Managing reminder alerts under device alarm system with scheduling initiated from an App.

dg2k 1,391

I have events in my app which are date-based ones (typical example: a todo item by a specific date). I want to implement a reminder of such events, say, within N days of due date for Maui (Android in the first instance).

On the due date, I want to give the user the option of "remind me after N hours or minutes" and I would like this to be managed outside of my app by the device alarm system. It means, what was a day based coarse time becomes finer on the due date, and say a user wants to be reminded of that even after 3 hours.

I think, managing of the timed-event outside of an app is a good idea as scheduled events are better managed by the system alarm rather than the app trying to do what the system can do better (one obvious advantage being saving battery life).

Can an App schedule an alarm event and leave that to the device OS, and if this is possible, can an App interrogate what is scheduled under its request?
A related question is, what Alarm API and manifest permissions would I require for Android?

Background: I have looked at the AndroidX WorkManager and AlarmManager APIs but they are all covered in the context of implementing the Alarm within an App, rather than offloading the task to the device alarm system which I am looking for.

Yonglun Liu (Shanghai Wicresoft Co,.Ltd.) 41,601 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2022-10-24T07:37:22.387+00:00

Do you mean you want to show a floating window when the alarm goes off to end or remind you a few minutes later?

If so, you need to use WindowManager to turn a Service into a floating window to achieve this effect.

Although the official Android documentation does not mention how to implement it, you can search Floating Window In Android to find relevant information.
dg2k 1,391 Reputation points

2022-10-24T13:42:24.663+00:00

@Tablet .
Hello @Yonglun Liu (Shanghai Wicresoft Co,.Ltd.) ,

[Sorry, earlier, by mistake I put my comment as an answer]

Thank you for your reply.

I never thought of the floating window, but good to know that too.

Here is what I want:

My App's event is date based, not hours or minutes. The user can set remind me events within a week or two weeks whatever, so the number of weeks can be set in Apps's setting. All that is dead easy.

Let's say, a to-do list is due today (example to pay credit card bills online). Now I want to help the user with the option of "remind me after 3 hours", as an example.

This reminder I do not want to do it within my App. I want to transfer this event as an alarm to the system alarm schedule and forget all about it. After that the user will interact with the alarm reminder, if the user wants by snoozing or cancelling it. All that need to be done by an alarm system as if the user entered the alarm manually. I wanted my App to help with setting the alarm schedule in the first place, in effect, offloading the alarm reminder task from my App to the device OS.
Yonglun Liu (Shanghai Wicresoft Co,.Ltd.) 41,601 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2022-10-25T09:08:11.103+00:00
After carefully analyzing your needs, using local notifications should be the most recommended approach.

Here is Why:

It is mentioned in the official documentation that local notifications are suitable for handling calendar events.

You can customize the view of local notifications to add controls, such as adding a button on your notifications to remind me after 3 hours or not. Please refer to setContent

Local notifications do not require special permissions, and are less difficult to implement than floating windows.

If you want to use this scenario, the following documentations would be helpful for you.

Invoke platform code.

Local notifications in Xamarin.Forms.
Yonglun Liu (Shanghai Wicresoft Co,.Ltd.) 41,601 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2022-10-28T08:50:48.577+00:00

May I know whether your issue has been solved or not? If not, please share it in here. We can work together to figure it out.
dg2k 1,391 Reputation points

2022-11-03T16:47:42.637+00:00

Sorry @Yonglun Liu (Shanghai Wicresoft Co,.Ltd.) , due to competing commitments, I didn't get a chance to try out what you suggested. I will give it a go soon. Thank you.
Yonglun Liu (Shanghai Wicresoft Co,.Ltd.) 41,601 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2022-11-04T01:18:59.523+00:00

Thanks for your feedback.

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