Dear Apple: Get notifications right!

[skinnylegs]

Feel free to see my posts through the years. I am not a troll. If anything, I would be labelled an Apple fanboy.

With that out of the way.....

iOS notifications suck. They really do and IMO there is absolutely no excuse for it. Notifications are *huge* in this day-and-age of information getting thrown at us from all directions (voicemail, email, text and social media just to name a few) and I would think getting notifications right would be at the top of the list. You can't swipe away single notifications? Seriously? ....and notifications won't display all-day calendar events? Really? Is it so difficult to work this stuff out? Color me disappointed, Apple. All of those bright minds and billions of dollars and you can't figure out something as simple as notifications?

I could go on-and-on about the shortcomings of Android OS but in terms of notifications, it is superior to iOS and I just don't get why Apple doesn't get it right!

Feel free to ream me but I'm very frustrated about this.

 

[mavis]

Umm ... you can swipe away single notifications. Just push them up, off the screen. In iOS6 you could do this as well, except you slid them to the left or right.

 

[skinnylegs]

Huh? In iOS 7 there are 3 categories within Notifications: Today, All and Missed. IMO the best view is All. They are grouped into Mail and Tweets and Email and whatever and there is no way to delete individual notifications. You can click the "X" to the right-hand side of the category but this deletes all notifications within that category.

 

[mavis]

Sorry, thought you were referring to banner popups ...

The "Clear" button doesn't work for you?

 

[F123D]

Two things I wish apple would add.

1. Notification led

2. Status bar notification icons

 

[skinnylegs]

Sorry, thought you were referring to banner popups ...

The "Clear" button doesn't work for you?

No. The clear button does not work for me. Not only is it small and a pain in the arse to zero in on but it also clears *all* notifications within that category; not individual notifications.

 

[Robster3]

Two things I wish apple would add.

1. Notification led

2. Status bar notification icons

Yeah how about a light to tell you had a missed call/message. instead of having to hit the home/on button all the time.

 

[jtfolden]

Yeah how about a light to tell you had a missed call/message. instead of having to hit the home/on button all the time.

Not exactly the same thing and on the wrong side but Settings > General > Accessibility > LED Flash for Alerts is hard to miss if you are near the phone.

 

[sarcosis]

Yeah how about a light to tell you had a missed call/message. instead of having to hit the home/on button all the time.

I would have agreed with you before the moto x announcement, but after that, I love the way active notifications Are presented and would love that style of notification VS. LED.

 

[skinnylegs]

I would have agreed with you before the moto x announcement, but after that, I love the way active notifications Are presented and would love that style of notification VS. LED.

I really want to see how this plays out on the Moto X but from what I've read it seems very compelling.

I am soooo close to ditching iOS and I'm leaning towards the HTC One because I am a news junkie and I *love* Blinkfeed but I am intrigued by the Moto X.

 

[jtfolden]

I would have agreed with you before the moto x announcement, but after that, I love the way active notifications Are presented and would love that style of notification VS. LED.

Isn't that style partly only of benefit to phones with AMOLED screens? I understood it would use more battery life with others.

 

[lsutigerfan1976]

I really want to see how this plays out on the Moto X but from what I've read it seems very compelling.

I am soooo close to ditching iOS and I'm leaning towards the HTC One because I am a news junkie and I *love* Blinkfeed but I am intrigued by the Moto X.

I want the htc one also. Even though it is considered an old phone by today's standards. But HTC is not exactly known for its support and updates. So I may just wait and see what else comes out eventually.

 

[Armen]

Two things I wish apple would add.

1. Notification led

2. Status bar notification icons

iOS delivers notifications via:

lock screen
notification center
sounds
banners
alerts

You want to add LED lights and status bar icons to this as well? I think that's overkill. Leave LED notifications and status bar icons where they belong..on Android.

 

[F123D]

iOS delivers notifications via:

lock screen
notification center
sounds
banners
alerts

You want to add LED lights and status bar icons to this as well? I think that's overkill. Leave LED notifications and status bar icons where they belong..on Android.

Which one of the notifications you mentioned lets you know you have a missed call/message/alert/etc without picking up the phone and checking each time?

 

[mcdj]

Leave LED notifications and status bar icons where they belong..on Android.

Funny, that's how I feel about iOS7.

 

[skinnylegs]

[/COLOR]

iOS delivers notifications via:

lock screen
notification center
sounds
banners
alerts

You want to add LED lights and status bar icons to this as well? I think that's overkill. Leave LED notifications and status bar icons where they belong..on Android.

iOS delivers notifications but it does so poorly. In particular, I am speaking about the notifications curtain or whatever you want to call it; the notifications list that occurs when you swipe down form the top of the display. Have you ever seen how Android handles notifications? There is *no* comparison and it would be an easy fix for Apple.

 

[Armen]

Which one of the notifications you mentioned lets you know you have a missed call/message/alert/etc without picking up the phone and checking each time?

How does a flashing LED light make things any easier? You see it's flashing and have no idea who called so you end up picking up your phone and checking it anyway.

If you want a flashing indicator go turn on LED alerts in accessibility. It makes your camera LED flash blink when you get alerts.

