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I know this is a hot topic and there may be other threads on this, but hear me out for a second...
This is a cleaner version of a thought I had posted in a WP7 I started a while back (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1925656), influenced by news that MSFT is planning to add a notification centre to the joy of many - i rather they added more functionality to the lockscreen but to each his own. After more thoughts, I figured it was more appropriate to give this its own thread an post it here.
Here's what I'd do as an option for a notification centre while maintaining the OS look and not going the Android/iOS route:
1. Use the solid bar when a more than one type of notification comes in to maintain the minimalistic UI look. Use the following statement to be shown in the bar: "you have x notifications".
- Color code this bar to a shade of color that couls be specific to the app. If Twitter is purple, you would see a purple bar if there is one tweet waiting, but once there is more than one unread tweet or other another unread notification comes in, the color of the bar can either:
a) Shifts to the standard accent color for the whole UI chosen by the user.
b) Retain the color associated with the original app
2. Allow swipes to remove that notification bar. This means:
a) The only ways to access the notifications are:
- swipe left once from the home screen
- swipe twice if starting from the applications list
- double tap the special notification icon on the lockscreen (more on double tapping below)
b) the bar would be permanently removed from the top of the lockscreen. This avoids making the lockscreen look too “cluttered” or “busy”.
3. Use a special icon for the notification bar. This will be visible both in the notification bar itself AND on the lock screen. This means MSFT keeps the up to 5 icons limit and the double tapping on the 6th icon (the notification) allows transitions that open the notifications hub.
4. Double tap on ANY notification icon to open the the associated app itself from the lockscreen. If you've got dual cores, let them work via pretty transitions! Also, double tap reduces accidental press from single tap.
5. Have the following options in settings called Notifications:
- Allow the user to decide how long they want that solid notification bar to be visible on the home screen and app list screen in the same way you have the screen blackouts after inactivity. Conversely, MSFT could determine that for the user.
- Vibrate only, LED flash only or LED and Vibrate after "x amount of time for x number of times" to remind user of notifications. This allows OEMs to build LEDs if they want to take advantage and add to differentiation. Or, MSFT could just standardize the vibrations and LED flashes without taking away the OEM option to build the LED into the handset.
Either way, this ties into the option of having the solid notification bar too above. For example, if the user feels the phone vibrate with the screen off, then they will see either the solid bar or notification icon on lockscreen. If they were on a call or in an app the vibration would help them exist and thus seeing the solid status bar.
- Level of detail: MSFT can either a number count for the notification of a preview of the notification. This should not be user determined in the settings. If preview is activated, and multiple notifications come from different people for the same app (i.e. texts or tweets from separate people) show name and number count.
- Give the user the option in settings to either use the different colors or choose the notifications to have the same accent color as the rest of the UI. Place this either under Notifications or Accent colors.
6. From the start screen, swiping left brings up a notification hub automatically as a standard action.
a) Give this simple hub look by giving each app with notification its own shade of a color separate from the chosen UI color. - This color would apply for single shade in the notification list here, as well as in the bar mentioned in point #1 above.
Or:
Instead of each app having its own shade, use group accent colors based on app types listed in the Windows Store. For example, one shade of yellow for social media apps, one shade for Navigation apps, etc.
b) split the notification hub in half: have a top part of the hub with the following icons: WiFi, Bluetooth, Tethering, Battery percent, Kids mode, and settings (this should not be user selected). Display each options as either:
- Tappable words and the same switches we see to activate/deactivate in the setting already, or
- Use some tappable icons + the switches.
c) Allow each tab (whether tappable word or icon) to open directly to its own specific option within the settings hub - that way you're not digging through extra menus.
d) make tapping the bar and or the notification icon open the transition window to come from the left.
7. When kid mode is active, if there are double taps on icons on lock screen let password prompt come up to access the notification first.
8. If you want the Notification hub to be a full fledge hub itself to make the ideas above seem less cluttered, it can be a three paned hub with the following:
- main start pane has recent notifications
- swipe left for the toggles to get to the following icons: WiFi, Bluetooth, Tethering, Battery percent, Kids mode, and settings.
- swipe right for similar apps relating to settings such as system information (this can be optional)
9. More lockscreen functionality: Double tap the name of the song playing to open the music app directly.
I wish I could do same screen shots for all the stuff I laid out, but I’m not that great with graphics like that…:crying:but I could post shots of existing apps that show the visuals to some of my ideas above.
