Chapter 8. Notifications and alarms

 

This chapter covers

  • Building an SMS notification application
  • Working with Toasts
  • Working with the NotificationManager
  • Using alarms and the AlarmManager
  • Setting an alarm

Today’s cell phones and tablets are expected to be not only phones but personal assistants, cameras, music and video players, and instant-messaging clients, as well as to do just about everything else a computer might do. With all these applications running on phones and tablets, applications need a way to notify users to get their attention or to take some sort of action, whether in response to an SMS, a new voicemail, or an alarm reminding them of a new appointment. With Android 3.1 Google has updated notifications, refined them, and made them richer. These notifications will be part of the next version of Android, currently code-named “ice cream sandwich,” which will run on handsets as well.

8.1. Introducing Toast

8.2. Placing your Toast message

8.3. Making a custom Toast view

8.4. Introducing notifications

8.5. Making a custom notification view

8.6. Introducing alarms

8.7. Summary