Heads-Up Android Notifications

[micahalcorn]

Our push notifications are currently relegated to the Android status bar and drawer. They should be converted to "heads-up" notifications, if possible so that the user is more likely to see them and act quickly.

[sparrowDom]

Got this working on Chai app where Android SDK version >= 26. @micahalcorn said you might find this useful @tomlinton

So Android SDK 26 introduced notification channels that each app can have many off and initially the app creates those channels and defines their importance. When channel has highest importance the notifications show heads up. After the initial channel creation user can modify notification channel importance, and app looses control over that. So when testing the code app should be uninstalled-reinstalled.

In chai app in build.gradle these are sdk settings:

ext {
        buildToolsVersion = "28.0.3"
        minSdkVersion = 16
        compileSdkVersion = 28
        targetSdkVersion = 28
        supportLibVersion = "28.0.0"
    }

And in MainApplication.java we create a notification channel:

public void createNotificationChannel() {
    // if build version smaller than api level 26
    if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT < Build.VERSION_CODES.O)
      return;

    NotificationManager notificationManager = (NotificationManager) this.getSystemService(Context.NOTIFICATION_SERVICE);
    NotificationChannel channel = new NotificationChannel(
      "rn-push-notification-channel-id", // when backend triggers notifications it needs to use this channel
      "Alerts and sounds", // channel name shown in app's notification settings
      NotificationManager.IMPORTANCE_HIGH
    );
    channel.enableLights(true);
    channel.enableVibration(true);

    notificationManager.createNotificationChannel(channel);
  }

  @Override
  public void onCreate() {
    super.onCreate();
    SoLoader.init(this, /* native exopackage */ false);

    this.createNotificationChannel();
  }

[micahalcorn]

Great, thx so much @sparrowDom 👏

[tomlinton]

Thanks @sparrowDom!