Android fundamentals 08.1: Notifications

1. Welcome

Introduction

Sometimes you want your app to show information to users even when the app isn't running in the foreground. For example, you might want to let users know that new content is available, or that their favorite sports team just scored a goal in a game. The Android notification framework provides a way for your app to notify users even when the app is not in the foreground.

A notification is a message that your app displays to the user outside of your app's normal UI. Notifications appear as icons in the device's notification area, which is in the status bar. To see the details of a notification, the user opens the notification drawer, for example by swiping down on the status bar. The notification area and the notification drawer are system-controlled areas that the user can view at any time.

On devices running Android 8.0 and higher, when your app has a new notification to show to the user, your app icon automatically shows a badge. (Badges are also called notification dots). When the user long-presses the app icon, the notification appears above the app icon, as shown in the screenshot below.

Touch & hold the Notify Me! app icon to view its notification details (only on Android 8.0 and higher)

In this practical you create an app that triggers a notification when the user taps a button in your app. The user can update the notification or cancel it.

What you should already know

You should be able to:

  • Implement the onClick() method for buttons.
  • Create implicit intents.
  • Send custom broadcasts.
  • Use broadcast receivers.

What you'll learn

  • How to create a notification using the notification builder.
  • How to use pending intents to respond to notification actions.
  • How to update or cancel existing notifications.

What you'll do

  • Create an app that sends a notification when the user taps a button in the app.
  • Update the notification from a button in your app, and from an action button that's inside the notification.

2. App overview

Notify Me! is an app that lets the user trigger, update, and cancel a notification using the three buttons shown in the screenshots below. While you create the app, you'll experiment with notification styles, actions, and priorities.

Preview for the Notify Me! App

Notification drawer

3. Task 1: Create a basic notification

1.1 Create the project

  1. In Android Studio, create a new project called "Notify Me!" Accept the default options, and use the Empty Activity template.
  2. In your activity_main.xml layout file, replace the default TextView with a button that has the following attributes:
   <Button
       android:id="@+id/notify"
       android:layout_width="wrap_content"
       android:layout_height="wrap_content"
       android:text="Notify Me!"
       app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="parent"
       app:layout_constraintLeft_toLeftOf="parent"
       app:layout_constraintRight_toRightOf="parent"
       app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent" />

Do the following steps in the MainActivity.java file:

  1. Create a member variable for the Notify Me! button:
private Button button_notify;
  1. Create a method stub for the sendNotification() method:
public void sendNotification() {}
  1. In the onCreate() method, initialize the Notify Me! button and create an onClickListener for it. Call sendNotification() from the onClick method:
button_notify = findViewById(R.id.notify);
button_notify.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
   @Override
   public void onClick(View view) {
       sendNotification();
   }
});

1.2 Create a notification channel

In the Settings app on an Android-powered device, users can adjust the notifications they receive. Starting with Android 8.0 (API level 26), your code can assign each of your app's notifications to a user-customizable notification channel:

  • Each notification channel represents a type of notification.
  • In your code, you can group several notifications in each notification channel.
  • For each notification channel, your app sets behavior for the channel, and the behavior is applied to all the notifications in the channel. For example, your app might set the notifications in a channel to play a sound, blink a light, or vibrate.
  • Whatever behavior your app sets for a notification channel, the user can change that behavior, and the user can turn off your app's notifications altogether.

On Android-powered devices running Android 8.0 (API level 26) or higher, notification channels that you create in your app appear as Categories under App notifications in the device Settings app.

For example, in the screenshot below of a device running Android 8.0, the Notify Me! app has one notification channel, Mascot Notification.

e7ac9a86c6fcc7f0.png

When your app targets Android 8.0 (API level 26), to display notifications to your users you must implement at least one notification channel. To display notifications on lower-end devices, you're not required to implement notification channels. However, it's good practice to always do the following:

  • Target the latest available SDK.
  • Check the device's SDK version in your code. If the SDK version is 26 or higher, build notification channels.

If your targetSdkVersion is set to 25 or lower, when your app runs on Android 8.0 (API level 26) or higher, it behaves the same as it would on devices running Android 7.1 (API level 25) or lower.

