Source: https://docs.expo.dev/push-notifications/receiving-notifications

Hide navigation

Ctrl K

Home Guides EAS Reference Learn

Archive Expo Snack Discord and Forums Newsletter

Handle incoming notifications

Edit page

Copy page

Learn how to respond to a notification received by your app and take action based on the event.

Edit page

Copy page

The expo-notifications library contains event listeners that handle how your app responds when receiving a notification.

Notification event listeners

The addNotificationReceivedListener and addNotificationResponseReceivedListener event listeners receive an object when a notification is received or interacted with.

These listeners allow you to add behavior when notifications are received while your app is open and foregrounded and when your app is backgrounded or closed and the user taps on the notification.

useEffect(() => { registerForPushNotificationsAsync().then(token => setExpoPushToken(token)); const notificationListener = Notifications.addNotificationReceivedListener(notification => { console.log(notification); }); const responseListener = Notifications.addNotificationResponseReceivedListener(response => { console.log(response); }); return () => { notificationListener.remove(); responseListener.remove(); }; }, []);

Android notification object example from addNotificationReceivedListener

Sample of the notification object received by the callback function when using Notifications.addNotificationReceivedListener:

// console.log(notification); { "request": { "trigger": { "remoteMessage": { "originalPriority": 2, "sentTime": 1724782348210, "notification": { "usesDefaultVibrateSettings": false, "color": null, "channelId": null, "visibility": null, "sound": null, "tag": null, "bodyLocalizationArgs": null, "imageUrl": null, "title": "Chat App", "ticker": null, "eventTime": null, "body": "New message from John Doe", "titleLocalizationKey": null, "notificationPriority": null, "icon": null, "usesDefaultLightSettings": false, "sticky": false, "link": null, "titleLocalizationArgs": null, "bodyLocalizationKey": null, "usesDefaultSound": false, "clickAction": null, "localOnly": false, "lightSettings": null, "notificationCount": null }, "data": { "channelId": "default", "message": "New message from John Doe", "title": "Chat App", "body": "{\"senderId\":\"user123\",\"senderName\":\"John Doe\",\"messageId\":\"msg789\",\"conversationId\":\"conversation-456\",\"messageType\":\"text\",\"timestamp\":1724766427}", "scopeKey": "@betoatexpo/expo-notifications-app", "experienceId": "@betoatexpo/expo-notifications-app", "projectId": "51092087-87a4-4b12-8008-145625477434" }, "to": null, "ttl": 0, "collapseKey": "dev.expo.notificationsapp", "messageType": null, "priority": 2, "from": "115310547649", "messageId": "0:1724782348220771%0f02879c0f02879c" }, "channelId": "default", "type": "push" }, "content": { "autoDismiss": true, "title": "Chat App", "badge": null, "sticky": false, "sound": "default", "body": "New message from John Doe", "subtitle": null, "data": { "senderId": "user123", "senderName": "John Doe", "messageId": "msg789", "conversationId": "conversation-456", "messageType": "text", "timestamp": 1724766427 } }, "identifier": "0:1724782348220771%0f02879c0f02879c" }, "date": 1724782348210 }

You can directly access the notification custom data by logging the notification.request.content.data object:

// console.log(notification.request.content.data); { "senderId": "user123", "senderName": "John Doe", "messageId": "msg789", "conversationId": "conversation-456", "messageType": "text", "timestamp": 1724766427 } iOS notification object example from addNotificationReceivedListener

Sample of the notification object received by the callback function when using Notifications.addNotificationReceivedListener:

// console.log(notification); { "request": { "trigger": { "class": "UNPushNotificationTrigger", "type": "push", "payload": { "experienceId": "@betoatexpo/expo-notifications-app", "projectId": "51092087-87a4-4b12-8008-145625477434", "scopeKey": "@betoatexpo/expo-notifications-app", "aps": { "thread-id": "", "category": "", "badge": 1, "alert": { "subtitle": "Hey there! How's your day going?", "title": "Chat App", "launch-image": "", "body": "New message from John Doe" }, "sound": "default" }, "body": { "messageId": "msg789", "timestamp": 1724766427, "messageType": "text", "senderId": "user123", "senderName": "John Doe", "conversationId": "conversation-456" } } }, "identifier": "3AEB849E-9059-4D09-BC3B-9A0B104CF062", "content": { "body": "New message from John Doe", "sound": "default", "launchImageName": "", "badge": 1, "subtitle": "Hey there! How's your day going?", "title": "Chat App", "data": { "conversationId": "conversation-456", "senderName": "John Doe", "senderId": "user123", "messageType": "text", "timestamp": 1724766427, "messageId": "msg789" }, "summaryArgument": null, "categoryIdentifier": "", "attachments": [], "interruptionLevel": "active", "threadIdentifier": "", "targetContentIdentifier": null, "summaryArgumentCount": 0 } }, "date": 1724798493.0589335 }

You can directly access the notification custom data by logging the notification.request.content.data object:

For more information on these objects, see Notification documentation.

Foreground notification behavior

To handle the behavior when notifications are received when your app is foregrounded, use Notifications.setNotificationHandler with the handleNotification() callback to set the following options:

shouldPlaySound
shouldSetBadge
shouldShowBanner
shouldShowList

Notifications.setNotificationHandler({ handleNotification: async () => ({ shouldPlaySound: false, shouldSetBadge: false, shouldShowBanner: true, shouldShowList: true, }), });

Closed notification behavior

On Android, users can set certain OS-level settings, usually revolving around performance and battery optimization, that can prevent notifications from being delivered when the app is closed. For example, one such setting is the Deep Clear option on OnePlus devices using Android 9 and lower versions.