Prevent notifications from sounding or vibrating

Question

I use startForeground to make my service persistent. Thus, I must build a notification to pass it to the startForeground function.

I want to start that foreground service without letting the notification make an alert (i.e. with vibration or sound).

For android 8 devices, I create a notification channel before calling the startForeground. I set the importance to NotificationManager.IMPORTANCE_NONE to avoid notification alerts (just to make the icon appear on the status bar).

However, on some devices, I still have a notification alert (for Samsung Galaxy S8 and Honor View 10).

So, I tested this approved answer https://stackoverflow.com/a/24008765/10069542.
This worked fine for the Samsung Galaxy S8. Nonetheless, the Honor View 10 still emits an alert when I start my foreground service.

Here is the code to create my notification channel and to build the notification to be passed to startForeground

Notification channel

@RequiresApi(api = Build.VERSION_CODES.O)
    private String createNotificationChannel() {
        String channelId = NOTIFICATION_CHANNEL_ID;
        String channelName = "My Background Service";
        NotificationChannel chan = new NotificationChannel(channelId, channelName, NotificationManager.IMPORTANCE_NONE);
        chan.setLightColor(Color.BLUE);
        chan.setLockscreenVisibility(Notification.VISIBILITY_PRIVATE);
        NotificationManager service = (NotificationManager) getSystemService(Context.NOTIFICATION_SERVICE);

        if (service != null) {
            service.createNotificationChannel(chan);
        } else {
            Log.e(TAG, "Error creating notification channel");
            return null;
        }

        return channelId;
    }

Notification

private Notification getNotification() {
        Intent startIntent = new Intent(getApplicationContext(), RangoActivity.class);
        startIntent.setAction(Intent.ACTION_MAIN);
        startIntent.addCategory(Intent.CATEGORY_LAUNCHER);
        startIntent.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);

        PendingIntent contentIntent = PendingIntent.getActivity(
                this, REQ_CODE_REQUEST_RANGO_SERVICE, startIntent, PendingIntent.FLAG_UPDATE_CURRENT);
        Notification.Builder builder;
        if(Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.O) {
            builder = new Notification.Builder(this, NOTIFICATION_CHANNEL_ID);
        } else {
            builder = new Notification.Builder(this);
        }
        builder.setSmallIcon(R.drawable.rango_notification_icon)
                .setContentTitle(getString(R.string.notification_content_title))
                .setContentText(getString(R.string.notification_content_text))
                .setTicker(getString(R.string.notification_ticker))
                .setDefaults(Notification.DEFAULT_LIGHTS | Notification.DEFAULT_SOUND)
                .setVibrate(new long[]{0L})
                .setWhen(System.currentTimeMillis())
                .setOngoing(true)
                .setAutoCancel(true)
                .setContentIntent(contentIntent);

        Notification notification = builder.build();

        return notification;
    }

did you try `setSound(null,null)` method on notification builder ? — Ahmad Sabeh, Mar 07 '19 at 13:35
Yes, I have just added this line and still get the same thing. — MMasmoudi, Mar 07 '19 at 13:42
uninstall and reinstall the app and check if it is still not working — Ahmad Sabeh, Mar 07 '19 at 13:45

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 07 '19 at 14:02

Here is a NotificationHelper class that supports Android 8+. Use "getNotificationLow" for no sound. For init use this: notificationHelper = new NotificationHelper(context); To show a notification use the methods below:

public Notification.Builder createNotification( String title, String description, int priority ) {

        if (notificationHelper == null) {
            return null;
        } else
        {
            if ( priority == Notification.PRIORITY_HIGH ) {
                return notificationHelper.getNotificationHigh( title, description );
            } else if ( priority == Notification.PRIORITY_LOW ) {
                return notificationHelper.getNotificationLow( title, description );
            } else {
                return notificationHelper.getNotificationDefault( title, description );
            }
        }
    }

    public void cancelNotification(int notification_id) {
        if ( notificationHelper != null )
        {
            notificationHelper.cancel( notification_id );
        }
    }

    public void showNotification(int notification_id, String title, String description, int priority) {
        if ( notificationHelper != null )
        {
            notificationHelper.notify( notification_id, createNotification(title, description, priority) );
        }
    }

Here is the Helper class

package com.example.myApp;

import android.annotation.TargetApi;
import android.app.Notification;
import android.app.NotificationChannel;
import android.app.NotificationManager;
import android.content.Context;
import android.graphics.BitmapFactory;
import android.graphics.Color;
import android.os.Build;

