[android] Firebase onMessageReceived not called when app in background

I'm working with Firebase and testing sending notifications to my app from my server while the app is in the background. The notification is sent successfully, it even appears on the notification centre of the device, but when the notification appears or even if I click on it, the onMessageReceived method inside my FCMessagingService is never called.

When I tested this while my app was in the foreground, the onMessageReceived method was called and everything worked fine. The problem occurs when the app is running in the background.

Is this intended behaviour, or is there a way I can fix this?

Here is my FBMessagingService:

import android.util.Log;

import com.google.firebase.messaging.FirebaseMessagingService;
import com.google.firebase.messaging.RemoteMessage;

public class FBMessagingService extends FirebaseMessagingService {

    @Override
    public void onMessageReceived(RemoteMessage remoteMessage) {
        Log.i("PVL", "MESSAGE RECEIVED!!");
        if (remoteMessage.getNotification().getBody() != null) {
            Log.i("PVL", "RECEIVED MESSAGE: " + remoteMessage.getNotification().getBody());
        } else {
            Log.i("PVL", "RECEIVED MESSAGE: " + remoteMessage.getData().get("message"));
        }
    }
}

As per Firebase Cloud Messaging documentation-If Activity is in foreground then onMessageReceived will get called. If Activity is in background or closed then notification message is shown in the notification center for app launcher activity. You can call your customized activity on click of notification if your app is in background by calling rest service api for firebase messaging as:

URL-https://fcm.googleapis.com/fcm/send

Method Type- POST

Header- Content-Type:application/json
Authorization:key=your api key

Body/Payload:

{ "notification": {
    "title": "Your Title",
    "text": "Your Text",
     "click_action": "OPEN_ACTIVITY_1" // should match to your intent filter
  },
    "data": {
    "keyname": "any value " //you can get this data as extras in your activity and this data is optional
    },
  "to" : "to_id(firebase refreshedToken)"
} 

And with this in your app you can add below code in your activity to be called:

<intent-filter>
                <action android:name="OPEN_ACTIVITY_1" />
                <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
            </intent-filter>

Remove notification field completely from your server request. Send only data and handle it in onMessageReceived() otherwise your onMessageReceived() will not be triggered when app is in background or killed.

Don't forget to include "priority": "high" field in your notification request. According to the documentation: data messages are sent with a normal priority, thus they will not arrive instantly; it could also be the problem.

Here is what I am sending from server

{
  "data":{
    "id": 1,
    "missedRequests": 5
    "addAnyDataHere": 123
  },
  "to": "fhiT7evmZk8:APA91bFJq7Tkly4BtLRXdYvqHno2vHCRkzpJT8QZy0TlIGs......",
  "priority": "high"
}

So you can receive your data in onMessageReceived(RemoteMessage message) like this....let say I have to get id

Object obj = message.getData().get("id");
        if (obj != null) {
            int id = Integer.valueOf(obj.toString());
        }

If app is in background Fire-base by default handling notification But if we want to our custom notification than we have to change our server side, which is responsible for to send our custom data(data payload)

Remove notification payload completely from your server request. Send only Data and handle it in onMessageReceived() otherwise your onMessageReceived will not be triggered when app is in background or killed.

now,your server side code format look like,

{
  "collapse_key": "CHAT_MESSAGE_CONTACT",
  "data": {
    "loc_key": "CHAT_MESSAGE_CONTACT",
    "loc_args": ["John Doe", "Contact Exchange"],
    "text": "John Doe shared a contact in the group Contact Exchange",
    "custom": {
      "chat_id": 241233,
      "msg_id": 123
    },
    "badge": 1,
    "sound": "sound1.mp3",
    "mute": true
  }
}

NOTE: see this line in above code
"text": "John Doe shared a contact in the group Contact Exchange" in Data payload you should use "text" parameter instead of "body" or "message" parameters for message description or whatever you want to use text.

onMessageReceived()

@Override
    public void onMessageReceived(RemoteMessage remoteMessage) {
        Log.e(TAG, "From: " + remoteMessage.getData().toString());

        if (remoteMessage == null)
            return;

