Notification Big Text Android GCM

Question

I'm having trouble getting Android's Big Text notifications to work as documented here: NotificationCompat.BigTextStyle. Here's the code I'm using to display notifications. I know all the data is coming back correctly because I can get it to display on the console and as the traditional content text and title. Am I doing something wrong? Do I need to define bigTestStyle somewhere else as well? Hopefully one of you has done this before and knows what could be missing. Thanks.

My code:

    NotificationCompat.BigTextStyle bigTextStyle = new NotificationCompat.BigTextStyle();
    bigTextStyle.bigText(extras.getString("message"));
    NotificationCompat.Builder bigTextNotification = new NotificationCompat.Builder(context)
            .setContentTitle("My App")
            .setContentIntent(pendingIntent)
            .setContentText("Message:")
            .setSound(soundUri)
            .setTicker(extras.getString("message"))
            .setWhen(System.currentTimeMillis())
            .setSmallIcon(R.drawable.splash)
            .setAutoCancel(true)
            .setVibrate(new long[] { 0, 100, 200, 300 })
            .setStyle(bigTextStyle);
    final int notificationId = (int) (System.currentTimeMillis() / 1000L);
    NotificationManager thisone = (NotificationManager) getApplicationContext()
            .getSystemService(Context.NOTIFICATION_SERVICE);

    thisone.notify(notificationId, bigTextNotification.build());

Answer 1

From NotificationCompat.BigTextStyle documentation :

Helper class for generating large-format notifications that include a lot of text. If the platform does not provide large-format notifications, this method has no effect. The user will always see the normal notification view.

Perhaps your platform doesn't support large-format notifications.

EDIT :

On the other hand, it's possible your problem is here :

NotificationCompat.BigTextStyle bigTextStyle = new NotificationCompat.BigTextStyle();
bigTextStyle.bigText(extras.getString("message"));

You are not using the return value of bigText.

Try to change it to :

NotificationCompat.BigTextStyle bigTextStyle = new NotificationCompat.BigTextStyle();
bigTextStyle  = bigTextStyle.bigText(extras.getString("message"));

or to :

NotificationCompat.BigTextStyle bigTextStyle = new NotificationCompat.BigTextStyle().bigText(extras.getString("message"));

EDIT2 :

Costom Notification Layout for older Android versions :

protected void onMessage(Context context, Intent intent) {
    // Extract the payload from the message
    Bundle extras = intent.getExtras();
    if (extras != null) {
        String message = (String) extras.get("message");
        String title = (String) extras.get("title");                

        // add a notification to status bar
        NotificationManager mManager = (NotificationManager) getSystemService(Context.NOTIFICATION_SERVICE);
        Intent myIntent = new Intent(this,MyActivity.class);
        Notification notification = new Notification(R.drawable.notification_image, title, System.currentTimeMillis());
        notification.flags |= Notification.FLAG_AUTO_CANCEL;

        RemoteViews contentView = new RemoteViews(getPackageName(), R.layout.custom_notification);
        contentView.setImageViewResource(R.id.image, R.drawable.notification_image);
        contentView.setTextViewText(R.id.title, title);
        contentView.setTextViewText(R.id.text, message);
        notification.contentView = contentView;
        notification.contentIntent = PendingIntent.getActivity(this.getBaseContext(), 0, myIntent, PendingIntent.FLAG_CANCEL_CURRENT);
        mManager.notify(0, notification);
        PowerManager pm = (PowerManager) 
        context.getSystemService(Context.POWER_SERVICE);
        WakeLock wl = pm.newWakeLock(PowerManager.FULL_WAKE_LOCK | PowerManager.ACQUIRE_CAUSES_WAKEUP, "TAG");
        wl.acquire(15000);
    }
}