61.1 An Overview of Notifications

When a notification is initiated on an Android device, it appears as an icon in the status bar. Figure 61-1, for example, shows a status bar with a number of notification icons:

Figure 61-1

To view the notifications, the user makes a downward swiping motion starting at the status bar to pull down the notification drawer as shown in Figure 61-2:

Figure 61-2

In devices running Android 8 or newer, performing a long press on an app launcher icon will display any pending notifications associated with that app as shown in Figure 61-3:

Figure 61-3

Android 8 and later also supports notification dots that appear on app launcher icons when a notification is waiting to be seen by the user.

A typical notification will simply display a message and, when tapped, launch the app responsible for issuing the notification. Notifications may also contain action buttons which perform a task specific to the corresponding app when tapped...