WP8 could be the minimum requirement for some or all of these ideas. Some of these might be more customization options like Android and some MSFT could just user decide. Either way, it’s still in the same framework to allow that middle road of options WP offers to users in comparison to Android and iOS.
Thoughts?
Just license the Notification center from Nokia, specifically how it was used and implemented on the N9.
bmstrong said:
Just license the Notification center from Nokia, specifically how it was used and implemented on the N9.
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I'm not sure how well that would go over...maybe MSFT doesn't want to use too lunch Nokia stuff at the expense of upsetting the other OEM partners...
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
trappxl said:
I'm not sure how well that would go over...maybe MSFT doesn't want to use too lunch Nokia stuff at the expense of upsetting the other OEM partners...
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
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I thought they pit elop there to run Nokia into the ground, then buy the company for pennies and use ALL their patents... why not start early with some navigation?
I'm not too bothered about notifications. It's a feature that started to annoy me with iOS, all the constant updates and screen coming on all of the time. I found my life to be a lot more productive since getting a Windows Phone. The only notifications you really need are messages and calls and they're both shown on the screen, it's not life or death if you miss what someone is saying on twitter.
ohgood said:
I thought they pit elop there to run Nokia into the ground, then buy the company for pennies and use ALL their patents... why not start early with some navigation?
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Click to collapse
Perhaps...but because Nokia needs money other than the handouts from MSFT, they pushed the Lumia brand really hard when they jumped into WP. If you notice now, when people think of WP they first think of Nokia. MSFT doesn't want that, which is why they teamed up with the old partner HTC who was more than willing to back to its past tactic: make a phone with another company's brand name in the title - hence the WP8X by HTC. MSFT also used HTC like that because they have better pull with US carriers than Nokia right now, especially with VZW.
So people in the know (OG WP adopters) will lean more to Nokia...Nokia now powers the whole WP maps. It makes no sense for MSFT to license a notification centre from Nokia, and they would only run Nokia into the ground to buy it if Nokia's WP are the ONLY ones that sell. Nokia shouldn't allow that, even with Elop there, because they are one of the OG companies (Moto the other) and having a more controlling owner like MSFT might hurt both companies' brands...
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
gilesjuk said:
I'm not too bothered about notifications. It's a feature that started to annoy me with iOS, all the constant updates and screen coming on all of the time. I found my life to be a lot more productive since getting a Windows Phone. The only notifications you really need are messages and calls and they're both shown on the screen, it's not life or death if you miss what someone is saying on twitter.
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Click to collapse
See, that's one of the beauties of the design of WP I like, and many others do. But there are folks who love the annoying notifications and their phone blowing up with all sorts of activity. This is why MSFT is compelled to add a notification centre to appeal to more folks and get the cross over adopters and new smartphone buyers who have friends with Android and iOS that are used to notifications. I could live with a notification centre in WP, but I think design wise they are in a fresh and unique place...perhaps a decentralized setup by adding more functionality to the live tiles, toast bar and lock screen is better than that all in one status bar notification...
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
trappxl said:
See, that's one of the beauties of the design of WP I like, and many others do. But there are folks who love the annoying notifications and their phone blowing up with all sorts of activity. This is why MSFT is compelled to add a notification centre to appeal to more folks and get the cross over adopters and new smartphone buyers who have friends with Android and iOS that are used to notifications. I could live with a notification centre in WP, but I think design wise they are in a fresh and unique place...perhaps a decentralized setup by adding more functionality to the live tiles, toast bar and lock screen is better than that all in one status bar notification...
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
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Click to collapse
that's a lot of words instead of :
" turn off notifications in app settings that don't matter"
you don't need a "hub" to do this if its implemented well inside each app.
ohgood said:
that's a lot of words instead of :
" turn off notifications in app settings that don't matter"
you don't need a "hub" to do this if its implemented well inside each app.
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Click to collapse
Lol. You're right...I've got a rambler's habit whenever I get the juices flowing talking technology...
I agree with that approach of simply improving the notifications in each app. I like not having a hub because I don't need to be notified of every little occurrence. But, since MSFT wants to make cash they will cave in an put a notification hub in. I'm not sure if they will give us the option to turn it off fully if they do.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
A swipe to the left of the main home screen for home screen and quick settings.. thats what i thoght of..
