Flutter Notification Listener

A powerful Flutter plugin for listening to all incoming notifications on Android

Features · Installation · Quick Start · API Reference · Contributing

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✨ Features

🔔 Real-time Listening Capture all system notifications as they arrive, from any app installed on the device.	🎯 Simple API Clean and intuitive API design. Access notification fields with ease.
⚡ Background Execution Run Dart code in the background. Auto-start service after device reboot.	🎮 Interactive Tap notifications, trigger actions, and even auto-reply to messages directly from Flutter.

Compatibility

Android Version	API Level	Status
Android 14	API 34	✅ Fully Supported
Android 13	API 33	✅ Fully Supported
Android 12	API 31-32	✅ Fully Supported
Android 11 and below	API ≤ 30	✅ Fully Supported

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📦 Installation

Add the dependency to your pubspec.yaml:

dependencies:
  flutter_notification_listener: ^1.4.0

Then run:

flutter pub get

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🚀 Quick Start

Step 1: Configure Android Manifest

Add the notification listener service inside the <application> tag:

<service 
    android:name="im.zoe.labs.flutter_notification_listener.NotificationsHandlerService"
    android:label="Flutter Notifications Handler"
    android:permission="android.permission.BIND_NOTIFICATION_LISTENER_SERVICE"
    android:exported="true"
    android:foregroundServiceType="specialUse">
    <property 
        android:name="android.app.PROPERTY_SPECIAL_USE_FGS_SUBTYPE"
        android:value="notification_listener"/>
    <intent-filter>
        <action android:name="android.service.notification.NotificationListenerService" />
    </intent-filter>
</service>

Add required permissions:

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WAKE_LOCK" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.FOREGROUND_SERVICE" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.POST_NOTIFICATIONS"/>
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.FOREGROUND_SERVICE_SPECIAL_USE"/>

Note: For Android 13+, request the POST_NOTIFICATIONS permission at runtime before starting the foreground service.

Step 2: Initialize the Plugin

import 'package:flutter_notification_listener/flutter_notification_listener.dart';

void onData(NotificationEvent event) {
  print('${event.packageName}: ${event.title} - ${event.text}');
}

Future<void> initPlatformState() async {
  NotificationsListener.initialize();
  NotificationsListener.receivePort?.listen((evt) => onData(evt));
}

Step 3: Start the Service

Future<void> startListening() async {
  final hasPermission = await NotificationsListener.hasPermission ?? false;
  
  if (!hasPermission) {
    NotificationsListener.openPermissionSettings();
    return;
  }

  final isRunning = await NotificationsListener.isRunning ?? false;
  
  if (!isRunning) {
    await NotificationsListener.startService(
      foreground: true,
      title: "Listening for notifications",
    );
  }
}

📖 See the example app for a complete implementation.

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📖 Usage Guide

Auto-start After Reboot

Register a broadcast receiver to automatically restart the service after device reboot:

<receiver 
    android:name="im.zoe.labs.flutter_notification_listener.RebootBroadcastReceiver"
    android:enabled="true"
    android:exported="true">
    <intent-filter>
        <action android:name="android.intent.action.BOOT_COMPLETED" />
    </intent-filter>
</receiver>

Add the boot permission:

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.RECEIVE_BOOT_COMPLETED"/>

Background Processing

For reliable background execution, use a static callback function:

@pragma('vm:entry-point')
static void _callback(NotificationEvent evt) {
  // Persist data immediately
  db.save(evt);
  
  // Forward to UI thread if needed
  final send = IsolateNameServer.lookupPortByName("_listener_");
  send?.send(evt);
}

Future<void> initPlatformState() async {
  NotificationsListener.initialize(callbackHandle: _callback);
}

Important: The @pragma('vm:entry-point') annotation is required for Flutter 3.x to prevent the function from being stripped in release builds.

Interactive Notifications

Tap a notification:

void onData(NotificationEvent event) {
  if (event.canTap) {
    event.tap();
  }
}

Auto-reply to messages:

void onData(NotificationEvent event) {
  for (final action in event.actions ?? []) {
    if (action.semantic == 1) { // SEMANTIC_ACTION_REPLY
      final inputs = <String, dynamic>{};
      for (final input in action.inputs ?? []) {
        inputs[input.resultKey ?? ''] = "Auto-reply from Flutter";
      }
      action.postInputs(inputs);
    }
  }
}

Customize Service Notification

await NotificationsListener.startService(
  foreground: true,
  title: "My App",
  description: "Listening for notifications...",
);

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📚 API Reference

NotificationEvent

Property	Type	Description
uniqueId	String	Unique identifier generated from key
packageName	String	Source application package name
title	String?	Notification title
text	String?	Notification body text
timestamp	int	Post time (milliseconds since epoch)
channelId	String?	Notification channel ID (API 26+)
largeIcon	Uint8List?	Large icon as bytes
canTap	bool	Whether notification has a tap action
actions	List<Action>?	Available notification actions
raw	Map<String, dynamic>	Raw notification data

Methods:

Method	Returns	Description
tap()	Future<bool>	Trigger the notification's tap action
getFull()	Future<dynamic>	Get complete notification data

Action

Property	Type	Description
id	int	Action index
title	String?	Action button text
semantic	int	Semantic type (see below)
inputs	List<ActionInput>?	Input fields for reply actions

Semantic Types:

Constant	Value	Description
SEMANTIC_ACTION_NONE	0	No semantic
SEMANTIC_ACTION_REPLY	1	Quick reply
SEMANTIC_ACTION_MARK_AS_READ	2	Mark as read
SEMANTIC_ACTION_MARK_AS_UNREAD	3	Mark as unread
SEMANTIC_ACTION_DELETE	4	Delete
SEMANTIC_ACTION_ARCHIVE	5	Archive
SEMANTIC_ACTION_MUTE	6	Mute
SEMANTIC_ACTION_UNMUTE	7	Unmute

NotificationsListener

Method	Description
initialize({callbackHandle})	Initialize the plugin
hasPermission	Check notification access permission
isRunning	Check if service is running
openPermissionSettings()	Open system permission settings
startService({...})	Start the listener service
stopService()	Stop the listener service
promoteToForeground({...})	Promote service to foreground
demoteToBackground()	Demote service to background

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⚠️ Known Issues

• Service may fail to start after reboot if not running in foreground mode.

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💖 Support

If you find this plugin useful, please consider:

• ⭐ Starring the repository
• 🐛 Reporting bugs
• 💡 Suggesting new features
• 🤝 Contributing code

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🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

1. Fork the repository
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add amazing feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
5. Open a Pull Request

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Made with ❤️ by Zoe