Accessing Android NotificationListenerService Settings

Question

Android has a new notification listener service as of 4.3: http://developer.android.com/about/versions/jelly-bean.html http://developer.android.com/reference/android/service/notification/NotificationListenerService.html

From the docs:

Notification access is disabled by default — apps can use a new Intent to take the user directly to the Settings to enable the listener service after installation.

I don't see the intent to fire documented anywhere. Perusing the Settings doc doesn't seem helpful: http://developer.android.com/reference/android/provider/Settings.html

Looking at the Settings class directly: https://android.googlesource.com/platform/frameworks/base/+/refs/heads/master/core/java/android/provider/Settings.java

I see ACTION_NOTIFICATION_LISTENER_SETTINGS defined, but when using Android Studio and pointing at 4.3 ACTION_NOTIFICATION_LISTENER_SETTINGS can't be resolved:

Intent intent = new Intent(Settings.ACTION_NOTIFICATION_LISTENER_SETTINGS);

Trying it more manually doesn't seem to work:

Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_MAIN);
intent.setClassName("com.android.settings", "android.settings.NOTIFICATION_LISTENER_SETTINGS");

edit: doing it the correct way as CommonsWare pointed out below:

Intent intent=new Intent("android.settings.NOTIFICATION_LISTENER_SETTINGS");

leads to a crash:

(android.content.ActivityNotFoundException: No Activity found to handle Intent { act=android.settings.NOTIFICATION_LISTENER_SETTINGS })

Am I missing something? I'm not sure how to send the user to the proper settings screen to enable this service in my app.

Polenta

interesting question. Is it possible with the new API to get the notification text and the discription and so on? – Sophistic

Yep, once the service is setup you can grab notifications directly (developer.android.com/reference/android/app/Notification.html) – Polenta

Okay great! But there are no mathods to get the notification or discription text from a StatusBarNotification – Sophistic

developer.android.com/reference/android/service/notification/… has a getNotification() method – Polenta

Yes but from there you have to work with the Parcel and that is not so easy to get all the different text messages from the notification – Sophistic

Have you managed to get the notificationlistenerservice class to work in your app?#17912383 – Lethe

@Sophistic i think you are using sdk < 18.. that's way you can't see StatusBarNotification – Turoff

Answer 1

Am I missing something?

Well, in your last one, you are conflating an action string with a class name. The "manual" approach would be:

Intent intent=new Intent("android.settings.NOTIFICATION_LISTENER_SETTINGS");

In terms of why Android Studio is not finding Settings.ACTION_NOTIFICATION_LISTENER_SETTINGS, that I can't say.

---

UPDATE

Based on the discussion in the comments, Settings.ACTION_NOTIFICATION_LISTENER_SETTINGS is not in the Android SDK at present (marked with @hide). Also, the manifest for the Settings app has a slightly different version of the action string:

Intent intent=new Intent("android.settings.ACTION_NOTIFICATION_LISTENER_SETTINGS");

Nerland

Turns out ACTION_NOTIFICATION_LISTENER_SETTINGS has @hide in its documentation, which I'm guessing shouldn't be there - though I thought it would just hide the documentation, not make it impossible to resolve within Android Studio. Unfortunately trying it the way mentioned in your answer ends up with a crash: Caused by: android.content.ActivityNotFoundException: No Activity found to handle Intent { act=android.settings.NOTIFICATION_LISTENER_SETTINGS – Polenta

@powerj1984: "Turns out ACTION_NOTIFICATION_LISTENER_SETTINGS has @hide in its documentation" -- I don't see that in the source you linked to. "though I thought it would just hide the documentation" -- no, @hide removes the item from the SDK entirely. Regarding the ActivityNotFoundException, what are you testing on? – Nerland

Line number 667 in the linked source doesn't have @hide? Weird, it does on my end. Testing on a Nexus 4 with 4.3 – Polenta

@powerj1984: Ah, I see. That @hide is in the comment. Usually, I see it outside of any JavaDoc comments, which is why I glossed over it. The fact that it's not showing up in the JavaDocs, though, means it must still be honored. My apologies for missing it. It's odd that it's not working, though, as I see that action in the manifest for Settings in the source code: github.com/android/platform_packages_apps_settings/blob/… – Nerland

No worries at all about missing it - I thought maybe I linked the wrong source initially. I guess I'll check the bug tracker on this. It does seem bizarre that it isn't working using the string directly. – Polenta

Oh, oops! I left the 'ACTION_' bit off the beginning of the string. Using that allows me to use the string directly. – Polenta

@powerj1984: Now that is interesting. Usually, the string representation of the action does not have ACTION_ in it, which fits what the @hide entry in Settings has. However, the manifest entry has ACTION_ in it, so you need to have that in the action in the Intent as well. It will be interesting to see how they reconcile all of this later on. In the meantime, I will update the answer. – Nerland

FYI I took the information gathered here and reported the bug on the issue tracker: code.google.com/p/android/issues/… – Polenta

