Retrieve notification values from a notification in system tray android firebase FCM

Question

I am using firebase to send notifications to my app. I want to save the notifications received on each device in a local database. The problem is, when the app is in the background and a notification is received, the method onMessageReceived() won't be called, but instead the notification would be added to the system tray as per documentation. The documentation also mentions the following for receiving a notification when the app is in background:

In these cases, the notification is delivered to the device's system tray, and the data payload is delivered in the extras of the intent of your launcher Activity.

So, when I'm trying to access the extras in the intent, the keys of the notification are not found. My code in MainActivity.java:

if (getIntent().getExtras() != null) {
        for (String key : getIntent().getExtras().keySet()) {
            Object value = getIntent().getExtras().get(key);
            Toast.makeText(this, "Key: " + key + " Value: " + value, Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
        }
    }

The notification we are sending from the server:

{
"to" : "bk3RNwTe3H0:CI2k_HHwgIpoDKCIZvvDMExUdFQ3P1...",
"notification" : {
  "body" : "great match!",
  "title" : "Portugal vs. Denmark",
  "icon" : "myicon"
  }
}

Anyone has an idea of how I can retrieve the values inside the notification?

Answer 1

This is the intended behavior (as you've seen in the documentation). If you're using a notification-only message payload (which you are), onMessageReceived() will only be called if your app is in foreground, if not, the System Tray will be receiving it.

The data being referred to in (emphasis mine):

In these cases, the notification is delivered to the device's system tray, and the data payload is delivered in the extras of the intent of your launcher Activity.

is the data message payload (See Message Types).

You'll have to send a payload with both notification and data. Like so:

{
  "to" : "bk3RNwTe3H0:CI2k_HHwgIpoDKCIZvvDMExUdFQ3P1...",
  "notification" : {
    "body" : "great match!",
    "title" : "Portugal vs. Denmark",
    "icon" : "myicon"
    },
  "data": {
    "body" : "great match!",
    "title" : "Portugal vs. Denmark",
    "icon" : "myicon"
  }
}

Also see my answer here.