Sending a notification from a service in Android

Question

I have a service running, and would like to send a notification. Too bad, the notification object requires a Context, like an Activity, and not a Service.

Do you know any way to by pass that ? I tried to create an Activity for each notification but it seems ugly, and I can't find a way to launch an Activity without any View.

God, I such a dumbbass. Ok, sorry to waste everybody's time. — e-satis, Jul 30 '09 at 19:34

score 109 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 29 '16 at 21:49

109

Both Activity and Service actually extend Context so you can simply use this as your Context within your Service.

NotificationManager notificationManager =
    (NotificationManager) getSystemService(Service.NOTIFICATION_SERVICE);
Notification notification = new Notification(/* your notification */);
PendingIntent pendingIntent = /* your intent */;
notification.setLatestEventInfo(this, /* your content */, pendingIntent);
notificationManager.notify(/* id */, notification);

edited Apr 29 '16 at 21:49

Martin Zeitler

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answered Jul 30 '09 at 18:43

Josef Pfleger

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Keep in mind that you'll have a lot of problems doing notification from a service. If you have problems then take a look at this http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers/browse_thread/thread/e95740e776982f89 – Karussell Apr 02 '11 at 22:24
1

how can you do this using the Notification.Builder? because setLatestEventInfo is already deprecated. – Kairi San Jan 29 '16 at 08:35

trante · Answer 2 · 2014-07-24T20:53:11.117

This type of Notification is deprecated as seen from documents:

@java.lang.Deprecated
public Notification(int icon, java.lang.CharSequence tickerText, long when) { /* compiled code */ }

public Notification(android.os.Parcel parcel) { /* compiled code */ }

@java.lang.Deprecated
public void setLatestEventInfo(android.content.Context context, java.lang.CharSequence contentTitle, java.lang.CharSequence contentText, android.app.PendingIntent contentIntent) { /* compiled code */ }

Better way
You can send a notification like this:

// prepare intent which is triggered if the
// notification is selected

Intent intent = new Intent(this, NotificationReceiver.class);
PendingIntent pIntent = PendingIntent.getActivity(this, 0, intent, 0);

// build notification
// the addAction re-use the same intent to keep the example short
Notification n  = new Notification.Builder(this)
        .setContentTitle("New mail from " + "test@gmail.com")
        .setContentText("Subject")
        .setSmallIcon(R.drawable.icon)
        .setContentIntent(pIntent)
        .setAutoCancel(true)
        .addAction(R.drawable.icon, "Call", pIntent)
        .addAction(R.drawable.icon, "More", pIntent)
        .addAction(R.drawable.icon, "And more", pIntent).build();


NotificationManager notificationManager = 
  (NotificationManager) getSystemService(NOTIFICATION_SERVICE);

notificationManager.notify(0, n);

Best way
Code above needs minimum API level 11 (Android 3.0).
If your minimum API level is lower than 11, you should you use support library's NotificationCompat class like this.

So if your minimum target API level is 4+ (Android 1.6+) use this:

    import android.support.v4.app.NotificationCompat;
    -------------
    NotificationCompat.Builder builder =
            new NotificationCompat.Builder(this)
                    .setSmallIcon(R.drawable.mylogo)
                    .setContentTitle("My Notification Title")
                    .setContentText("Something interesting happened");
    int NOTIFICATION_ID = 12345;

    Intent targetIntent = new Intent(this, MyFavoriteActivity.class);
    PendingIntent contentIntent = PendingIntent.getActivity(this, 0, targetIntent, PendingIntent.FLAG_UPDATE_CURRENT);
    builder.setContentIntent(contentIntent);
    NotificationManager nManager = (NotificationManager) getSystemService(Context.NOTIFICATION_SERVICE);
    nManager.notify(NOTIFICATION_ID, builder.build());

this should be the best answer since the accepted one is deprecated — Marcel Krivek, Sep 09 '15 at 07:48
@MarcelKrivek Seems he or she "forgot" to quote their source. http://www.vogella.com/tutorials/AndroidNotifications/article.html — StarWind0, May 23 '16 at 11:12
"NotificationReceiver" is the Activity that will be opened by the Notification. Check the link provided by @StarWind0 . — George Theodorakis, May 21 '18 at 12:58
NotificationCompat.Builder already deprecated. Its now no longer best answer — Devil's Dream, Jul 21 '18 at 09:12

score 7 · Answer 3 · answered Sep 28 '15 at 02:38

@TargetApi(Build.VERSION_CODES.JELLY_BEAN)
public void PushNotification()
{
    NotificationManager nm = (NotificationManager)context.getSystemService(NOTIFICATION_SERVICE);
    Notification.Builder builder = new Notification.Builder(context);
    Intent notificationIntent = new Intent(context, MainActivity.class);
    PendingIntent contentIntent = PendingIntent.getActivity(context,0,notificationIntent,0);

    //set
    builder.setContentIntent(contentIntent);
    builder.setSmallIcon(R.drawable.cal_icon);
    builder.setContentText("Contents");
    builder.setContentTitle("title");
    builder.setAutoCancel(true);
    builder.setDefaults(Notification.DEFAULT_ALL);

    Notification notification = builder.build();
    nm.notify((int)System.currentTimeMillis(),notification);
}

The topic question is from a SERVICE not Activity – Duna Nov 20 '18 at 09:58 — Duna, Nov 20 '18 at 09:58

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 02 '14 at 07:38

Well, I'm not sure if my solution is best practice. Using the NotificationBuilder my code looks like that:

private void showNotification() {
    Intent notificationIntent = new Intent(this, MainActivity.class);

    PendingIntent contentIntent = PendingIntent.getActivity(
                this, 0, notificationIntent, PendingIntent.FLAG_UPDATE_CURRENT);
    builder.setContentIntent(contentIntent);
    NotificationManager notificationManager =
            (NotificationManager) getSystemService(Context.NOTIFICATION_SERVICE);
    notificationManager.notify(NOTIFICATION_ID, builder.build());
    }

Manifest:

    <activity
        android:name=".MainActivity"
        android:launchMode="singleInstance"
    </activity>

and here the Service:

    <service
        android:name=".services.ProtectionService"
        android:launchMode="singleTask">
    </service>

I don't know if there really is a singleTask at Service but this works properly at my application...

what is the builder in this ? – Viswanath Lekshmanan May 08 '15 at 16:22 — Viswanath Lekshmanan, May 08 '15 at 16:22

score -2 · Answer 5 · edited Apr 17 '16 at 17:13

-2

If none of these work, try getBaseContext(), instead of context or this.

edited Apr 17 '16 at 17:13

Uzbekjon

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answered Apr 17 '16 at 16:35

kurdist android

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You should not use `getBaseContext()` is these scenarios. – Rahat Zaman Nov 28 '17 at 12:11

Sending a notification from a service in Android

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