Create a notification channel:

  1. In MainActivity, create a constant for the notification channel ID. Every notification channel must be associated with an ID that is unique within your package. You use this channel ID later, to post your notifications.
private static final String PRIMARY_CHANNEL_ID = "primary_notification_channel";
  1. The Android system uses the NotificationManager class to deliver notifications to the user. In MainActivity.java, create a member variable to store the NotificationManager object.
private NotificationManager mNotifyManager;
  1. In MainActivity.java, create a createNotificationChannel() method and instantiate the NotificationManager inside the method.
public void createNotificationChannel() 
{
     mNotifyManager = (NotificationManager)
            getSystemService(NOTIFICATION_SERVICE);
}
  1. Create a notification channel in the createNotificationChannel() method. Because notification channels are only available in API 26 and higher, add a condition to check for the device's API version.
public void createNotificationChannel() {
mNotifyManager = (NotificationManager)
       getSystemService(NOTIFICATION_SERVICE);
     if (android.os.Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >=
                                  android.os.Build.VERSION_CODES.O) {
     // Create a NotificationChannel
     }
}
  1. Inside the if statement, construct a NotificationChannel object and use PRIMARY_CHANNEL_ID as the channel id.
  2. Set the channel name. The name is displayed under notification Categories in the device's user-visible Settings app.
  3. Set the importance to IMPORTANCE_HIGH. (For the complete list of notification importance constants, see the NotificationManager documentation.)
// Create a NotificationChannel
NotificationChannel notificationChannel = new NotificationChannel(PRIMARY_CHANNEL_ID,
       "Mascot Notification", NotificationManager
       .IMPORTANCE_HIGH);
  1. In createNotificationChannel(), inside the if statement, configure the notificationChannel object's initial settings. For example, you can set the notification light color, enable vibration, and set a description that's displayed in the device's Settings app. You can also configure a notification alert sound.
notificationChannel.enableLights(true);
notificationChannel.setLightColor(Color.RED);
notificationChannel.enableVibration(true);
notificationChannel.setDescription("Notification from Mascot");
mNotifyManager.createNotificationChannel(notificationChannel);

1.3 Build your first notification

Notifications are created using the NotificationCompat.Builder class, which allows you to set the content and behavior of the notification. A notification can contain the following elements:

  • Icon (required), which you set in your code using the setSmallIcon() method.
  • Title (optional), which you set using setContentTitle().
  • Detail text (optional), which you set using setContentText().

To create the required notification icon:

  1. In Android Studio, go to File > New > Image Asset.
  2. From the Icon Type drop-down list, select Notification Icons.
  3. Click the icon next to the Clip Art item to select a Material Design icon for your notification. For this app, use the Android icon.
  4. Rename the resource ic_android and click Next and Finish. This creates drawable files with different resolutions for different API levels.

To build your notification and display it:

  1. You need to associate the notification with a notification ID so that your code can update or cancel the notification in the future. In MainActivity.java, create a constant for the notification ID:
private static final int NOTIFICATION_ID = 0;
  1. In MainActivity.java, at the end of the onCreate() method, call createNotificationChannel(). If you miss this step, your app crashes!
  2. In MainActivity.java, create a helper method called getNotificationBuilder(). You use getNotificationBuilder() later, in the NotificationCompat.Builder object. Android Studio will show an error about the missing return statement, but you'll fix that soon.
private NotificationCompat.Builder getNotificationBuilder(){}
  1. Inside the getNotificationBuilder() method, create and instantiate the notification builder. For the notification channel ID, use PRIMARY_CHANNEL_ID. If a popup error is displayed, make sure that the NotificationCompat class is imported from the v4 Support Library.
NotificationCompat.Builder notifyBuilder = new NotificationCompat.Builder(this, PRIMARY_CHANNEL_ID);
  1. Inside the getNotificationBuilder() method, add the title, text, and icon to the builder, as shown below. At the end, return the Builder object.
NotificationCompat.Builder notifyBuilder = new NotificationCompat.Builder(this, PRIMARY_CHANNELID)
       .setContentTitle("You've been notified!")
       .setContentText("This is your notification text.")
       .setSmallIcon(R.drawable.ic_android);
return notifyBuilder;

Now you can finish the sendNotification() method that sends the notification:

  1. In MainActivity.java,inside the sendNotification() method, use getNotificationBuilder() to get the Builder object.
  2. Call notify() on the NotificationManager:
NotificationCompat.Builder notifyBuilder = getNotificationBuilder();
mNotifyManager.notify(NOTIFICATION_ID, notifyBuilder.build());
  1. Run your app. The Notify Me! button issues a notification, and the icon appears in the status bar. However, the notification is missing an essential feature: nothing happens when you tap it. You add that functionality in the next task.

