Cannot get the NotificationListenerService class to work

In my experience, almost all of these answers are so damn close to the right solution!

The CORE problem seems to happen during development; as you are developing your code the “Notification access” settings stop being honored when you update your app between debug sessions.

If your APK/binary changes and your NotificationListenerService stops:

• Rebooting fixes it.
• Going back in to “Notification access” and disabling and re-enabling your app it fixes it.

Hopefully this isn’t a problem when updating your app through Google Play.

As a best practice, for my app I add an overflow menu option that only shows up in non-release builds that allows me easy access to the settings:

NotificationListener.java:

public class NotificationListener
    extends NotificationListenerService
    implements RemoteController.OnClientUpdateListener
{
    private static final int VERSION_SDK_INT = VERSION.SDK_INT;

    public static boolean supportsNotificationListenerSettings()
    {
        return VERSION_SDK_INT >= 19;
    }

    @SuppressLint("InlinedApi")
    @TargetApi(19)
    public static Intent getIntentNotificationListenerSettings()
    {
        final String ACTION_NOTIFICATION_LISTENER_SETTINGS;
        if (VERSION_SDK_INT >= 22)
        {
            ACTION_NOTIFICATION_LISTENER_SETTINGS = Settings.ACTION_NOTIFICATION_LISTENER_SETTINGS;
        }
        else
        {
            ACTION_NOTIFICATION_LISTENER_SETTINGS = "android.settings.ACTION_NOTIFICATION_LISTENER_SETTINGS";
        }

        return new Intent(ACTION_NOTIFICATION_LISTENER_SETTINGS);
    }

    ...
}

menu_my_activity.xml:

<menu
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    tools:context=".MyActivity"
    >

    <item
        android:id="@+id/action_application_info"
        android:title="@string/action_application_info"
        app:showAsAction="never"
        />

    <item
        android:id="@+id/action_notification_settings"
        android:title="Notification Settings"
        app:showAsAction="never"
        />

</menu>

MyActivity.java:

@Override
public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu)
{
    getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.menu_my_activity, menu);
    return super.onCreateOptionsMenu(menu);
}

@Override
public boolean onPrepareOptionsMenu(Menu menu)
{
    MenuItem menuItem;
    menuItem = menu.findItem(R.id.action_application_info);
    if (menuItem != null)
    {
        menuItem.setVisible(BuildConfig.DEBUG);
    }
    menuItem = menu.findItem(R.id.action_notification_settings);
    if (menuItem != null)
    {
        menuItem.setVisible(BuildConfig.DEBUG && NotificationListener.supportsNotificationListenerSettings());
    }
    return super.onPrepareOptionsMenu(menu);
}

@Override
public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item)
{
    switch (item.getItemId())
    {
        case R.id.action_application_info:
            startActivity(new Intent(Settings.ACTION_APPLICATION_DETAILS_SETTINGS, Uri.parse("package:" + getPackageName())));
            return true;
        case R.id.action_notification_settings:
            startActivity(NotificationListener.getIntentNotificationListenerSettings());
            return true;
        default:
            return super.onOptionsItemSelected(item);
    }
}