@TargetApi( Build.VERSION_CODES.O )
public class NotificationHelper
{
    private NotificationManager notifManager;
    private static final String CHANNEL_HIGH_ID = "com.example.myApp.high";
    private static final String CHANNEL_HIGH_NAME = "myexample (high)";
    private static final String CHANNEL_DEFAULT_ID = "com.example.myApp.default";
    private static final String CHANNEL_DEFAULT_NAME = "myexample (default)";
    private static final String CHANNEL_LOW_NAME = "myexample (low)";
    private static final String CHANNEL_LOW_ID = "com.example.myApp.low";
    private Context mContext;

    public NotificationHelper(Context context)
    {
        super();
        mContext = context;
        if ( Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.O ) {
            createChannels();
        }
    }


    public void createChannels() {

        NotificationChannel notificationChannel =
                new NotificationChannel(CHANNEL_HIGH_ID, CHANNEL_HIGH_NAME, NotificationManager.IMPORTANCE_HIGH);
        notificationChannel.enableLights(true);
        notificationChannel.enableVibration(true);
        notificationChannel.setLightColor(Color.RED);
        notificationChannel.setShowBadge(true);
        notificationChannel.setLockscreenVisibility(Notification.VISIBILITY_PUBLIC);
        getManager().createNotificationChannel(notificationChannel);

        NotificationChannel notificationChannel2 =
                new NotificationChannel(CHANNEL_DEFAULT_ID, CHANNEL_DEFAULT_NAME, NotificationManager.IMPORTANCE_DEFAULT);
        notificationChannel2.enableLights(true);
        notificationChannel2.enableVibration(true);
        notificationChannel2.setLightColor(Color.RED);
        notificationChannel2.setShowBadge(true);
        notificationChannel2.setLockscreenVisibility(Notification.VISIBILITY_PUBLIC);
        getManager().createNotificationChannel(notificationChannel2);

        NotificationChannel notificationChannel3 =
                new NotificationChannel(CHANNEL_LOW_ID, CHANNEL_LOW_NAME, NotificationManager.IMPORTANCE_LOW);
        notificationChannel3.enableLights(false);
        notificationChannel3.enableVibration(false);
        notificationChannel3.setLightColor(Color.RED);
        notificationChannel3.setShowBadge(false);
        notificationChannel3.setLockscreenVisibility(Notification.VISIBILITY_PUBLIC);
        getManager().createNotificationChannel(notificationChannel3);

    }

    public Notification.Builder getNotificationHigh(String title, String body) {

        Notification.Builder builder;
        if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.O)
        {
            builder = new Notification.Builder( mContext, CHANNEL_HIGH_ID );
        } else {
            builder = new Notification.Builder( mContext );
            builder.setPriority( Notification.PRIORITY_HIGH );
        }
        builder.setContentTitle(title);
        builder.setContentText(body);
        builder.setAutoCancel( true );
        builder.setSmallIcon(R.mipmap.ic_launcher_bw);
        builder.setLargeIcon( BitmapFactory.decodeResource( mContext.getResources(), R.mipmap.ic_launcher ));
        builder.build();
        return builder;
    }

    public Notification.Builder getNotificationDefault(String title, String body) {
        Notification.Builder builder;
        if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.O)
        {
            builder = new Notification.Builder( mContext, CHANNEL_DEFAULT_ID );
        } else {
            builder = new Notification.Builder( mContext );
            builder.setPriority( Notification.PRIORITY_DEFAULT );
        }
        builder.setContentTitle(title);
        builder.setContentText(body);
        builder.setAutoCancel( true );
        builder.setSmallIcon(R.mipmap.ic_launcher_bw);
        builder.setLargeIcon( BitmapFactory.decodeResource( mContext.getResources(), R.mipmap.ic_launcher ));
        builder.build();
        return builder;
    }


    public Notification.Builder getNotificationLow(String title, String body) {
        Notification.Builder builder;
        if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.O)
        {
            builder = new Notification.Builder( mContext, CHANNEL_LOW_ID );
        } else {
            builder = new Notification.Builder( mContext );
            builder.setPriority( Notification.PRIORITY_LOW );
        }
        builder.setContentTitle(title);
        builder.setContentText(body);
        builder.setAutoCancel( true );
        builder.setSmallIcon(R.mipmap.ic_launcher_bw);
        builder.setLargeIcon( BitmapFactory.decodeResource( mContext.getResources(), R.mipmap.ic_launcher ));
        builder.build();
        return builder;
    }


    public void notify(int id, Notification.Builder notification) {
        getManager().notify(id, notification.build());
    }

    public void cancel(int id) {
        getManager().cancel(id);
    }

    private NotificationManager getManager() {
        if (notifManager == null) {
            notifManager = (NotificationManager) mContext.getSystemService(Context.NOTIFICATION_SERVICE);
        }
        return notifManager;
    }
}

That's cool ! It worked ;) I was curious to know what exactly was lacking in my code. It turned out that using NotificationManager.IMPORTANCE_NONE in my code was the cause of that problem. Changing it to NotificationManager.IMPORTANCE_LOW solved the problem for the Honor View 10. Maybe because this smartphone does not handle this importance level. Anyway, your answer is the right solution. Many thanks ! ;) — MMasmoudi, Mar 07 '19 at 16:14

Prevent notifications from sounding or vibrating

1 Answers1