        // Check if message contains a data payload.
        if (remoteMessage.getData().size() > 0) {
           /* Log.e(TAG, "Data Payload: " + remoteMessage.getData().toString());*/
            Log.e(TAG, "Data Payload: " + remoteMessage);

            try {

                Map<String, String> params = remoteMessage.getData();
                JSONObject json = new JSONObject(params);
                Log.e("JSON_OBJECT", json.toString());


                Log.e(TAG, "onMessageReceived: " + json.toString());

                handleDataMessage(json);
            } catch (Exception e) {
                Log.e(TAG, "Exception: " + e.getMessage());
            }
        }
    }

Override the handleIntent Method of the FirebaseMessageService works for me.

here the code in C# (Xamarin)

public override void HandleIntent(Intent intent)
{
    try
    {
        if (intent.Extras != null)
        {
            var builder = new RemoteMessage.Builder("MyFirebaseMessagingService");

            foreach (string key in intent.Extras.KeySet())
            {
                builder.AddData(key, intent.Extras.Get(key).ToString());
            }

            this.OnMessageReceived(builder.Build());
        }
        else
        {
            base.HandleIntent(intent);
        }
    }
    catch (Exception)
    {
        base.HandleIntent(intent);
    }
}

and thats the Code in Java

public void handleIntent(Intent intent)
{
    try
    {
        if (intent.getExtras() != null)
        {
            RemoteMessage.Builder builder = new RemoteMessage.Builder("MyFirebaseMessagingService");

            for (String key : intent.getExtras().keySet())
            {
                builder.addData(key, intent.getExtras().get(key).toString());
            }

            onMessageReceived(builder.build());
        }
        else
        {
            super.handleIntent(intent);
        }
    }
    catch (Exception e)
    {
        super.handleIntent(intent);
    }
}

When message is received and your app is in background the notification is sent to the extras intent of the main activity.

You can check the extra value in the oncreate() or onresume() function of the main activity.

You can check for the fields like data, table etc ( the one specified in the notification)

for example I sent using data as the key

public void onResume(){
    super.onResume();
    if (getIntent().getStringExtra("data")!=null){
            fromnotification=true;
            Intent i = new Intent(MainActivity.this, Activity2.class);
            i.putExtra("notification","notification");
            startActivity(i);
        }

}

this method handleIntent() has been depreciated, so handling a notification can be done as below:

1. Foreground State: The click of the notification will go to the pending Intent's activity which you are providing while creating a notification pro-grammatically as it generally created with data payload of the notification.

2. Background/Killed State - Here, the system itself creates a notification based on notification payload and clicking on that notification will take you to the launcher activity of the application where you can easily fetch Intent data in any of your life-cycle methods.

onMessageReceived(RemoteMessage remoteMessage) method called based on the following cases.

• FCM Response With notification and data block:

{
  
"to": "device token list",
  "notification": {
    "body": "Body of Your Notification",
    "title": "Title of Your Notification"
  },
  "data": {
    "body": "Body of Your Notification in Data",
    "title": "Title of Your Notification in Title",
    "key_1": "Value for key_1",
    "image_url": "www.abc.com/xyz.jpeg",
    "key_2": "Value for key_2"
  }
}

1. App in Foreground:

onMessageReceived(RemoteMessage remoteMessage) called, shows LargeIcon and BigPicture in the notification bar. We can read the content from both notification and data block

2. App in Background:

onMessageReceived(RemoteMessage remoteMessage) not called, system tray will receive the message and read body and title from notification block and shows default message and title in the notification bar.

• FCM Response With only data block:

In this case, removing notification blocks from json

{
  
"to": "device token list",
  "data": {
    "body": "Body of Your Notification in Data",
    "title": "Title of Your Notification in Title",
    "key_1": "Value for key_1",
    "image_url": "www.abc.com/xyz.jpeg",
    "key_2": "Value for key_2"
  }
}

Solution for calling onMessageReceived()

1. App in Foreground:

onMessageReceived(RemoteMessage remoteMessage) called, shows LargeIcon and BigPicture in the notification bar. We can read the content from both notification and data block

2. App in Background:

onMessageReceived(RemoteMessage remoteMessage) called, system tray will not receive the message because of notification key is not in the response. Shows LargeIcon and BigPicture in the notification bar

Code

 private void sendNotification(Bitmap bitmap,  String title, String 
    message, PendingIntent resultPendingIntent) {

