation for more information on using a ContentResolver.
If you want the sound to continuously repeat until the user responds to the notification or the notification is cancelled, add {@link android.app.Notification#FLAG_INSISTENT} to the flags field.
Note: If the defaults field includes {@link android.app.Notification#DEFAULT_SOUND}, then the default sound overrides any sound defined by the sound field.
You can alert the user with the the default vibration pattern or with a vibration pattern defined by your application.
To use the default pattern, add {@link android.app.Notification#DEFAULT_VIBRATE} to the defaults field:
notification.defaults |= Notification.DEFAULT_VIBRATE;
To define your own vibration pattern, pass an array of long values to the vibrate field:
long[] vibrate = {0,100,200,300};
notification.vibrate = vibrate;
The long array defines the alternating pattern for the length of vibration off and on (in milliseconds). The first value is how long to wait (off) before beginning, the second value is the length of the first vibration, the third is the next length off, and so on. The pattern can be as long as you like, but it can't be set to repeat.
Note: If the defaults field includes {@link android.app.Notification#DEFAULT_VIBRATE}, then the default vibration overrides any vibration defined by the vibrate field.
To alert the user by flashing LED lights, you can implement the default light pattern (if available), or define your own color and pattern for the lights.
To use the default light setting, add {@link android.app.Notification#DEFAULT_LIGHTS} to the defaults field:
notification.defaults |= Notification.DEFAULT_LIGHTS;
To define your own color and pattern, define a value for the ledARGB field (for the color), the ledOffMS field (length of time, in milliseconds, to keep the light off), the ledOnMS (length of time, in milliseconds, to keep the light on), and also add {@link android.app.Notification#FLAG_SHOW_LIGHTS} to the flags field:
notification.ledARGB = 0xff00ff00; notification.ledOnMS = 300; notification.ledOffMS = 1000; notification.flags |= Notification.FLAG_SHOW_LIGHTS;
In this example, the green light repeatedly flashes on for 300 milliseconds and turns off for one second. Not every color in the spectrum is supported by the device LEDs, and not every device supports the same colors, so the hardware estimates to the best of its ability. Green is the most common notification color.
You can add several more features to your notifications using {@link android.app.Notification} fields and flags. Some useful features include the following:
See the {@link android.app.Notification} class reference for more information about additional features that you can customize for your application.
Figure 3. Notification with a custom layout.
By default, the notification that appears in the notifications window includes a title and the message text. These are defined by the contentTitle and contentText parameters of the {@link android.app.Notification#setLatestEventInfo(Context,CharSequence,CharSequence,PendingIntent) setLatestEventInfo()} method. However, you can also define a custom layout for the notification using {@link android.widget.RemoteViews}. Figure 3 shows an example of a custom notification layout. It looks similar to the default notification, but is actually created with a custom XML layout.
To define your own layout for the notification, instantiate a {@link android.widget.RemoteViews} object that inflates a custom layout file, then pass the {@link android.widget.RemoteViews} to the contentView field of your Notification.
Creating a custom notification layout is best understood with an example:
custom_notification.xml:
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:id="@+id/layout"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:padding="10dp" >
<ImageView android:id="@+id/image"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"
android:layout_marginRight="10dp" />
<TextView android:id="@+id/title"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_toRightOf="@id/image"
style="@style/NotificationTitle" />
<TextView android:id="@+id/text"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_toRightOf="@id/image"
android:layout_below="@id/title"
style="@style/NotificationText" />
</RelativeLayout>
Notice that the two {@link android.widget.TextView} elements include the {@code style} attribute. It's important that you use style resources for the text in your custom notifications, because the background color of the notification can vary across different devices and platform versions. Beginning with Android 2.3 (API level 9), the system defines a style for the text it uses for the default notification layouts. Thus, you should apply that style when running on Android 2.3 or higher to ensure that your text is visible against the background.
For example, to use the standard text colors on versions of Android lower than 2.3, you should use the following styles for {@code res/values/styles.xml}:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
<style name="NotificationText">
<item name="android:textColor">?android:attr/textColorPrimary</item>
</style>
<style name="NotificationTitle">
<item name="android:textColor">?android:attr/textColorPrimary</item>
<item name="android:textStyle">bold</item>
</style>
<!-- If you want a slightly different color for some text,
consider using ?android:attr/textColorSecondary -->
</resources>
Then, to apply the system's default colors for notifications on Android 2.3 and higher, use the following styles for {@code res/values-v9/styles.xml}:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
<style name="NotificationText" parent="android:TextAppearance.StatusBar.EventContent" />
<style name="NotificationTitle" parent="android:TextAppearance.StatusBar.EventContent.Title" />
</resources>
Now, when running on Android 2.3 (API level 9) or higher, the text in your custom view will use the same colors that the system does for default notifications. This is important because later versions of Android actually change the background color of the notifications to be dark. Inheriting the system's styles ensures that your text will be light in such cases, but also if the background is some other unexpected color, your text will also change as appropriate.
RemoteViews contentView = new RemoteViews(getPackageName(), R.layout.custom_notification_layout); contentView.setImageViewResource(R.id.image, R.drawable.notification_image); contentView.setTextViewText(R.id.title, "Custom notification"); contentView.setTextViewText(R.id.text, "This is a custom layout"); notification.contentView = contentView;
As shown here, pass the application's package name and the layout resource ID to the RemoteViews constructor. Then, define the content for the ImageView and TextView, using the {@link android.widget.RemoteViews#setImageViewResource(int, int) setImageViewResource()} and {@link android.widget.RemoteViews#setTextViewText(int, CharSequence) setTextViewText()}. In each case, pass the reference ID of the appropriate View object that you want to set, along with the value for that View. Finally, the RemoteViews object is passed to the Notification in the contentView field.
Intent notificationIntent = new Intent(this, MyClass.class); PendingIntent contentIntent = PendingIntent.getActivity(this, 0, notificationIntent, 0); notification.contentIntent = contentIntent;
mNotificationManager.notify(CUSTOM_VIEW_ID, notification);
The {@link android.widget.RemoteViews} class also includes methods that you can use to easily add a {@link android.widget.Chronometer} or {@link android.widget.ProgressBar} in your notification's layout. For more information about creating custom layouts for your notification, refer to the {@link android.widget.RemoteViews} class reference.
Caution: When creating a custom notification layout, you must take special care to ensure that your custom layout functions properly in different device orientations and resolutions. While this advice applies to all View layouts created on Android, it is especially important in this case because your layout real estate is very restricted. So don't make your custom layout too complex and be sure to test it in various configurations.