Android Application Development For Dummies, 2nd Edition

Deconstructing the Status Bar

Figure 14-1 shows the status bar, the area where you can notify the user of an event. The status bar can hold many icons. The status bar shown in Figure 14-1 holds, starting on the left, a calendar notification announcing an appointment, and an icon signifying that USB debugging is enabled.

Figure 14-1: The status bar, with a couple icons present.

Users can also swipe the status bar downward to see more information, as shown in Figure 14-2. Every status bar icon now has an expanded view, where more information can be shown.

Figure 14-2: Opening the status bar.

You can inform users of various activities, such as device state, mail notifications, and even download progress, as shown in Figure 14-3.

Figure 14-3: The progress loader on the status bar.

Adding an icon to the status bar isn’t your only option for alerting the user to a notification. You can augment a notification using one — or more — of these three options:

Vibration: The device vibrates briefly when a notification is received — useful when the device is in the user’s pocket. ...