Can Android show action icons in collapsed notifications?

Question

The default behavior to see actions in notifications is by expanding a notification. Can I show them without the need to expand them?

Answer 1

Yes! :) You can, on Android 5.0+ (since API level 21).

Here is a working example:

 if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= 26)    // Android 8 or later?
 {
     builder = new Notification.Builder (this, Const.NOTIF_CHANNEL_ID);
 }
 else
 {
     builder = new Notification.Builder (this);
 }

 builder.setSmallIcon (R.drawable.ic_notif_icon, 0)
     .setVisibility (Notification.VISIBILITY_PUBLIC)
     .setCategory (Notification.CATEGORY_ALARM)
     .setContentIntent (pendingMainActionIntent)
     .setOngoing (true)
     .addAction (R.drawable.ic_button1, "BUTTON 1", pButton1Intent)
     .addAction (R.drawable.ic_button2, "BUTTON 2", pButton2Intent)
     .addAction (R.drawable.ic_button3, "BUTTON 3", pButton3Intent)
     // Apply the media style template so that we get buttons on the notification widget even when it's in the collapsed mode
     .setStyle (new Notification.MediaStyle ().setShowActionsInCompactView (0, 1, 2));

Note mainly the last line, which ensures what you want:

.setStyle (new Notification.MediaStyle ().setShowActionsInCompactView (0, 1, 2))

Also note the parameters passed to setShowActionsInCompactView. If you, for example, only wanted BUTTON 2 and BUTTON 3 to be shown (not BUTTON 1), you would do it like this:

.setShowActionsInCompactView (1, 2) 

Tested on Android 8.1, Google Pixel 2, and Samsung S9, but code should work on Android 5-7 and other phones too. Enjoy.

UPDATE: The previous code worked on Android 8 only. Made it support earlier versions too. Also on Android 8, you should not forget to call builder.setChannelId (Const.NOTIF_CHANNEL_ID) right below the code I posted.

UPDATE 2: Added a missing bracket after setShowActionsInCompactView and improved indentation.