So it seems that ModernUI has an arbitrary limit on how many apps can run in the background. As I understand it, even apps that don't have lockscreen information *must* be placed in one of the lockscreen slots in order to run in the background.
Any way to get rid of this stupid rule? I have 2 apps that actually use the lockscreen, and my "lockscreen is full" from various other apps I use, so I pretty much can't use the damned thing.
link68759 said:
So it seems that ModernUI has an arbitrary limit on how many apps can run in the background. As I understand it, even apps that don't have lockscreen information *must* be placed in one of the lockscreen slots in order to run in the background.
Any way to get rid of this stupid rule? I have 2 apps that actually use the lockscreen, and my "lockscreen is full" from various other apps I use, so I pretty much can't use the damned thing.
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Just found out the same and this is not good at all. This means that I can only have 7 apps to run in the background? If so then the whole purpose of live tiles are gone since I want more than 7 apps to show live tiles.
Installed the Aperion Clock to get a tile with a clock and it stopped working when I remove it from the slot on the lock screen.
Is this really the case and if so, how can we change this?
Well rumour has it that - Microsoft are thinking seriously about the possibility of adding a notification system/bar/centre/hub in upcoming major update to Apollo !
Well the current implementations on other platforms like android or ios (which are essentially the same)- wouldn't blend with 'modern ui' .
My guess is they'll include maybe silent pop ups or even expand lock screen notification system - a universally accessible notification centre is also not out of the equation .
Don't know if this has been discussed earlier - but anyway share your ideas and opinions on what you guys think of this
I hate the idea of a notification center. iOS got it all wrong and it's useless- android's less so but still prone to the same issues.
Live tiles are meant to get rid of the need for a notification center- thus the only logical solution for WP is a live tile that shows missed notifications FOR MANUALLY SELECTED APPS.
Otherwise all live tiles will become redundant. WPHacker's version of a notification center is fine (live tile, shows a list which lets you "replay" notifications), so long as he figures out how to exclude apps, because I swear- WP had the first system to eliminate data redundancy and if they **** that up I will refuse to update for as long as I can.
Agreed completely there - a tile based solution will be more feasible and look native and its the only way i can think of implementing a notification centre without disturbing the simplicity of ui work flow.But the thing that worries me is whether what MS is planning is going be as simple a solution as this , well there is always a probability of them screwing it up talking too much of outside opinions into consideration .
I agree. If MS listens to and just delivers a traditional notification center as demanded by all the android users coming to WP, then they're going to royally screw the platform.
They should patch the gaping hole in the current system, not add another redundant one.
Edit- I just read one of the ideas on windowsphone uservoice: turning the app list into a hub (a la photo hub), which provides an easy way to integrate a notification center (as part of the hub and as a pinnable tile.
Well, right now users can create their own notification center. Simply put all the tiles giving you notifications as small tiles in the first row of the start screen. It's how I fixed the issue when I moved over from Android.
Live tiles are useless for a notification centre because they don't necessarily capture all notifications, like toast notifications.
We need a proper notification centre implementation. One where we can see notifications without unlocking the screen (customisable of course).
IOS has the best implementation of a notification centre so far. Fantastic customisation. I just hope wp8 gets it sooner rather than later. It wil never be competitive otherwise.
Long press search key to open Notification HUB and it'll also have search notification feature, just to justify the use of long press search key action.
Dr.Paul said:
Live tiles are useless for a notification centre because they don't necessarily capture all notifications, like toast notifications.
We need a proper notification centre implementation. One where we can see notifications without unlocking the screen (customisable of course).
IOS has the best implementation of a notification centre so far. Fantastic customisation. I just hope wp8 gets it sooner rather than later. It wil never be competitive otherwise.
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Click to collapse
But how would an ios style implementation blend with modern ui it'd look ugly
Dr.Paul said:
Live tiles are useless for a notification centre because they don't necessarily capture all notifications, like toast notifications.
We need a proper notification centre implementation. One where we can see notifications without unlocking the screen (customisable of course).
IOS has the best implementation of a notification centre so far. Fantastic customisation. I just hope wp8 gets it sooner rather than later. It wil never be competitive otherwise.
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Click to collapse
The toast notifications are not shown forever because they are not important. They are usually used in games, to notify achievements, or to bring something to your attention.