    NotificationCompat.BigPictureStyle style = new NotificationCompat.BigPictureStyle();
    style.bigPicture(bitmap);

    Uri defaultSound = RingtoneManager.getDefaultUri(RingtoneManager.TYPE_NOTIFICATION);

    NotificationManager notificationManager = (NotificationManager) mContext.getSystemService(Context.NOTIFICATION_SERVICE);
    String NOTIFICATION_CHANNEL_ID = mContext.getString(R.string.default_notification_channel_id);

    if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.O) {
        NotificationChannel notificationChannel = new NotificationChannel(NOTIFICATION_CHANNEL_ID, "channel_name", NotificationManager.IMPORTANCE_HIGH);

        notificationManager.createNotificationChannel(notificationChannel);
    }
    Bitmap iconLarge = BitmapFactory.decodeResource(mContext.getResources(),
            R.drawable.mdmlogo);
    NotificationCompat.Builder notificationBuilder = new NotificationCompat.Builder(mContext, NOTIFICATION_CHANNEL_ID)
            .setSmallIcon(R.drawable.mdmlogo)
            .setContentTitle(title)
            .setAutoCancel(true)
            .setSound(defaultSound)
            .setContentText(message)
            .setContentIntent(resultPendingIntent)
            .setStyle(style)
            .setLargeIcon(iconLarge)
            .setWhen(System.currentTimeMillis())
            .setPriority(Notification.PRIORITY_MAX)
            .setChannelId(NOTIFICATION_CHANNEL_ID);


    notificationManager.notify(1, notificationBuilder.build());


}

Reference Link:

https://firebase.google.com/docs/cloud-messaging/android/receive

The point which deserves highlighting is that you have to use data message - data key only - to get onMessageReceived handler called even when the app is in background. You shouldn't have any other notification message key in your payload, otherwise the handler won't get triggered if the app is in background.

It is mentioned (but not so emphasized in FCM documentation) here:

https://firebase.google.com/docs/cloud-messaging/concept-options#notifications_and_data_messages

Use your app server and FCM server API: Set the data key only. Can be either collapsible or non-collapsible.

I was having the same issue and did some more digging on this. When the app is in the background, a notification message is sent to the system tray, BUT a data message is sent to onMessageReceived()
See https://firebase.google.com/docs/cloud-messaging/downstream#monitor-token-generation_3
and https://github.com/firebase/quickstart-android/blob/master/messaging/app/src/main/java/com/google/firebase/quickstart/fcm/MyFirebaseMessagingService.java

To ensure that the message you are sending, the docs say, "Use your app server and FCM server API: Set the data key only. Can be either collapsible or non-collapsible."
See https://firebase.google.com/docs/cloud-messaging/concept-options#notifications_and_data_messages

Just call this in your MainActivity's onCreate Method :

if (getIntent().getExtras() != null) {
           // Call your NotificationActivity here..
            Intent intent = new Intent(MainActivity.this, NotificationActivity.class);
            startActivity(intent);
        }

I got the same issue. If the app is foreground - it triggers my background service where I can update my database based on the notification type. But, the app goes to the background - the default notification service will be taken care to show the notification to the user.

Here is my solution to identify app in background and trigger your background service,

public class FirebaseBackgroundService extends WakefulBroadcastReceiver {

  private static final String TAG = "FirebaseService";

  @Override
  public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {
    Log.d(TAG, "I'm in!!!");

    if (intent.getExtras() != null) {
      for (String key : intent.getExtras().keySet()) {
        Object value = intent.getExtras().get(key);
        Log.e("FirebaseDataReceiver", "Key: " + key + " Value: " + value);
        if(key.equalsIgnoreCase("gcm.notification.body") && value != null) {
          Bundle bundle = new Bundle();
          Intent backgroundIntent = new Intent(context, BackgroundSyncJobService.class);
          bundle.putString("push_message", value + "");
          backgroundIntent.putExtras(bundle);
          context.startService(backgroundIntent);
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

In the manifest.xml

<receiver android:exported="true" android:name=".FirebaseBackgroundService" android:permission="com.google.android.c2dm.permission.SEND">
            <intent-filter>
                <action android:name="com.google.android.c2dm.intent.RECEIVE" />
            </intent-filter>
        </receiver>