1.4 Add a content intent and dismiss the notification

Content intents for notifications are similar to the intents you've used throughout this course. Content intents can be explicit intents to launch an activity, implicit intents to perform an action, or broadcast intents to notify the system of a system event or custom event.

The major difference with an Intent that's used for a notification is that the Intent must be wrapped in a PendingIntent. The PendingIntent allows the Android notification system to perform the assigned action on behalf of your code.

In this step you update your app so that when the user taps the notification, your app sends a content intent that launches the MainActivity. (If the app is open and active, tapping the notification will not have any effect.)

  1. In MainActivity.java, in the beginning of the getNotificationBuilder(), create an explicit intent method to launch the MainActivity:
Intent notificationIntent = new Intent(this, MainActivity.class);
  1. Inside getNotificationBuilder(), after the notificationIntent declaration, use the getActivity() method to get a PendingIntent. Pass in the notification ID constant for the requestCode and use the FLAG_UPDATE_CURRENT flag.

By using a PendingIntent to communicate with another app, you are telling that app to execute some predefined code at some point in the future. It's like the other app can perform an action on behalf of your app.

    PendingIntent notificationPendingIntent = PendingIntent.getActivity(this, 
        NOTIFICATION_ID, notificationIntent, PendingIntent.FLAG_UPDATE_CURRENT);
  1. Use the setContentIntent() method from the NotificationCompat.Builder class to set the content intent. Inside getNotificationBuilder(), call setContentIntent() in the code that's building the notification. Also set auto-cancel to true:
.setContentIntent(notificationPendingIntent)
.setAutoCancel(true)

Setting auto-cancel to true closes the notification when user taps on it.

  1. Run the app. Tap the Notify Me! button to send the notification. Tap the home button. Now view the notification and tap it. Notice the app opens back at the MainActivity.
  2. If you are running the app on a device or emulator with API 26 or higher, press the Home button and open the app launcher. Notice the badge (the notification dot) on the app icon.

5842009f1e22d046.png

In the screenshot above:

  1. Notification in the status bar
  2. Notification dot on the app icon (only in API 26 or higher)

When the user touches and holds the app icon, a popup shows notifications along with the icon.

8df08aeaca814300.png

If you're running on a device or emulator with API 26 or higher, here's how to view the notification channel that you created:

  1. Open the device's Settings app.
  2. In the search bar, enter your app name, "Notify Me!"
  3. Open Notify Me! > App Notifications > Mascot Notifications. Use this setting to customize the notification channel. The notification channel's description is displayed at the bottom of the screen.

29e3ba539c63615a.png

1.5 Add priority and defaults to your notification for backward compatibility

When the user taps the Notify Me! button in your app, the notification is issued, but the only visual that the user sees is the icon in the notification bar. To catch the user's attention, set notification default options.

Priority is an integer value from PRIORITY_MIN (-2) to PRIORITY_MAX (2). Notifications with a higher priority are sorted above lower priority ones in the notification drawer. HIGH or MAX priority notifications are delivered as "heads up" notifications, which drop down on top of the user's active screen. It's not a good practice to set all your notifications to MAX priority, so use MAX sparingly.

  1. Inside the getNotificationBuilder() method, set the priority of the notification to HIGH by adding the following line to the notification builder object:
.setPriority(NotificationCompat.PRIORITY_HIGH)
  1. Set the sound, vibration, and LED-color pattern for your notification (if the user's device has an LED indicator) to the default values.

Inside getNotificationBuilder(), add the following line to your notifyBuilder object:

.setDefaults(NotificationCompat.DEFAULT_ALL)
  1. To see the changes, quit the app and run it again from Android Studio. If you are unable to see your changes, uninstall the app and install it again.

4. Task 2: Update or cancel the notification

After your app issues a notification, it's useful for your app to be able to update or cancel the notification if the information changes or becomes irrelevant.

In this task, you learn how to update and cancel a notification.

