Badges

Pulsate supports two kinds of unread indicators:

App-icon badges — the dot/number on your launcher icon, driven by Android’s native notification badge mechanism.
In-app badges — unread counts you render inside your own UI (e.g. on an “Inbox” button).

App-icon badges

The SDK sets the badge count with NotificationCompat.setNumber() — the native Android API. Depending on the device and launcher this shows as a number, a dot, or nothing at all.

Badge visibility is a property of the SDK’s notification channel, controlled by PulsateConfig.NOTIFICATION_CHANNEL_SHOW_BADGES (default true). Set it in Application.onCreate() before the first notification:

override fun onCreate() {
    super.onCreate()
    PulsateConfig.NOTIFICATION_CHANNEL_SHOW_BADGES = false
}

For launchers that don’t honor the native API, combine the badge listener below with a third-party library such as ShortcutBadger.

In-app badges

Option 1 — `setBadgeUpdateListener` (real-time)

The SDK pushes badge updates to your listener on three events: leaving the Pulsate Inbox, session start, and receiving a push. Your callback can also modify the count by returning a different value:

class MyApp : Application() {
    override fun onCreate() {
        super.onCreate()
        val pulsateManager = PulsateFactory.getInstance()
        pulsateManager.setBadgeUpdateListener(object : IPulsateBadgeUpdateListener {
            override fun onBadgeUpdate(badge: Int): Int {
                ShortcutBadger.applyCount(this@MyApp, badge)
                return badge // return the (possibly adjusted) count the SDK should use
            }
        })
    }
}

Feeding the count into UI state via a ViewModel:

class MenuViewModel : ViewModel() {
    private val _badgeState = MutableLiveData(0)
    val badgeState: LiveData<Int> get() = _badgeState

    init {
        PulsateFactory.getInstance().setBadgeUpdateListener(
            object : IPulsateBadgeUpdateListener {
                override fun onBadgeUpdate(badge: Int): Int {
                    _badgeState.postValue(badge)
                    return badge
                }
            },
        )
    }
}

class MenuFragment : Fragment() {
    override fun onViewCreated(view: View, savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
        super.onViewCreated(view, savedInstanceState)
        menuViewModel.badgeState.observe(viewLifecycleOwner) { badge ->
            binding.inboxBtn.text = "INBOX $badge"
        }
    }
}

Option 2 — `getFeedUnreadCount` (on demand)

Query the unread count directly — for example after the user closes the Feed (onFeedClose) or after session start:

private fun updateBadge() {
    PulsateFactory.getInstance().getFeedUnreadCount(
        object : IPulsateValueListener<Int> {
            override fun onSuccess(value: Int) {
                binding.feedBtn.text = "Inbox ($value)"
            }
            override fun onError(e: Throwable) {
                e.printStackTrace()
            }
        },
    )
}

// Refresh when the user closes the Feed:
binding.feedBtn.setOnClickListener {
    PulsateFactory.getInstance().showFeed(object : IPulsateFeedListener {
        override fun onFeedClose() = updateBadge()
    })
}