Tested this solution in latest android 8.0 version. Thanks

Check the answer of @Mahesh Kavathiya. For my case, in server code has only like this:

{
"notification": {
  "body": "here is body",
  "title": "Title",
 },
 "to": "sdfjsdfonsdofoiewj9230idsjkfmnkdsfm"
}

You need to change to:

{
 "data": {
  "body": "here is body",
  "title": "Title",
  "click_action": "YOUR_ACTION"
 },
"notification": {
  "body": "here is body",
  "title": "Title"
 },
 "to": "sdfjsdfonsdofoiewj9230idsjkfmnkdsfm"
}

Then, in case app in Background, the default activity intent extra will get "data"

Good luck!

Just override the OnCreate method of FirebaseMessagingService. It is called when your app is in background:

public override void OnCreate()
{
    // your code
    base.OnCreate();
}

Here is more clear concepts about firebase message. I found it from their support team.

Firebase has three message types:

Notification messages : Notification message works on background or foreground. When app is in background, Notification messages are delivered to the system tray. If the app is in the foreground, messages are handled by onMessageReceived() or didReceiveRemoteNotification callbacks. These are essentially what is referred to as Display messages.

Data messages: On Android platform, data message can work on background and foreground. The data message will be handled by onMessageReceived(). A platform specific note here would be: On Android, the data payload can be retrieved in the Intent used to launch your activity. To elaborate, if you have "click_action":"launch_Activity_1", you can retrieve this intent through getIntent() from only Activity_1.

Messages with both notification and data payloads: When in the background, apps receive the notification payload in the notification tray, and only handle the data payload when the user taps on the notification. When in the foreground, your app receives a message object with both payloads available. Secondly, the click_action parameter is often used in notification payload and not in data payload. If used inside data payload, this parameter would be treated as custom key-value pair and therefore you would need to implement custom logic for it to work as intended.

Also, I recommend you to use onMessageReceived method (see Data message) to extract the data bundle. From your logic, I checked the bundle object and haven't found expected data content. Here is a reference to a similar case which might provide more clarity.

From server side, firebase notification should bellow format:

Server side should send "notification" object. Lacks of "notification" object in my TargetActivity didn't getting message using getIntent().

Correct message format is given bellow:

{
 "data": {
  "body": "here is body",
  "title": "Title"
 },
"notification": {
  "body": "here is body",
  "title": "Title",
  "click_action": "YOUR_ACTION"
 },
 "to": "ffEseX6vwcM:APA91bF8m7wOF MY FCM ID 07j1aPUb"
}

Here is more clear concepts about firebase message. I found it from their support team.

For more info visit my this thread and this thread

Try this:

public void handleIntent(Intent intent) {
    try {
        if (intent.getExtras() != null) {
            RemoteMessage.Builder builder = new RemoteMessage.Builder("MyFirebaseMessagingService");
            for (String key : intent.getExtras().keySet()) {
            builder.addData(key, intent.getExtras().get(key).toString());
        }
            onMessageReceived(builder.build());
        } else {
            super.handleIntent(intent);
        }
    } catch (Exception e) {
        super.handleIntent(intent);
    }
}

according to the solution from t3h Exi i would like to post the clean code here. Just put it into MyFirebaseMessagingService and everything works fine if the app is in background mode. You need at least to compile com.google.firebase:firebase-messaging:10.2.1

 @Override
public void handleIntent(Intent intent)
{
    try
    {
        if (intent.getExtras() != null)
        {
            RemoteMessage.Builder builder = new RemoteMessage.Builder("MyFirebaseMessagingService");

            for (String key : intent.getExtras().keySet())
            {
                builder.addData(key, intent.getExtras().get(key).toString());
            }



           onMessageReceived(builder.build());
        }
        else
        {
            super.handleIntent(intent);
        }
    }
    catch (Exception e)
    {
        super.handleIntent(intent);
    }
}

I had the same problem. It is easier to use the 'data message' instead of the 'notification'. The data message always load the class onMessageReceived.

In that class you can make your own notification with the notificationbuilder.

