Requesting overlay and post notifications permission from Android 13

Question

I am extending support to an old app to Android 13 and I am seeing a lot of changes. First off, I've noticed that startActivityForResult is deprecated since Google decided to change how to handle permission requests and results.

Here there are few examples: OnActivityResult method is deprecated, what is the alternative? but honestly I did quite catch how the new way works. Only got that it seems that uses an Observer pattern.

This is how I am currently asking for overlay permissions:

   private void askForSystemOverlayPermission() {
        if (!Settings.canDrawOverlays(this)) {
            //If the draw over permission is not available open the settings screen
            //to grant the permission.
            Intent intent = new Intent(Settings.ACTION_MANAGE_OVERLAY_PERMISSION,
                    Uri.parse("package:" + getPackageName()));
            startActivityForResult(intent, DRAW_OVER_OTHER_APP_PERMISSION_REQUEST_CODE);
        }
    }

 @Override
    protected void onActivityResult(int requestCode, int resultCode, Intent data) {
        if (requestCode == DRAW_OVER_OTHER_APP_PERMISSION_REQUEST_CODE) {
            if (!Settings.canDrawOverlays(this)) {
                //Permission is not available. Display error text.
                errorToastDrawOverOtherApp();
                finish();
            }
        } else {
            super.onActivityResult(requestCode, resultCode, data);
        }
    }

can someone help me out?

Also I've noticed that now Google is requiring also permission to post notifications. I've already added the permission in the manifest file but I would still need help in handling the request permission. In my service I get the following line in red (issue):

this.notificationManager.notify(notificationID, notification);

because:

Call requires permission which may be rejected by user: code should explicitly check to see if permission is available (with checkPermission) or explicitly handle a potential SecurityException

And this is the suggested fix by the IDE:

 if (ActivityCompat.checkSelfPermission(this, Manifest.permission.POST_NOTIFICATIONS) != PackageManager.PERMISSION_GRANTED) {
            // TODO: Consider calling
            //    ActivityCompat#requestPermissions
            // here to request the missing permissions, and then overriding
            //   public void onRequestPermissionsResult(int requestCode, String[] permissions,
            //                                          int[] grantResults)
            // to handle the case where the user grants the permission. See the documentation
            // for ActivityCompat#requestPermissions for more details.
            return;
        }

Does this mean I need to check for permissions every time I send a notification or this only appears because I have not checked/requested for permission in the main activity or when I started the service?

Answer 1

First, This is a sample code for using ActivityResultContract which matches your use case.
Also, you can check this documentation.

public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {

    private final ActivityResultLauncher<Intent> startForResult = registerForActivityResult(new ActivityResultContracts.StartActivityForResult(), result -> {
        if (!Settings.canDrawOverlays(this)) {
            // Show error toast, etc..
            return;
        }

        // Do whatever you want
    });

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

        Intent intent = new Intent(Settings.ACTION_MANAGE_OVERLAY_PERMISSION,
                Uri.parse("package:" + getPackageName()));
        startForResult.launch(intent);
    }


}

Second, I recommend you check permission when you send a notification.
Even though a user allowed your app's notification permission in your application entry points like MainActivity or a service, Users can change the permission in the system setting whenever they want.
So it's a developer's responsibility to be ready for this scenario.