2.1 Add an update button and a cancel button

  1. In your activity_maim.xml layout file, create two copies of the Notify Me! button. In the design editor, constrain the new buttons to each other and to their parent, so that they don't overlap each other.
  2. Change the android:text attribute in the new buttons to "Update Me!" and "Cancel Me!"
  3. Change the android:id attributes for the buttons to update and cancel.
<Button
   android:id="@+id/notify"
   android:layout_width="wrap_content"
   android:layout_height="wrap_content"
   android:text="Notify Me!"
   app:layout_constraintBottom_toTopOf="@+id/update"
   app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
   app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
   app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent" />

<Button
   android:id="@+id/update"
   android:layout_width="wrap_content"
   android:layout_height="wrap_content"
   android:text="Update Me!"
   app:layout_constraintBottom_toTopOf="@+id/cancel"
   app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
   app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
   app:layout_constraintTop_toBottomOf="@+id/notify" />

<Button
   android:id="@+id/cancel"
   android:layout_width="wrap_content"
   android:layout_height="wrap_content"
   android:text="Cancel Me!"
   app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="parent"
   app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
   app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
   app:layout_constraintTop_toBottomOf="@+id/update" />
  1. Extract all the text strings to strings.xml.

Do the following steps in the MainActivity.java file:

  1. Add a member variable for each of the new buttons.
private Button button_cancel;
private Button button_update;
  1. At the end of onCreate() method, initialize the button variables and set their onClick listeners. If Android Studio throws an error, rebuild your project
button_update = findViewById(R.id.update);
button_update.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
   @Override
   public void onClick(View view) {
      //Update the notification
   }
});

button_cancel = findViewById(R.id.cancel);
button_cancel.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
   @Override
   public void onClick(View view) {
       //Cancel the notification
   }
});
  1. Create methods for updating and canceling the notification. The methods take no parameters and return void:
      public void updateNotification() {}
      public void cancelNotification() {}
  1. In the onCreate() method, call updateNotification() in the update button's onClick method. In the cancel button's onClick method, call cancelNotification().

2.2 Implement the cancel and update notification methods

To cancel a notification, call cancel() on the NotificationManager, passing in the notification ID.

  1. In MainActivity.java, inside the cancelNotification() method, add the following line:
mNotifyManager.cancel(NOTIFICATION_ID);
  1. Run the app.
  2. Tap the Notify Me! button to send the notification. Notice that the notification icon appears in the status bar.
  3. Tap the Cancel Me! button. The notification should be canceled.

Updating a notification is more complex than canceling a notification. Android notifications come with styles that can condense information. For example, the Gmail app uses InboxStyle notifications if the user has more than one unread message, which condenses the information into a single notification.

In this example, you update your notification to use BigPictureStyle, which allows you to include an image in the notification.

  1. Download this image to use in your notification and rename it to mascot_1. If you use your own image, make sure that its aspect ratio is 2:1 and its width is 450 dp or less.
  2. Put the mascot_1 image in the res/drawable folder.
  3. In MainActivity.java, inside the updateNotification() method, convert your drawable into a bitmap.
      Bitmap androidImage = BitmapFactory
          .decodeResource(getResources(),R.drawable.mascot_1);
  1. Inside updateNotification(), use the getNotificationBuilder() method to get the NotificationCompat.Builder object.
NotificationCompat.Builder notifyBuilder = getNotificationBuilder();
  1. Inside updateNotification(), after the notifyBuilder declaration, change the style of your notification and set the image and the title:
notifyBuilder.setStyle(new NotificationCompat.BigPictureStyle()
               .bigPicture(androidImage)
               .setBigContentTitle("Notification Updated!"));
  1. Inside updateNotification(), after setting the notification style, build the notification and call notify() on the NotificationManager. Pass in the same notification ID as before.
mNotifyManager.notify(NOTIFICATION_ID, notifyBuilder.build());
  1. Run your app. Tap the update button and check the notification again—the notification now has the image and the updated title! To shrink back to the regular notification style, pinch the extended notification.

2.3 Toggle the button state

In this app, the user can get confused because the state of the notification is not tracked inside the activity. For example, the user might tap Cancel Me! when no notification is showing.

You can fix this by enabling and disabling the buttons depending on the state of the notification:

  • When the app is first run, the Notify Me! button should be the only button enabled, because there is no notification yet to update or cancel.
  • After a notification is sent, the cancel and update buttons should be enabled, and the notification button should be disabled, because the notification has been delivered.
  • After the notification is updated, the update and notify buttons should be disabled, leaving only the cancel button enabled.
  • If the notification is canceled, the buttons should return to their initial states, with only the notify button enabled.

