How to Add Notification in Android Using NotificationManager

Table of Contents

What is Notification Manager in Android?

Notification Manager in Android is a system service responsible for handling and displaying app notifications. It manages the notification lifecycle, ensuring a consistent and efficient user experience across different devices and Android versions.

What Generally Goes in an Android App Notification?

The most simple notifications must contain the following.

An Icon: Almost every Android phone user is busy and is always on the go. In fact, there’s no guarantee that the users will even have time to read your notification’s text.

Therefore, users must be able to recognize your app’s notifications at a glance, from the icon alone.

For this reason, you may choose your android app’s icon for your notifications, but occasionally, you can also use a different image. For example, if you’re developing an instant messaging app, you can use the sender’s profile pic instead of your app’s icon.

Create images that you want to use and add them to your project’s drawable folder.

Title Text: You can either set your notification’s title by referencing a string resource, or by adding the text to your notification directly.

Detail Text: This is the most important part of notification in Android app, therefore this text part must include everything a user needs to understand what exactly the user is being notified. However, since most mobile users are in a rush, so keep this detailed text short and snappy.

Like everything in the mobile platform, notification in Android has also evolved over time. There are lots of another notification setting you can use, although some of them are quite difficult to integrate if you’re a beginner, therefore you may want to consult with an Android application development company to add them in your Android app correctly.

Now, since you know basics about Android app notification, it’s time to learn how to add one!

Creating Your Android Notification Tutorial

Add dependency in the build.gradle file

implementation 'com.android.support:appcompat-v7:28.0.0'
implementation 'com.android.support.constraint:constraint-layout:1.1.3'

activity_main.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    tools:context=".MainActivity">

    <Button
        android:text="Notify"
        android:textAllCaps="false"
        android:layout_width="200dp"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:background="@drawable/shape_button"
        android:id="@+id/btnNotify"
        android:textColor="@android:color/white"
        android:textSize="18dp"
        app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="parent"/>

</android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout>

activity_notifymessage.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    tools:context="com.spaceo.notificationalertdemo.MainActivity">

    <TextView
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:text="Hello World!"
        app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintLeft_toLeftOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintRight_toRightOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent"/>

</android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout>

MainActivity

package com.spaceo.notificationalertdemo

import android.app.Notification
import android.app.NotificationChannel
import android.app.NotificationManager
import android.app.PendingIntent
import android.content.Context
import android.content.Intent
import android.os.Build
import android.os.Bundle
import android.support.v4.app.NotificationCompat
import android.support.v7.app.AppCompatActivity
import kotlinx.android.synthetic.main.activity_main.*

class MainActivity : AppCompatActivity() {

    private val NOTIFY_ME_ID = 1337
    private val NOTIFICATION_CHANNEL_ID = "My Channel"

    override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)

        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main)

        // After Click On Notification Jump To NotifyMessage

        val notificationIntent = Intent(this, NotifyMessage::class.java)

        // PendingIntent Create

        val pendingIntent = PendingIntent.getActivity(this, 0, notificationIntent, 0)

        // Notification Builder Create

        val builder = NotificationCompat.Builder(this@MainActivity, NOTIFICATION_CHANNEL_ID)
        // Custom Notification Create
        builder.setSmallIcon(R.drawable.notification)
            .setContentTitle(resources.getString(R.string.tvTitleofnotification))
            .setContentText(resources.getString(R.string.tvBodyofNotification))
            .setContentIntent(pendingIntent)
        builder.notification.flags = builder.notification.flags or Notification.FLAG_AUTO_CANCEL
        builder.setAutoCancel(true)

        // NotificationManager Create
        val notificationManager = getSystemService(Context.NOTIFICATION_SERVICE) as NotificationManager

        // If API level 26 or higher than create channel for Notification
        if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.O) {
            // channel Create
            val notificationChannel = NotificationChannel(
                NOTIFICATION_CHANNEL_ID,
                resources.getString(R.string.app_name),
                NotificationManager.IMPORTANCE_DEFAULT
            )
            notificationManager.createNotificationChannel(notificationChannel)
        }

        // Button Click After Generate Notification
        btnNotify.setOnClickListener {
            notificationManager.notify(R.drawable.notification, builder.build())
        }
    }
}

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NotifyMessage

package com.spaceo.notificationalertdemo

import android.os.Bundle
import android.support.v7.app.AppCompatActivity

class NotifyMessage : AppCompatActivity() {
    override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_notifymessage)
    }
}

AndroidManifest.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    package="com.spaceo.notificationalertdemo">

    <application
        android:allowBackup="true"
        android:icon="@mipmap/ic_launcher"
        android:label="@string/app_name"
        android:roundIcon="@mipmap/ic_launcher_round"
        android:supportsRtl="true"
        android:theme="@style/AppTheme">

       <activity android:name=".MainActivity">
            <intent-filter>
                <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
                <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
            </intent-filter>
        </activity>

        <activity android:name=".NotifyMessage"></activity>
    </application>
</manifest>

And Done! Here is the Output:

Now of course, in this Android app tutorial, we’ve only covered the basics of creating and employing notification in Android app. But, depending on your app and functionalities of your app, you can go much deeper while making sure to be thoughtful when using this powerful tool.

Grab a free copy of Android Notification Example from Github.