If you need to display an image in a notification, you can use the BaseBitmapDataSubscriber for requesting a bitmap from the ImagePipeline. This is safe to be passed to a notification as the system will parcel it after the NotificationManager#notify method. This page explains a full sample on how to do this.

Step by step

First create an ImageRequest with the URI:

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ImageRequest imageRequest = ImageRequest.fromUri("http://example.org/user/42/profile.jpg"));

Then create a DataSource and request the decoded image from the ImagePipeline:

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ImagePipeline imagePipeline = Fresco.getImagePipeline();
DataSource<CloseableReference<CloseableImage>> dataSource = imagePipeline.fetchDecodedImage(imageRequest, null);

As a DataSource is similar to a Future, we need to add a DataSubscriber to handle the result. The BaseBitmapDataSubscriber abstracts some of the complexity away when dealing with Bitmap:

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dataSource.subscribe(
    new BaseBitmapDataSubscriber() {

      @Override
      protected void onNewResultImpl(Bitmap bitmap) {
        displayNotification(bitmap);
      }

      @Override
      protected void onFailureImpl(DataSource<CloseableReference<CloseableImage>> dataSource) {
        // In general, failing to fetch the image should not keep us from displaying the
        // notification. We proceed without the bitmap.
        displayNotification(null);
      }
    },
    UiThreadImmediateExecutorService.getInstance());
}

The displayNotification(Bitmap) method then is similar to the ‘normal’ way to do this on Android:

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private void displayNotification(@Nullable Bitmap bitmap) {
  final NotificationCompat.Builder notificationBuilder =
      new NotificationCompat.Builder(getContext())
          .setSmallIcon(R.drawable.ic_done)
          .setLargeIcon(bitmap)
          .setContentTitle("Fresco Says Hello")
          .setContentText("Notification Text ...");

  final NotificationManager notificationManager =
      (NotificationManager) getContext().getSystemService(Context.NOTIFICATION_SERVICE);

  notificationManager.notify(NOTIFICATION_ID, notificationBuilder.build());
}

Full Sample

For the full sample see the ImagePipelineNotificationFragment in the showcase app: ImagePipelineNotificationFragment.java

Showcase app with a notification