To toggle the button state for all the buttons, do the following steps in MainActivity.java:

  1. Add a utility method called setNotificationButtonState() to toggle the button states:
void setNotificationButtonState(Boolean isNotifyEnabled,
                               Boolean isUpdateEnabled,
                               Boolean isCancelEnabled) {
   button_notify.setEnabled(isNotifyEnabled);
   button_update.setEnabled(isUpdateEnabled);
   button_cancel.setEnabled(isCancelEnabled);
}
  1. At the end of each of the relevant methods, add a call to setNotificationButtonState() to enable and disable the buttons as appropriate.

onCreate():

setNotificationButtonState(true, false, false);

sendNotification():

setNotificationButtonState(false, true, true);

updateNotification():

setNotificationButtonState(false, false, true);

cancelNotification():

setNotificationButtonState(true, false, false);

5. Task 3: Add a notification action button

Sometimes, a notification requires interaction from the user. For example, the user might snooze an alarm or reply to a text message. When these types of notifications occur, the user might tap the notification to respond to the event. Android then loads the relevant activity in your app.

To avoid opening your app, the notification framework lets you embed a notification action button directly in the notification itself.

An action button needs the following components:

  • An icon, to be placed in the notification.
  • A label string, to be placed next to the icon.
  • A PendingIntent, to be sent when the user taps the notification action.

In this task, you add an action button to your notification. The action button lets the user update the notification from within the notification, without opening the app. This Update Notification action works whether your app is running in the foreground or the background.

3.1 Implement a broadcast receiver that calls updateNotification()

In this step you implement a broadcast receiver that calls the updateNotification() method when the user taps an Update Notification action button inside the notification.

  1. In MainActivity.java, add a subclass of BroadcastReceiver as an inner class. Override the onReceive() method. Don't forget to include an empty constructor:
public class NotificationReceiver extends BroadcastReceiver {

   public NotificationReceiver() {
   }

   @Override
   public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {
   // Update the notification
   }
}
  1. In the onReceive() method of the NotificationReceiver, call updateNotification().
  2. In MainActivity.java, create a unique constant member variable to represent the update notification action for your broadcast. Make sure to prefix the variable value with your app's package name to ensure its uniqueness:
      private static final String ACTION_UPDATE_NOTIFICATION = 
        "com.example.android.notifyme.ACTION_UPDATE_NOTIFICATION";
  1. In MainActivity.java, create a member variable for your receiver and initialize it using the default constructor.
private NotificationReceiver mReceiver = new NotificationReceiver();
  1. To receive the ACTION_UPDATE_NOTIFICATION intent, register your broadcast receiver in the onCreate() method:
registerReceiver(mReceiver,new IntentFilter(ACTION_UPDATE_NOTIFICATION));
  1. To unregister your receiver, override the onDestroy() method of your Activity:
@Override
protected void onDestroy() {
unregisterReceiver(mReceiver);
   super.onDestroy();
}

3.2 Create an icon for the update action

To create an icon for the update-action button:

  1. In Android Studio, select File > New > Image Asset.
  2. In the Icon Type drop-down list, select Action Bar and Tab Icons.
  3. Click the Clip Art icon.
  4. Select the update icon for the update action Button. Open File -> New -> Image Asset. Select Icon Type as Action Bar and Tab Icons click on the Clip Art icon and select update icon and name it ic_update. Click Next -> Finish. and click OK.
  5. In the Name field, name the icon ic_update.
  6. Click Next, then Finish.

Starting from Android 7.0, icons are not displayed in notifications. Instead, more room is provided for the labels themselves. However, notification action icons are still required, and they continue to be used on older versions of Android and on devices such as Android Wear.

3.3 Add the update action to the notification

In MainActivity.java, inside the sendNotification() method, implement the following steps:

  1. At the beginning of the method, create an Intent using the custom update action ACTION_UPDATE_NOTIFICATION.
  2. Use getBroadcast() to get a PendingIntent. To make sure that this pending intent is sent and used only once, set FLAG_ONE_SHOT.
Intent updateIntent = new Intent(ACTION_UPDATE_NOTIFICATION);
PendingIntent updatePendingIntent = PendingIntent.getBroadcast
          (this, NOTIFICATION_ID, updateIntent, PendingIntent.FLAG_ONE_SHOT);
  1. Use the addAction() method to add an action to the NotificationCompat.Builder object, after the notifyBuilder definition. Pass in the icon, the label text, and the PendingIntent.
notifyBuilder.addAction(R.drawable.ic_update, "Update Notification", updatePendingIntent);
  1. Run your app. Tap the Notify Me! button, then press the Home button. Open the notification and tap on Update Notification button. The notification is updated.