Example:

 @Override
    public void onMessageReceived(RemoteMessage remoteMessage) {
        sendNotification(remoteMessage.getData().get("title"),remoteMessage.getData().get("body"));
    }

    private void sendNotification(String messageTitle,String messageBody) {
        Intent intent = new Intent(this, MainActivity.class);
        intent.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TOP);
        PendingIntent pendingIntent = PendingIntent.getActivity(this,0 /* request code */, intent,PendingIntent.FLAG_UPDATE_CURRENT);

        long[] pattern = {500,500,500,500,500};

        Uri defaultSoundUri= RingtoneManager.getDefaultUri(RingtoneManager.TYPE_NOTIFICATION);

        NotificationCompat.Builder notificationBuilder = (NotificationCompat.Builder) new NotificationCompat.Builder(this)
                .setSmallIcon(R.drawable.ic_stat_name)
                .setContentTitle(messageTitle)
                .setContentText(messageBody)
                .setAutoCancel(true)
                .setVibrate(pattern)
                .setLights(Color.BLUE,1,1)
                .setSound(defaultSoundUri)
                .setContentIntent(pendingIntent);

        NotificationManager notificationManager = (NotificationManager) getSystemService(Context.NOTIFICATION_SERVICE);
        notificationManager.notify(0 /* ID of notification */, notificationBuilder.build());
    }

If app is in the background mode or inactive(killed), and you click on Notification, you should check for the payload in LaunchScreen(in my case launch screen is MainActivity.java).

So in MainActivity.java on onCreate check for Extras:

    if (getIntent().getExtras() != null) {
        for (String key : getIntent().getExtras().keySet()) {
            Object value = getIntent().getExtras().get(key);
            Log.d("MainActivity: ", "Key: " + key + " Value: " + value);
        }
    }

you can try this in your main Activity , when in the background

   if (getIntent().getExtras() != null) {
            for (String key : getIntent().getExtras().keySet()) {
                Object value = getIntent().getExtras().get(key);
                Log.d(TAG, "Key: " + key + " Value: " + value);
            }
        }

Check the following project as reference

There are 2 types of Firebase push-notifications:

1- Notification message(Display message) -> -- 1.1 If you choose this variant, the OS will create it self a notification if app is in Background and will pass the data in the intent. Then it's up to the client to handle this data.

-- 1.2 If the app is in Foreground then the notification it will be received via callback-function in the FirebaseMessagingService and it's up to the client to handle it.

2- Data messages(up to 4k data) -> These messages are used to send only data to the client(silently) and it's up to the client to handle it for both cases background/foreground via callback-function in FirebaseMessagingService

This is according official docs:https://firebase.google.com/docs/cloud-messaging/concept-options

The backend I'm working with is using Notification messages and not Data messages. So after reading all the answers I tried to retrieve the extras from the bundle of the intent that comes to the launched activity. But no matter which keys I tried to retrieve from getIntent().getExtras();, the value was always null.

However, I finally found a way to send data using Notification messages and retrieve it from the intent.

The key here is to add the data payload to the Notification message.

Example:

{
    "data": {
        "message": "message_body",
        "title": "message_title"
    },
    "notification": {
        "body": "test body",
        "title": "test title"
    },
    "to": "E4An.."
}

After you do this, you will be able to get your info in this way:

intent.getExtras().getString("title") will be message_title

and intent.getExtras().getString("message") will be message_body

Reference

By default the Launcher Activity in you app will be launched when your app is in background and you click the notification, if you have any data part with your notifcation you can handle it in the same activity as follows,

if(getIntent().getExtras()! = null){
  //do your stuff
}else{
  //do that you normally do
}

I had this issue(app doesn't want to open on notification click if app is in background or closed), and the problem was an invalid click_action in notification body, try removing or changing it to something valid.

If your problem is related to showing Big Image i.e. if you are sending push notification with an image from firebase console and it displays the image only if the app in the foreground. The solution for this problem is to send a push message with only data field. Something like this:

{ "data": { "image": "https://static.pexels.com/photos/4825/red-love-romantic-flowers.jpg", "message": "Firebase Push Message Using API" "AnotherActivity": "True" }, "to" : "device id Or Device token" }

There are two types of messages: notification messages and data messages. If you only send data message, that is without notification object in your message string. It would be invoked when your app in background.