Android is not
iOS and one should not try to make it so.
Android have its one way of showing notifications.
Still in Android, we have two options
to do it:
1. Use widget.
2. Change application / Launcher
icon dynamically.
First
approach:
App Widgets
App Widgets are miniature application views that can be
embedded in other applications (such as the Home screen) and receive periodic
updates. These views are referred to as Widgets in the user interface, and you
can publish one with an App Widget provider. An application component that is
able to hold other App Widgets is called an App Widget host.
The Basics
To create an App Widget, you need the following:
AppWidgetProviderInfo object
Describes the metadata for an App Widget, such as the App
Widget's layout, update frequency, and the AppWidgetProvider class. This should
be defined in XML.
AppWidgetProvider class implementation
Defines the basic methods that allow you to programmatically
interface with the App Widget, based on broadcast events. Through it, you will
receive broadcasts when the App Widget is updated, enabled, disabled and
deleted.
View layout
Defines the initial layout for the App Widget, defined in
XML.
Widget:
1.
Create
a appwidget-provider xml name it as widget_badge_icon.xml and add it in xml
folder
2.
Create
a widget_badge_layout .xml as per need.
3.
Create
a receiver in manifest file.
4.
Create
BadgeNotificationWidget Class:
public class
BadgeNotificationWidgetActivity extends AppWidgetProvider {
}
5.
Create
BadgeService Service Class:
add the code snippet in our onHandleIntent
method:
/**
* Update ChangeAppIcon widget.
*/
RemoteViews remoteView = new
RemoteViews(
getApplicationContext().getPackageName(),
R.layout.widget_badge_layout);
ComponentName componentName = new
ComponentName(
getApplicationContext(),
BadgeNotificationWidgetActivity.class);
AppWidgetManager appWidgetManager =
AppWidgetManager
.getInstance(getApplicationContext());
Log.d("BadgeNotificationWidgetActivity",
"BadgeService
randomNo" + randomNo);
if (randomNo == 0) {
remoteView.setViewVisibility(R.id.badgeNum,
View.GONE);
} else {
remoteView.setViewVisibility(R.id.badgeNum,
View.VISIBLE);
}
remoteView.setTextViewText(R.id.badgeNum,
String.valueOf(randomNo));
// apply changes to widget
appWidgetManager.updateAppWidget(componentName,
remoteView);
Output:
Second
approach:
Even though it
is not good approach to do but our goal is to get the badge on the app icon.
Android does
not allow us to change the icons. The icons are fixed on an apk compilation as
a part but still we can do if the pre-defined icons are in our drawable
folders.
Aliases for an activity, named by the targetActivity
attribute. The target must be in the same application as the alias and it must
be declared before the alias in the manifest.
Programmatically we can enable or disable the activity-alias
component by setComponentEnabledSetting method of PackageManger.
Parameters
componentName
|
The component to enable
|
newState
|
The new enabled state for the component. The
legal values for this state are:
COMPONENT_ENABLED_STATE_ENABLED,
COMPONENT_ENABLED_STATE_DISABLED
and COMPONENT_ENABLED_STATE_DEFAULT
The last one removes the setting, thereby restoring the component's state to
whatever was set in it's manifest (or enabled, by default). |
flags
|
getPackageManager().setComponentEnabledSetting(
new
ComponentName(this,
"com.vardhan.changeappicon.ChangeAppIconActivity-" + iconPosition),
isIconEnable ?
PackageManager.COMPONENT_ENABLED_STATE_ENABLED
:
PackageManager.COMPONENT_ENABLED_STATE_DISABLED,
PackageManager.DONT_KILL_APP);
Source Code: Here
Output:
sample source code for first approach : Badge Icon Using Widget
Improvements
If you want to see an example without changing the app icon and widget then, have a look @ Android ios Style Badge App Icon like facebook, whatsapp..... This example shows badge on app icon with small changes in the application. This example code supports from API level 9
Source Code: Here
Output:
sample source code for first approach : Badge Icon Using Widget
Improvements
If you want to see an example without changing the app icon and widget then, have a look @ Android ios Style Badge App Icon like facebook, whatsapp..... This example shows badge on app icon with small changes in the application. This example code supports from API level 9
Thanks for reading :)
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