Live tiles, and now I am referring to properly programmed live tiles, do exactly what a notification center does, they warn you about the existence of something you are yet to review. You have a missing call? fine...look at the phone tile. You have a new message? fine...look at the message tile. Oh look, someone posted some meaningless thing on your facebook...np, just check the "Me" tile.
IMO, people have to get used to interacting with the live tiles first....
Do not bring in poorly constructed apps. There are a lot of developers who do not take advantage of the live tile.
link68759 said:
I hate the idea of a notification center. iOS got it all wrong and it's useless- android's less so but still prone to the same issues.
Live tiles are meant to get rid of the need for a notification center- thus the only logical solution for WP is a live tile that shows missed notifications FOR MANUALLY SELECTED APPS.
Otherwise all live tiles will become redundant. WPHacker's version of a notification center is fine (live tile, shows a list which lets you "replay" notifications), so long as he figures out how to exclude apps, because I swear- WP had the first system to eliminate data redundancy and if they **** that up I will refuse to update for as long as I can.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had thought livetiles were a pre-notification adoption by microsoft. Wp7 had tiles well under developement when android was released. Then androids notifications were revised a good deal, and microsofts implementation was rethought as a result, which is why this thread is happening. The live tiles are fine for what they can display, but need a supplement for folks that prefer all their info in one place. There is nothing wrong or bad about allowing folks to turn on a feature to show more information in a dedicated (hidden) huge tile or drawer like android/ios have done.
I think wpx could benefit from not neccisarily forcing people to a notification area, but allowing them to choose a more sensible full area as opposed to only a snippet of info in each tile. It would be cool to choose tile, toast, or full one note area.
I would like a notification center, because I'm not pinning all the possible apps that have push notifications on my home screen.
For example, I have WhatsApp and Skype, but they're not pinned because I don't frequently use them.
However, when someone messages me and I'm too late, I'll never know. This just happened yesterday, I got a message on WhatsApp so I tapped the push notification but appareantly I missed a message back from december 9th, because I didn't see the push notification there was no way for me to tell I had a message. Since I'm not a regular user of the app I won't randomly open it just to check for new messages, I just don't think of doing that.
If there'd be a notification center, I could easily pin that and it could show an overall number of notifications I haven't responded to (either tapped or swiped away).
It would work just like an app, once you tap the tile it opens the notification center app and shows the ones I didn't respond to. You could also show the number on your lock screen.
That way you're still free to choose wether you want to use it or not. Don't like the notification center? Fine, don't pin it or use it, nobody's forcing you to do so, but it's convenient for the people who do want one.
I like the idea of a swipe to the left on the homescreen to reveal a notification center. My problem with the live tiles, is that they only show the latest email, or message, etc. no matter how big you make the tile, it should scale or rotate, something.. I would like to be able to see a quick list. And the lockscreen just gives you numbers, I understand the security of not showing previews, but I would like the choice.
I like t
I have at least one hope: Microsoft so far has not opted to simply adopt something "as is" from another system since they launched WP. So I actually believe that when a notification center arrives it well blend in well with the system.
Aside from that: I don't really miss a notification center. Actually the notification bar drives me nuts on my SGS2. It's always full of stuff I just don't want to know or don't care about. 10 Apps updated, every single one of them creates an entry that stays there *yuk*
So yes, I believe that if there is a notification center I have to be able to filter which notifications end up in there. But of course Microsoft mandated that the user must be able to turn notifications off in every App so at least I'll have that possibility.
What I really would like to see is the possibility to add an arbitrary number of Apps to my Lock Screen. If I have 3 Mail-Adresses + Phone Calls and Short Messages there simply is no room for an Icon for Skype or WhatsApp or Whatever. And most of the time not all of them show notifications. It might be beneficial to have certain notifications at fixed positions but overall I would love to have more space for them.
Aside from that I don't see myself using a notification center too often. Just keep me from the Android hell of notification spam.
I don't understand why people keep complaining about Windows Phone not having a notification center. I really think most of them think they need one just because iOS and Android do... I never actually missed notification center on WP.
But still... if they're going to introduce some kind of NC, how about swiping to the right ? To the left we get a list of apps, so the other side is free and could present us with a list of notifications. I'm sure im not the first to think about this solution.
Whatever you do Microsoft, just don't treat us to another lame swipe-down-pull notifications list...
Akiainavas said:
I don't understand why people keep complaining about Windows Phone not having a notification center. I really think most of them think they need one just because iOS and Android do... I never actually missed notification center on WP.