The user can now update the notification without opening the app!

6. Solution code

Android Studio project: NotifyMe

7. Coding challenge

Enabling and disabling buttons is a common way to ensure that the user does not perform any actions that aren't supported in the current state of the app. For example, you might disable a Sync button when no network is available.

In the NotifyMe app, there is one use case in which the state of your buttons does not match the state of the app: when a user dismisses a notification by swiping it away or clearing the whole notification drawer. In this case, your app has no way of knowing that the notification was canceled and that the button state must be changed.

Create another pending intent to let the app know that the user has dismissed the notification, and toggle the button states accordingly.

Hint: Check out the NotificationCompat.Builder class for a method that delivers an Intent if the user dismisses the notification.

8. Summary

A notification is a message that you can display to the user outside of your app's normal UI:

  • Notifications provide a way for your app to interact with the user even when the app is not running.
  • When Android issues a notification, the notification appears first as an icon in the notification area of the device.
  • To specify the UI and actions for a notification, use NotificationCompat.Builder.
  • To create a notification, use NotificationCompat.Builder.build().
  • To issue a notification, use NotificationManager.notify() to pass the notification object to the Android runtime system.
  • To make it possible to update or cancel a notification, associate a notification ID with the notification.
  • Notifications can have several components, including a small icon (setSmallIcon(), required); a title (setContentTitle()); and detailed text (setContentText()).
  • Notifications can also include pending intents, expanded styles, priorities, etc. For more details, see NotificationCompat.Builder.

9. Related concept

The related concept documentation is in 8.1: Notifications.

10. Learn more

Guides:

Reference:

11. Homework

This section lists possible homework assignments for students who are working through this codelab as part of a course led by an instructor. It's up to the instructor to do the following:

  • Assign homework if required.
  • Communicate to students how to submit homework assignments.
  • Grade the homework assignments.

Instructors can use these suggestions as little or as much as they want, and should feel free to assign any other homework they feel is appropriate.

If you're working through this codelab on your own, feel free to use these homework assignments to test your knowledge.

Build and run an app

Open the solution code for the NotifyMe app. Change the updated notification in the app to use the InboxStyle expanded layout instead of BigPictureStyle. Use fake string data for each line, and for the summary text.

InboxStyle notification

Answer these questions

Question 1

Select all that are true for notification channels:

  • You use notification channels to display notifications to the user in the device status bar.
  • You use notification channels to group multiple notifications so that the user can control the notifications' behavior.
  • Notification channels are available in older devices, those running Android 7.0 Nougat (API 24) and lower.
  • Notification channels are not yet available in the Android Support Library package.

Question 2

Which API do you use to show a notification in the notification drawer and in the device's status bar?

  • Notification.notify()
  • NotificationManager.notify()
  • NotificationCompact.notify()
  • NotificationCompat.Builder.notify()

Question 3

Which component is not needed when you add a notification action?

  • Icon that represents the action
  • Title that describes the action
  • Click listener for the action button click event.
  • PendingIntent that's sent when the user taps the action button.

Question 4

Which API do you use to add an action button to a notification?

  • NotificationCompat.addActionButton()
  • NotificationCompat.Builder.addAction()
  • Notification.Builder.addActionButton()
  • NotificationManager.addAction()

Question 5

Suppose that you create an app that downloads a work of art on the user's device every day. Once the day's image is available, the app shows a notification to the user, and the user can download the image or skip the download. What PendingIntent method would you use to start a service to download the image?

  • Activity.startService()
  • PendingIntent.getBroadcast()
  • PendingIntent.getActivity()
  • PendingIntent.getService()

Submit your app for grading

Guidance for graders

Check that the app has the following features:

  • When the user taps the Update Notification button, the notification becomes an InboxStyle notification with several rows of text representing line items.
  • The screen has a summary and title-text line, which changes its position depending on the API level.
  • The app uses the NotificationCompat.InboxStyle class for backward compatibility.

12. Next codelab

To find the next practical codelab in the Android Developer Fundamentals (V2) course, see Codelabs for Android Developer Fundamentals (V2).

For an overview of the course, including links to the concept chapters, apps, and slides, see Android Developer Fundamentals (Version 2).