How to preven 'onCreate' to be called when clicking on notification to open minimized app?

Question

In an app I'm making, if the app is minimized, using the code below I'll show a Notification using NotificationCompat.Builder, and when I click on the notification, if user is outside of the app, the app opens.

My problem is that when the app opens, the onCreate is called again which causes problems in the app, whereas if had opened the app by clicking on the icon in the launcher, onStart and onwards would be called. So is there a way to prevent calling onCreate?

I tried setting flags (Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TOP|Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_SINGLE_TOP) on the intent I use when creating PendingIntent object, but that didn't help.

public static void notificatePush(Context context, int 
notificationId, String tickerText, String contentTitle, String 
contentText, Intent intent) {
    NotificationCompat.Builder mBuilder = new NotificationCompat.Builder(context)
            .setSmallIcon(R.drawable.ic_launcher)
            .setContentTitle(contentTitle)
            .setContentText(contentText)
            .setTicker(tickerText);

    intent.setFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TOP
            | Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_SINGLE_TOP);//This didn't work

    PendingIntent resultPendingIntent = PendingIntent.getActivity(context, notificationId, intent, PendingIntent.FLAG_UPDATE_CURRENT);
    mBuilder.setContentIntent(resultPendingIntent);
    mBuilder.setAutoCancel(true);
    mBuilder.setOnlyAlertOnce(true);

    NotificationManager notifyMgr = (NotificationManager) context.getSystemService(Context.NOTIFICATION_SERVICE);

    notifyMgr.notify(notificationId, mBuilder.build());
}

Answer 1

Try setting the launch mode of your activity in the manifest to this

<activity
  android:name=".MyActivity"
  android:launchMode="singleTop" />

Explanation: New instance of singleTop activity is not created every time. If the target task already has an existing instance, new instance will not be created of the activity, instead the already created instance will receive the calling intent.

Check out android documentation for launch modes, and use the one that is suitable for your use case.