NotificationCompat Ticker Text Not Showing When Updating Notification

Question

Background

This is an app I am writing to familiarize myself with some of the APIs, it serves no real purpose other than to demonstrate some functionality in Android. I have a Service that is running in the foreground (startForeground), and has an ongoing Notification that when tapped returns to the application. The Service listens for broadcasts and logs them to a DB.

Start Service, Create Notification

I create my Notification using NotificationCompat.Builder in onCreate of the Service:

@Override
public void onCreate() {
    super.onCreate();
    Log.v(TAG, "onCreate");

    // Get the notification manager to update notifications
    mNotificationManager = (NotificationManager) getSystemService(Context.NOTIFICATION_SERVICE);

    Intent openAppIntent = new Intent(this, MainActivity.class);
    openAppIntent.setFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TOP | Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_SINGLE_TOP);
    PendingIntent selectNotifPendingIntent = PendingIntent.getActivity(this, 0, openAppIntent, 0);

    // Build the notification to show
    mNotificationBuilder = new NotificationCompat.Builder(this)
    .setContentTitle("Monitor Service")
    .setContentText("Logging system events")
    .setTicker("Starting monitor service")
    .setSmallIcon(R.drawable.ic_stat_cloud)
    .setContentIntent(selectNotifPendingIntent)
    .setOnlyAlertOnce(false)
    .setPriority(NotificationCompat.PRIORITY_LOW)
    .setUsesChronometer(true);

    // Start service in foreground
    startForeground(MonitorService.NOTIFICATION_ID_FOREGROUND, mNotificationBuilder.build());

    // more code....

}

When the Service starts, the Notification and ticker text are both shown on all versions of Android:

Next, Update Notification

I also added a callback interface to my Service, that would update the Notification by changing the ticker text and content text:

@Override
public void updateNotificationTicker(String newTickerText) {
    Log.d(TAG, "updateNotificationTicker");

    if (mNotificationBuilder != null && mNotificationManager != null) {
        mNotificationBuilder.setTicker(newTickerText);
        mNotificationBuilder.setContentText(newTickerText);
        mNotificationManager.notify(NOTIFICATION_ID_FOREGROUND, mNotificationBuilder.build());
    }
}

To test updating the Notification, I had my BroadcastReceiver listen for time tick broadcasts, and call updateNotificationTicker with the current time:

    else if (action.equals(android.content.Intent.ACTION_TIME_TICK)) {
        SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("h:mm aa", Locale.US);
        String message = "The time is now " + sdf.format(new Date());
        newLogEntry.setMessage(message);

        // Update the ticker notification with the time
        if (mNotificationCallback != null) {
            mNotificationCallback.updateNotificationTicker(message);
        }
    }

This works perfectly on (almost) every version of Android, as the ticker text flashes and the content text is updated on the Notification:

• Android 2.2 (API 8)
• Android 4.0.3 (API 15)
• Android 4.1.2 (API 16)
• Android 4.2.2 (API 17)

Different Behavior on Android 2.3.3

When run on an Android 2.3.3 (API 10) emulator or device, the ticker text is initially shown when first starting the Service (seen in the 1st screenshot: "Starting monitor service"). However, the ticker text is never shown when updating the Notification, even though the content text does update.

Questions

• Am I setting up my NotificationCompat.Builder in a way that is causing the ticker text to not show on Android 2.3.3?
• Or, does Android 2.3.3 behave differently from the other versions when showing the ticker text while updating an ongoing Notification?
• Or, is this a defect with NotificationCompat.Builder not working properly on Android 2.3.3?