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[/COLOR]iOS delivers notifications but it does so poorly. In particular, I am speaking about the notifications curtain or whatever you want to call it; the notifications list that occurs when you swipe down form the top of the display. Have you ever seen how Android handles notifications? There is *no* comparison and it would be an easy fix for Apple.

I haven't seen Android notifications since 2.3.4. You may be right, it may be better but I wouldn't know.

 

[F123D]

How does a flashing LED light make things any easier? You see it's flashing and have no idea who called so you end up picking up your phone and checking it anyway.

If you want a flashing indicator go turn on LED alerts in accessibility. It makes your camera LED flash blink when you get alerts.

Image

At least you know someone called you without picking up the phone every 5 minutes.

You can customize and set different led colors for missed calls, emails, texts, etc.. so you know exactly what messaged you missed while you were away based on the color of the led notification.

The iPhone's camera led is useless since it only alerts you during incoming notifications and not afterwards. So 5 minutes later when you come back into the room, you wouldn't know you had a missed call unless you picked up the phone and checked.

 

[Armen]

You can customize and set different led colors for missed calls, emails, texts, etc.. so you know exactly what messaged you missed while you were away based on the color of the led notification.

The iPhone's camera led is useless since it only alerts you during incoming notifications and not afterwards. So 5 minutes later when you come back into the room, you wouldn't know you had a missed call unless you picked up the phone and checked.

I'm quite familiar on how you can customize the color of the LED flash and it's patterns on Android OS (I had a Evo 4G) but it still doesn't tell you who the person is that called, texted or e-mailed. You still have to wake up the phone. If I remember correctly the LED would continue to flash until you cleared the alert or has that changed? That was quite annoying to have to clear an alert just to make the LED stop flashing. What if I knew I missed a call and had to return it later on in the day? I have to stare at a flashing LED all day or clear the alert and hope I dont forget?

 

[F123D]

I'm quite familiar on how you can customize the color of the LED flash and it's patterns on Android OS (I had a Evo 4G) but it still doesn't tell you who the person is that called, texted or e-mailed. You still have to wake up the phone.

The difference is you're waking up the phone KNOWING you had a missed call/message .

With the iPhone, you're randomly picking up the phone checking every 10 - 15 minutes to see if you even had a missed call/message to begin with. You might enjoy doing that, I don't.

There's even an option on certain android phones where incoming calls and messages will be read out loud so you know who/what it is. Since that's really important to you.

 

[F123D]

If I remember correctly the LED would continue to flash until you cleared the alert or has that changed? That was quite annoying to have to clear an alert just to make the LED stop flashing. What if I knew I missed a call and had to return it later on in the day? I have to stare at a flashing LED all day or clear the alert and hope I dont forget?

The phone I'm using, the led light stops flashing once you turn the phone on. Don't have to clear any alerts.

 

[Armen]

The phone I'm using, the led light stops flashing once you turn the phone on. Don't have to clear any alerts.

Good. It was terrible back in Gingerbread 2.3.4. Like it or not it flashed until you cleared it.

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The difference is you're waking up the phone KNOWING you had a missed call/message .

With the iPhone, you're randomly picking up the phone checking every 10 - 15 minutes to see if you even had a missed call/message to begin with. You might enjoy doing that, I don't.

There's even an option on certain android phones where incoming calls and messages will be read out loud so you know who/what it is. Since that's really important to you.

How are you randomly picking up the phone to check when you can setup an alert in iOS to notify you with sound 10 times before it gives up? I'm talking 10 alert sounds for 1 missed call

 

[MattInOz]

Pre-smartphones had a wonderful thing in which the LCD screen had the time and notifications in grey on black in big block text.

I miss that, still think it would be highly useful. Sure maybe current screen tech it doesn't work as well as the old low res screens. Still if the lock screen notifications after say 10 seconds lit switched to high contrast graphics and turned off the back light like dumb phone use to it sure would be an improvement. Yes understand battery life and all but surely it could be done low impact.

It seems the Moto X is the only phone with anything close to that.

 

[F123D]

Good. It was terrible back in Gingerbread 2.3.4. Like it or not it flashed until you cleared it.

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How are you randomly picking up the phone to check when you can setup an alert in iOS to notify you with sound 10 times before it gives up? I'm talking 10 alert sounds for 1 missed call

Clearly having alerts going off 10 times is less annoying than an led light.

Since you're comparing notifications from Gingerbread, maybe I should be comparing notifications from iOS4? I love notification center and banners.. oh wait. There weren't around yet.

 

[mirzank]

I agree with you about notifications sucking. For me the most frustrating thing is how its so inconsistent.

I wish there was a previous notifications instead of missed notifications. Really they should be the same thing.

If i have a bunch of notifications say sms whatsapp phone email etc and i unlock my phone (either because i want to see each notification later or because i instintively unlock my phone without paying artention to specific notifications), there is no way for me to see those notifications again.

For some reason in NC i will still see my mail notifications but i wont see phone sms whatsapp etc even though i have them enabled in NC. This was an issue in ios6 and it continues to be an issue now. These should be in missed/precious notifications categofy but they are not.

I have enogh apps that give me important notifications that its really a pain in the butt to peck around and try to find apps that sent me messages.