Android 5.0—Lollipop (API 21) introduced a new type of notification called the Heads-Up Notification. Many people do not care for this new notification as it can be extremely intrusive, as it forces its way on top of other apps. (See the following screenshot.) Keep this in mind when using this type of notification. We're going to demonstrate the Heads-Up Notification with a Flashlight as this demonstrates a good use-case scenario.
Here's a screenshot showing the Heads-Up Notification we'll create further on:
If you have a device running Android 6.0, you may have noticed the new Flashlight settings option. As a demonstration, we're going to create something similar in this recipe.
Create a new project in Android Studio and call it: FlashlightWithHeadsUp
. When prompted for the API level, we need API 23 (or higher) for this project. Select Empty Activity when prompted for the Activity Type.