Answer 2

Additional to CommonsWare answer here is how to check if you have that permission

if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.JELLY_BEAN_MR2) {        
    if (!NotificationManagerCompat.getEnabledListenerPackages(this).contains(getPackageName())) {        //ask for permission
       Intent intent = new Intent("android.settings.ACTION_NOTIFICATION_LISTENER_SETTINGS");
       startActivity(intent);
    }
}

Elgin

You don't have to go over each of the items in the set to check if one is equal to the current one. It's much better to just use contains. Also shorter in code. – Perzan

This is correct @androiddeveloper , I have changed the example as well. – Elgin

You are asking permission, if package is enabled, but instead you need to ask only if it's not enabled! – Mormon

@Mormon this is true, changed – Elgin

Answer 3

This is how you can use it today, as it will try to go to as few steps for the user as possible, to turn it on:

@TargetApi(Build.VERSION_CODES.LOLLIPOP_MR1)
fun getIntentForNotificationAccess(packageName: String, notificationAccessServiceClass: Class<out NotificationListenerService>): Intent =
        getIntentForNotificationAccess(packageName, notificationAccessServiceClass.name)


@TargetApi(Build.VERSION_CODES.LOLLIPOP_MR1)
fun getIntentForNotificationAccess(packageName: String, notificationAccessServiceClassName: String): Intent {
    if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.R) {
        return Intent(Settings.ACTION_NOTIFICATION_LISTENER_DETAIL_SETTINGS)
                .putExtra(Settings.EXTRA_NOTIFICATION_LISTENER_COMPONENT_NAME, ComponentName(packageName, notificationAccessServiceClassName).flattenToString())
    }
    val intent = Intent(Settings.ACTION_NOTIFICATION_LISTENER_SETTINGS)
    val value = "$packageName/$notificationAccessServiceClassName"
    val key = ":settings:fragment_args_key"
    intent.putExtra(key, value)
    intent.putExtra(":settings:show_fragment_args", Bundle().also { it.putString(key, value) })
    return intent
}

Example usage:

startActivityForResult(getIntentForNotificationAccess(packageName, NotiService::class.java), REQUEST_CODE)

or:

startActivityForResult(getIntentForNotificationAccess(packageName, NotiService::class.java.name), REQUEST_CODE)

Note that sadly this isn't possible for various other cases, sadly. Not even highlight&focus. For these cases, I've made these requests:

• https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/163176781
• https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/165311852
• https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/160303945

Perzan

These magic keys are from here – Monadelphous

@Monadelphous Thank you. How did you find it? I can't reach this file. Do you know perhaps of a way to use these for system-alert-window permission too, for Android 11 ? – Perzan

These args has any effect only for Android 9 (my app will be simply highlighted in list). I have tested with multiple versions – Monadelphous

@Monadelphous Too bad. Do you know which types of special permissions do handle this "magic"? – Perzan

on my device s22 ultra android 13 i removed the if{Build.VERSION_CODES.R } block check and it working fine and highlighting my app – Rebel

Answer 4

Thanks @android developer for great answer, but I have a little clarification.

You MUST call startActivity inside try/catch because some OS (Honor/Huawei on Android 11) doesn't have "Settings.ACTION_NOTIFICATION_LISTENER_DETAIL_SETTINGS", so this exception is thrown:

No Activity found to handle Intent { act=android.settings.NOTIFICATION_LISTENER_DETAIL_SETTINGS (has extras) }

Use in this way:

try {
    startActivity(getIntentForNotificationAccess(packageName, NotiService::class.java))
} catch (e: Exception) {
    if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= 22) {
        try {
            startActivity(Intent(Settings.ACTION_NOTIFICATION_LISTENER_SETTINGS))
        } catch (e1: Exception) {
            e1.printStackTrace()
        }
    }
}

Imply

Answer 5

i have tested @android developer code and it was not working on my device(Samsung s22 ultra android 13) so i modified his code and now it is opening NotificationListenerService settings and highlighting filtering my app

 @TargetApi(Build.VERSION_CODES.LOLLIPOP_MR1)
fun getIntentForNotificationAccess(context: Context,  notificationAccessServiceClass: Class<out NotificationListenerService>): Intent {

    val intent:Intent
    if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.R) {
        intent= Intent(Settings.ACTION_NOTIFICATION_LISTENER_DETAIL_SETTINGS)
        intent.putExtra(Settings.EXTRA_NOTIFICATION_LISTENER_COMPONENT_NAME, ComponentName(context.packageName, notificationAccessServiceClass.name).flattenToString())
    }else{
         intent = Intent(Settings.ACTION_NOTIFICATION_LISTENER_SETTINGS)
    }
    val value = "${context.packageName}/${notificationAccessServiceClass.name}"
    val key = ":settings:fragment_args_key"
    intent.putExtra(key, value)
    intent.putExtra(":settings:show_fragment_args", Bundle().also { it.putString(key, value) })
    return intent
}

Rebel