Flutter push notification is working only when app is in background

Question

My problem is regarding the push notification using Flutter and firebase_messaging plugin

Problem:

I have integrated firebase_messaging plugin to my flutter app for push notification. I can guarantee that the setup is correct to the best of my knowledge as i am receiving push notification. The problem occurs when pushes are received only when my app is running in the background(like minimizing but available in the system memory). Pushes are not received when app is in foreground or is killed.

To provide a solution on what I have tried, I could not figure out actually needs to be done.

I have followed tutorials on this and applied every single step to overcome the problem but to no avail.

I am using nodeJS to handle the firebase-admin and serviceaccountkey file as I need device_tokens from my DB.

NodeJS

 const firebase = require('firebase-admin');
 const serviceAccount = require('../controller/firebase/serviceAccountKey.json');
 firebase.initializeApp({
  credential: firebase.credential.cert(serviceAccount)
 });

 //Function to actually implement the push
 const pushNotificationInitiatorSubscription = (resultValue) => {
 let devicesTokenString = resultValue[0]['device_token'];
 const firebaseToken = devicesTokenString;
 const payLoad = {
   notification: {
   title: 'New Subscription',
   body: 'You have a new subscription to your material ' + resultValue[0]['course_name']
 }
};
const option = {
 priority: 'high'
};

firebase.messaging().sendToDevice(firebaseToken, payLoad, option).then(success => {
  // console.log(success.results[0]['error']);
  // console.log(success.results[1]['error']);
  // console.log(success);
}).catch(err => {
 console.log(err);
})

Flutter

import 'package:firebase_messaging/firebase_messaging.dart';

class FirebaseCloudMessage {
 static FirebaseCloudMessage _instance = new FirebaseCloudMessage.internal();
 FirebaseCloudMessage.internal();
 factory FirebaseCloudMessage() => _instance;

 final FirebaseMessaging _firebaseMessaging = new FirebaseMessaging();

 configureFirebaseListeners() {
  print('Here');
  _firebaseMessaging.configure(
    onMessage: (Map<String, dynamic> message) async {
  print("Message $message");
  // return message;
}, onLaunch: (Map<String, dynamic> message) async {
  print("Message $message");
  // return message;
}, onResume: (Map<String, dynamic> message) async {
  print("Message $message");
  // return message;
});
}
}

Help would be appreciated. Thanks

Answer 1

This is the default behavior of notifications received from the firebase notification service currently. You have to manually write code if you wanna show the notification when your app is in the foreground.

Here's a demo of showing notification in flutter using flutter_local_notifications package.

NOTE: This is a really basic example of showing notifications in flutter using flutter_local_notification package. There's a lot you can configure. For a detailed explanation, visit homepage of this package or read this really good medium article

Step 1: install flutter_local_notifications package in your pubspec.yaml

Step 2: initiate FlutterLocalNotifications in initState():

@override
  void initState() {
    super.initState();

    var initializationSettingsAndroid =
        new AndroidInitializationSettings('@mipmap/ic_launcher');
    var initializationSettingsIOS = new IOSInitializationSettings();
    var initializationSettings = new InitializationSettings(
        initializationSettingsAndroid, initializationSettingsIOS);

    flutterLocalNotificationsPlugin = new FlutterLocalNotificationsPlugin();
    flutterLocalNotificationsPlugin.initialize(initializationSettings,
        onSelectNotification: onSelectNotification);
  }

Step 3: Create a function to handle click events on the notification. This function will be called when a user will tap on the notification.

Future<dynamic> onSelectNotification(String payload) async {
    /*Do whatever you want to do on notification click. In this case, I'll show an alert dialog*/
    showDialog(
      context: context,
      builder: (_) => AlertDialog(
        title: Text(payload),
        content: Text("Payload: $payload"),
      ),
    );
  }

Step 4: Write a function to show notification:

Future<void> _showNotification(
    int notificationId,
    String notificationTitle,
    String notificationContent,
    String payload, {
    String channelId = '1234',
    String channelTitle = 'Android Channel',
    String channelDescription = 'Default Android Channel for notifications',
    Priority notificationPriority = Priority.High,
    Importance notificationImportance = Importance.Max,
  }) async {
    var androidPlatformChannelSpecifics = new AndroidNotificationDetails(
      channelId,
      channelTitle,
      channelDescription,
      playSound: false,
      importance: notificationImportance,
      priority: notificationPriority,
    );
    var iOSPlatformChannelSpecifics =
        new IOSNotificationDetails(presentSound: false);
    var platformChannelSpecifics = new NotificationDetails(
        androidPlatformChannelSpecifics, iOSPlatformChannelSpecifics);
    await flutterLocalNotificationsPlugin.show(
      notificationId,
      notificationTitle,
      notificationContent,
      platformChannelSpecifics,
      payload: payload,
    );
  }

Step 5: Call the _showNotification() function:

_firebaseMessaging.configure(
    onMessage: (Map<String, dynamic> message) async {
        //print("Message $message");
        _showNotification(1234, "GET title FROM message OBJECT", "GET description FROM message OBJECT", "GET PAYLOAD FROM message OBJECT");
        return;
    }
}

After this, you will be able to show notification even when your app is in the foreground. Hopefully, this will be useful.