LocalNotifications: PRIORITY_DEFAULT prevents heads-up on Xiaomi/MIUI

[flupke91]

Bug Report

Plugin

@capacitor/local-notifications

Capacitor Version

@capacitor/core: 7.x
@capacitor/local-notifications: 7.x

Platform

Android (specifically Xiaomi/MIUI/HyperOS devices)

Current Behavior

The LocalNotificationsPlugin.java hardcodes NotificationCompat.PRIORITY_DEFAULT when building notifications:

NotificationCompat.Builder builder = new NotificationCompat.Builder(getContext(), notification.getChannelId())
    .setSmallIcon(smallIcon)
    .setContentTitle(notification.getTitle())
    .setContentText(notification.getBody())
    .setPriority(NotificationCompat.PRIORITY_DEFAULT)  // hardcoded

On Xiaomi/MIUI/HyperOS devices (Android 11+), PRIORITY_DEFAULT notifications:

• Do NOT show as heads-up (popup) notifications
• Silently appear in the status bar only
• User has no way to see the notification without pulling down the shade

Expected Behavior

Notifications should appear as heads-up popups when:

1. The channel importance is set to IMPORTANCE_HIGH
2. The notification priority is PRIORITY_HIGH or PRIORITY_MAX

The plugin should either:

1. Respect the channel importance level and set priority accordingly
2. Expose a priority option in the NotificationSchema interface
3. Default to PRIORITY_HIGH when channel importance is HIGH

Steps to Reproduce

1. Create a notification channel with importance: 4 (HIGH)
2. Schedule a notification using LocalNotifications.schedule()
3. On a Xiaomi device, the notification appears in status bar but NOT as a popup

Workaround

Create a custom native plugin that uses PRIORITY_HIGH:

NotificationCompat.Builder builder = new NotificationCompat.Builder(context, channelId)
    .setPriority(NotificationCompat.PRIORITY_HIGH)
    .setCategory(NotificationCompat.CATEGORY_ALARM)
    .setDefaults(NotificationCompat.DEFAULT_ALL);

Additional Context

• This affects all Xiaomi/MIUI/HyperOS devices (Android 11+)
• dumpsys notification shows the notification with importance=DEFAULT even when channel is IMPORTANCE_HIGH
• Setting PRIORITY_HIGH resolves the issue immediately

Suggested Fix

In LocalNotificationsPlugin.java, change:

.setPriority(NotificationCompat.PRIORITY_DEFAULT)

to:

.setPriority(NotificationCompat.PRIORITY_HIGH)

Or better, make it configurable via the NotificationSchema:

await LocalNotifications.schedule({
  notifications: [{
    title: "Test",
    body: "Test notification",
    priority: "high"
  }]
});