How to increment application badge number for recurring local notification (iPhone)

Question

I've setup a local notification that repeats every minute, however I need the application badge number to increment each time. When I run it at the moment it doesn't seem to increase, it just stays a 1. Please can someone help me out?

Here is how I create the notifications:

// Create the UILocalNotification
UILocalNotification *myNotification = [[UILocalNotification alloc] init];
myNotification.alertBody = @"Blah blah blah...";
myNotification.alertAction = @"Blah";
myNotification.soundName = UILocalNotificationDefaultSoundName;
myNotification.applicationIconBadgeNumber++;
myNotification.timeZone = [NSTimeZone defaultTimeZone];
myNotification.repeatInterval = NSMinuteCalendarUnit;
myNotification.fireDate = [[NSDate date] dateByAddingTimeInterval:30];
[[UIApplication sharedApplication] scheduleLocalNotification:myNotification];

@HeikoG I have added the code I use to create the notifications. — , Feb 12 '12 at 18:01
@TheCrazyChimp did you ever find a solution for this problem? — d.ennis, May 11 '12 at 15:42

score 21 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 11:46

21

After doing lot's of research I figured out the solution is that there is no solution:

iPhone: Incrementing the application badge through a local notification

It is not possible to update dynamically the badge number with local notifications while your app is in the background. You have to use push notifications.

edited May 23 '17 at 11:46

Community

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answered May 11 '12 at 15:57

d.ennis

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While this answer is technically correct, you can actually accomplish what The Crazy Chimp wants to do with a little extra work using the shared UIApplication instance. Every time that you schedule a new local notification or the app loads, you can use the 'scheduledLocalNotifications' property and the 'cancelAllLocalNotifications' property to cancel all future notifications and reassign badge counts to future local notifications by enumerating through them in chronological order & incrementing the badge number you assign. Def not as easy as typing applicationBadgeNumber++, but it works. – BFar Mar 14 '14 at 06:14
+1 to this user's comment. I tested this approach and it works. Here goes a more complete explanation of the implementation: http://stackoverflow.com/a/15461328/2546416 – Tiago A. Feb 06 '15 at 16:35
1

yep but that won't work if you're using repeatInterval.. if you're app is never started again and you can't predict badge value (because you're having a daily repeat interval) then you can't increment... – Hugues BR Nov 09 '15 at 13:14

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 17 '15 at 22:55

1

If you use an outside service such as Parse for Push, this should be easily done. Just increment Parses badge number when a local notification is fired. Although, this is a special case.

answered Nov 17 '15 at 22:55

Mark

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score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 04 '15 at 21:33

While there's no simple applicationIconBadgeNumber++ method, as BFar mentioned, you can achieve what you're asking by updating all of the scheduled UILocalNotifications' applicationIconBadgeNumbers whenever a notification is added or removed.

While this won't work if you have notices that use repeatInterval, as long as you call scheduleNotification and decrementBadgeNumber at the right times, the class below should do the trick.

@implementation NotificationScheduler

+ (void) scheduleNotification:(NSString*)message date:(NSDate*)date {
    UIApplication *app = [UIApplication sharedApplication];
    UILocalNotification *notification = [[UILocalNotification alloc] init];
    if (notification) {
        notification.fireDate = date;
        notification.timeZone = [NSTimeZone defaultTimeZone];

        notification.alertBody = message;
        notification.soundName = UILocalNotificationDefaultSoundName;
        notification.applicationIconBadgeNumber = [self getExpectedApplicationIconBadgeNumber:date];

        [app scheduleLocalNotification:notification];
        [self updateBadgeCountsForQueuedNotifiations];
    }
}

+ (void) decrementBadgeNumber:(long)amount {
    [self setCurrentBadgeNumber:([self getCurrentBadgeNumber] - amount)];
    [self updateBadgeCountsForQueuedNotifiations];
}

+ (long) getExpectedApplicationIconBadgeNumber:(NSDate*)notificationDate {
    long number = [self getCurrentBadgeNumber];
    for (UILocalNotification *notice in [self getScheduledLocalNotifications]) {
        if (notice.fireDate <= notificationDate) {
            number++;
        }
    }
    return number;
}

+ (void) updateBadgeCountsForScheduledNotifiations {
    long expectedBadgeNumber = [self getCurrentBadgeNumber];
    NSArray *allLocalNotifications = [self getScheduledLocalNotifications];
    for (UILocalNotification *notice in allLocalNotifications) {
        expectedBadgeNumber++;
        notice.applicationIconBadgeNumber = expectedBadgeNumber;
    }
    [[UIApplication sharedApplication] setScheduledLocalNotifications:allLocalNotifications];
}

+ (long) getCurrentBadgeNumber {
    return [UIApplication sharedApplication].applicationIconBadgeNumber;
}

+ (void) setCurrentBadgeNumber:(long)number {
    [UIApplication sharedApplication].applicationIconBadgeNumber = number;
}

+ (NSArray*) getScheduledLocalNotifications {
    NSSortDescriptor * fireDateDesc = [NSSortDescriptor sortDescriptorWithKey:@"fireDate" ascending:YES];
    return [[[UIApplication sharedApplication] scheduledLocalNotifications] sortedArrayUsingDescriptors:@[fireDateDesc]];
}

@end

it missing updateBadgeCountsForQueuedNotifiations method implementation ... please update it ... — dev_m, Jun 15 '16 at 12:27

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Jun 21 '16 at 14:23

I was able to do it using the following line while schedule the local notification

localNotification.applicationIconBadgeNumber = [UIApplication sharedApplication].applicationIconBadgeNumber + 1;

and on the other end in the appdelegate

- (void)application:(UIApplication *)application didReceiveLocalNotification:(UILocalNotification *)notification {

    application.applicationIconBadgeNumber -= 1;
}

score -1 · Answer 5 · answered Jun 15 '16 at 13:31

-1

Try this ... it worked for me in simple scenario ...

notification.applicationIconBadgeNumber = [UIApplication sharedApplication].scheduledLocalNotifications.count + 1;

And don't forget to set badge icon back to 0 when app launch.

answered Jun 15 '16 at 13:31

dev_m

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score -1 · Answer 6 · answered Feb 12 '12 at 18:06

-1

Try something like:

int plusOne = [myNotification.applicationIconBadgeNumber intValue];
plusOne++;

myNotification.applicationIconBadgeNumber = plusOne;

answered Feb 12 '12 at 18:06

WrightsCS

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Unfortunately this didn't work for me - thanks for the suggestion though. – Feb 12 '12 at 18:19

score -1 · Answer 7 · answered Mar 18 '12 at 18:02

-1

This should work.

myNotification.applicationIconBadgeNumber = [[UIApplication sharedApplication] applicationIconBadgeNumber] + 1;

answered Mar 18 '12 at 18:02

aumanets

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How to increment application badge number for recurring local notification (iPhone)

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