Detect a new Android notification

Question

In the Android app that I'm working on, I'd like to be able to detect when a new status bar notification appears, regardless of if it was caused by my app. To be more specific, I want to count the number of notifications in a given time frame.

Is this even possible, and if so, how?

Answer 1

Actually, it is possible, I use it in my app.

For Android 4.2 and below:

You need to register an AccessibilityService and make sure the user enables the service.

Example for a service:

public class InstantMessenger extends AccessibilityService {  @Override public void onAccessibilityEvent(AccessibilityEvent event) {     if (event.getEventType() == AccessibilityEvent.TYPE_NOTIFICATION_STATE_CHANGED) {         //Do something, eg getting packagename         final String packagename = String.valueOf(event.getPackageName());   } }  @Override protected void onServiceConnected() {     if (isInit) {         return;     }     AccessibilityServiceInfo info = new AccessibilityServiceInfo();     info.eventTypes = AccessibilityEvent.TYPE_NOTIFICATION_STATE_CHANGED;     info.feedbackType = AccessibilityServiceInfo.FEEDBACK_SPOKEN;     setServiceInfo(info);     isInit = true; }  @Override public void onInterrupt() {     isInit = false; } } 

Example for checking if your Service is activated

For Android 4.3 and above:

Use the Notification Listener API