But still... if they're going to introduce some kind of NC, how about swiping to the right ? To the left we get a list of apps, so the other side is free and could present us with a list of notifications. I'm sure im not the first to think about this solution.
Whatever you do Microsoft, just don't treat us to another lame swipe-down-pull notifications list...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
people explained why they want one.
i think a notification center is a necessary evil in a smartphone.
the current (and future) purpose of this device is comunication and exchange.
over time we develeped and are still developing varous forms thereof.
it is not a single system and will never be.
our phones currently try to merge it for us and present it in the most comfortable form.
so the flood of notifications will just grow.
the winner will be the one wich can present them best to us and therefore any form of a (global) notification center is needed imho.
I´m a WP user for years. And i really miss a notifications centre like on Android.
I´m really based on the "latest" news, so i use many news apps with the "pop-up feature".
I dont need a smae centre like on android, but i would have a place where i can see my latest informations about some news, or messages.
There is an app called unification that is trying to do that. If you want notification so badly maybe you support it? http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/store/app/unification/6e861d4d-a072-46ee-a878-14917ce2c7b7
Will there be a new build for the Nook color?
PIE Status Update: 22-23 January, speed bump, scalability
We wrapped up the elementary work, now we will look into the technical issues that are still left. If you were afraid of buggy betas, it has gotten to a point where its pretty decent for daily use.
We rewrote the original AOSP control pretty much from scratch now. Even if it was once based on the Google control, you wont be able to recognize much when you see the code (which comes out soon). It is blazing fast now and responsive due to hardware acceleration and optimized drawing. The old betas were a bit laggy due to test code, we cleaned up completely. It should not be heavy on your battery either. Flicking or navigating it blind is simple. Until now we can do:
- Per app color, it has its own theme aswell but when switched off it picks up colors you define per app (see video)
- Recents key transforms into /// kill-all-button inside the recents view
- Rubberbanding for fast navigation
- Displays status informations like clock, date, notifications on touch
- We wrote our own custom panels for notifications and toggles that can be flicked into view - these are still basic though
- It can be on either of all the four sides, you can even set up multi trigger areas
- It is resolution independent and scalable - it will not look distorted on tablets and phablets anymore
- You can control the animations, even switch them off
- It supports per-app-expand, meaning that it can jump into PIE mode for apps you chose
First updates starting to roll out soon. 1-2-3 hours.
Greetings people,
As TW Lollipop has landed, most of the devs have been trying to brew ROMs for the people, and unfortunately there is no control as what MODS should be included, i have found it terribly difficult to choose a ROM as it didnt feel normal to use mods that made no sense (or at least have a minority audience).
Particularly,what annoys me a lot, is dealing with the mods that change the visual space available, now there is no need to blame devs here at all, but rather Sammy should be here to blame for just trying to make a normal UI into a complex useless UI in to their own, and they have effed it up with the new Notifications Drawer.
While i noticed a lot of devs have found options/parameters to change the view of the notification drawer, a lot of ROMs include a very annoying feature called Quicklaunch, however im pretty sure a lot of people like it. While Quicklaunch in my personal opinion sucks, it looks way better compared to S-Finder and Quick Launch buttons. I personally lack any kind programming/scripting skills, but luckily, thanks to a nice dev called @alfaroolg with a similar taste, he brewed it for me straight away.
This is what i planned on seeing:
Remove S-Finder and Quick Connect
Remove 3minit Quicklaunch
Remove the Brightness Bar
Currently, im on @g00h s Note 4 Port, which makes me believe that the Brightness Bar is not removable anymore as i could not find the setting on either the Display settings or Notification Panel editor, HOWEVER, the brightness bar disappears if under 5% battery so you cant push the brightness up, and to my surprise, found out sammy screwed up adopting to the Lollipop rules.
This is how it looks without S-Finder/QuickConnect and Quicklaunch: First Pic
This is what happens with the same configuration, under 5% battery after the Brightness Bar disappears: Second Pic
And to my surprise, if there are any Notifications going on, things return well: Third Pic
Is this a general issue Sammy mustve skipped? quite an eye catcher. Also, the area where the brightness bar disappears, usually Notifications get the place, and the first Notification is not Swipeable, i end up clicking the notification rather then removing it, and it can result in very unpleasant moments.