Why is NotificationCompat needed?

Question

Specifically, I think anything done with NotificationCompat can be done using the default API (level 8). What am I missing here? What does NotificationCompat introduce that

Answer 1

Though its old question, now NotificationCompat can also be used to create wearable specific notifications. More information on this google's developer guide.

http://developer.android.com/training/wearables/notifications/creating.html

Answer 2

It allows you to use the NotificationCompat.Builder class, a compatibly version of Notification.Builder from API 11+. As its name suggests its an implementation of the builder pattern, which seems to be its main advantage over the pre Android 3.0 notifications.

Answer 3

You can use things like NotificationCompat.Builder#setLargeIcon(Bitmap) to allow you to take full advantage of Android 3.0+ with things like the large icon, while maintaining compatibility on versions of Android prior to 3.0 that do not support such things.