Google FCM getIntent returns null when app is not running or when app is in background

[thomasdsouza]

• Android device: Nexus 5 or emulator
• Android OS version: Android N or Android M
• Google Play Services version: 9.2.1
• Firebase/Play Services SDK version: 9.2.1

Steps to reproduce:

1. Using the Firebase console (or via the REST API), send a notification with custom data (for e.g. key "discount" value "10" )
2. app is in background or not running

Observed Results:

though, the notification does appear in the system tray, the data is NOT available in the intent... either in onNewIntent or in onCreate, the extras is null.

Expected Results:

According to the Firebase Notifications docs, when App State is Background and a Notification with data is sent, the notification appears in the system try and the data will be available in the extras of the intent.

@OverRide
public void onCreatet() {
Bundle extras = getintent().getExtras();
---> extras is always null when app is not running or when app is in background
}

@Override
public void onNewIntent(Intent intent) {
    Bundle extras = intent.getExtras();
    ---> extras is always null when app is not running or when app is in background
}

Remarks: The data is available when App State is in the Foreground. But the notification console is pretty much unusable with this bug because ALL (background, app not running, foreground) users need to be able to get the data in a notification. Otherwise, how does a developer know what data a user saw or didn't see (e.g. whether a user was shown the discount 10% or not).

[2ndGAB]

Hello,
I didn't tried to receive data when the app is in background from the intent but from onMessageReceive() only because an app in backkground is supposed to receive data-message in background from this callback.
Such kind of message for example, if you send it with Google Advanced REST Client to https://fcm.googleapis.com/fcm/send:

{
  "to" : "c_Tzsc5zYY0:APA91bGWj8vv-fz...EOsaawtYcar40M31CxhBgLhh",
  "data": {
    "id": 19,
    "title": "Title test",
    "msg": "Text of the test",
  },
  "delay_while_idle" : false,
  "priority" : "high",
  "content_available" : true  // for iOS only can be ignored for Android
}

So that way, you are able to create yourself even a custom notification whether the application is in foreground or background.

But just a question, what Android Studio version do you use?

[thomasdsouza]

Hi @2ndGAB , I am aware of the data only msgs being received in onMessageReceived( ) and i use that for certain purposes and it works correctly for me. But there are cases where we want the "target" (the "to") to be chosen from the console and not maintain a list of millions of FCM device tokens. Also, console provides useful options such being able to time the delivery based on recipient's time zone etc,

Android Studio 2.1.2

[2ndGAB]

@thomasdsouza I'm very surprised that your projects built from Studio 2.1.2 are able to receive data messages in onMessageReceive() because that really don't work for me. Only if I build the project from Studio 1.5 https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=217489

[kroikie]

Hi @thomasdsouza you should be getting that data in the launched intent. I just sent a notification from the console that contained a custom data pair like you specified and here is the output from the extras of my intent:

D/MainActivity: Key: google.sent_time Value: 1469632806844
D/MainActivity: Key: from Value: /topics/news
D/MainActivity: Key: discount Value: 10
D/MainActivity: Key: google.message_id Value: 0:1469632807251042%31bd1c9631bd1c96
D/MainActivity: Key: collapse_key Value: com.google.firebase.quickstart.fcm

Have you made any changes to the quickstart?

[thomasdsouza]

Hi @kroikie, thank you for your reply.
[apologies for the delay in replying... have been traveling past couple of days...]
i just set up new project with the quickstart code (no modifications) and wanted to test the issue but now i am receiving an error when trying to sending a notification in the console.

[kroikie]

HI @thomasdsouza there was an outage of the Firebase console, I think that could have been the reason for your issue. This issue has been resolved and the console should be working as expected now. Before going deeper into this issue could you confirm that you are indeed unable to send messages from the console?

[thomasdsouza]

Hi @kroikie, thank you for your reply.
I can confirm that i can send messages from the console.
Also, I can confirm that, the data is now available in the intent... in onNewIntent( ) or in onCreate( ) as the case may be. At this point i can say that i have thoroughly tested my scenarios and the functionality is working in accordance with your specification/documentation.
Thank you very much for your help!

[kroikie]

The console should be working as expected now.

[nibha181]

@kroikie :- Can you help me on this!!

I have created a project including FCM notifications, when I send notifications from console and my app is on background I always get null on onNewIntent method.

When My app is already open then only my onMessageReceived method from FirebaseMessagingService get called,so I handled the same thing in MainActivity too.

I have called onNewIntent method for performing some task.

     public void onNewIntent(Intent intent) {
      Bundle extras = intent.getExtras(); // always null

       if (extras != null) {
         //perform some task 
      }
     }

Android Studio 2.1.1

gradle dependencies :

compile 'com.google.firebase:firebase-analytics:9.2.0'
compile 'com.google.firebase:firebase-messaging:9.2.0'
compile 'com.google.firebase:firebase-ads:9.2.0'
compile 'com.google.firebase:firebase-auth:9.2.0'
compile 'com.google.firebase:firebase-crash:9.2.0'

Thanks!!

[kroikie]

I don't think the data from a message sent from the console will be available in an intent that results in onNewIntent being called. If your app is in the background and you send a message from the console then that would result in a notification being displayed on the device and if tapped the data will be in the intent of the Activity that launches. Try getting the extras from the onCreate method of the MainActivity.

[nibha181]

you are right @kroikie
If your app is in the background and you send a message from the console then that would result in a notification being displayed on the device and if tapped the data will be in the intent of the Activity that launches

I am calling the onNewIntent on onCreate only but the problem is I am getting null when I send notifications from console.

[nibha181]

@kroikie : Is there any possibility to solve this issue? could you suggest what could be wrong with my app? Why I am getting null when received notification from FireBase console?

[saurabh-sablok]

@thomasdsouza how did u solve this issue, i am still facing the same, when app is in background.
Working fine when app is closed.