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Notification Centre - what is the point?

Dino F

Dino F

Suspended
Original poster
Sep 16, 2010
4,515
3,404
Croydon, South London, UK
Ok - so I know I am gonna get slated for this but hey it's just my opinion!

I am struggling to honestly find a use for this. I understand that it is supposed to show all your notifications all in 1 place but it's not really needed is it ?

When you unlock your iPhone, instead of pulling down the notification centre, isn't it just the same thing to just look at your apps which have badges against them? The only use for the notifications centre is if you have the badges turned off or have I totally misses the point?!
 
It's easier than scrolling through 4 pages of apps to look for notifications. Is it perfect, no. I think its an improvement though.
 
I think you're totally missing the point. It's for ease of use. Sure, I can go through all my apps that have badges, but why not be able to view them all in one place? It's made my iPhone experience that much better.
 
Dino F said:
Ok - so I know I am gonna get slated for this but hey it's just my opinion!

I am struggling to honestly find a use for this. I understand that it is supposed to show all your notifications all in 1 place but it's not really needed is it ?

When you unlock your iPhone, instead of pulling down the notification centre, isn't it just the same thing to just look at your apps which have badges against them? The only use for the notifications centre is if you have the badges turned off or have I totally misses the point?!
Click to expand...

yeah you're missing the big point.

You forgot, what if I'm already in an app, if there's no notification, the only way to know is if you exit to the homescreen and scroll to see which app has the badge. if that app is inside a folder, you have to open the folder to see which app has the badge.

if an email txt/imessage comes in you would have to open those apps to see who sent it and what does it say as opposed to seeing a drop down and decide whether or not its worth it to open the apps since it provides a preview.... I can go on but hopefully you get the point.

Can you imagine you're waiting for a package and you have no idea when its supposed to get here so you're going out of the house every 30 minutes to check vs. the UPS guy ringing the doorbell letting you know its there. Get it?
 
Personally i turned off all the badges for every notification that can show up in the notification center so i would use it. I hated having all those little red badges everywhere.

Some apps don't show up in the notification center, but i'm sure they all will eventually when updates of apps start coming out for ios 5
 
AlphaVictor87 said:
Personally i turned off all the badges for every notification that can show up in the notification center so i would use it. I hated having all those little red badges everywhere.

Some apps don't show up in the notification center, but i'm sure they all will eventually when updates of apps start coming out for ios 5
Click to expand...

You should be able to add them under Settings>Notifications. If the app has push notifications, it should work just fine with the Center.
 
On various apps I can see if someone simply "liked" my photo I've uploaded or if they made a comment or if they start to follow me and the like.

Otherwise my badge shows "12" but that is 12 notifications, I only really care if somebody comments and I can comment back.

and right away on the notification center, I can see that there are 5 updates to the game I am watching and can easily clear them in one --wait--two swipes, rather than the old "OK" OK OK OK OK
 
I LOVE NOTIFICATION CENTER! lol

I have a lot of apps. Having constant popup message is annoying and easily lose track when i get a backlog of them. Ever wakeup in the morning to find you gotta press OKAY to like 10x popups?

With ios5 notification center. I can browse through all of them at a glance scrolling down. All my emails, twitters, text msgs, games and etc all nicely listed for me. I don't have to open each individual app to see the msg or alert info. I can control what apps display in notification center and which to only use badges.
 
Outrigger said:
yeah you're missing the big point.

You forgot, what if I'm already in an app, if there's no notification, the only way to know is if you exit to the homescreen and scroll to see which app has the badge. if that app is inside a folder, you have to open the folder to see which app has the badge.

if an email txt/imessage comes in you would have to open those apps to see who sent it and what does it say as opposed to seeing a drop down and decide whether or not its worth it to open the apps since it provides a preview.... I can go on but hopefully you get the point.

Can you imagine you're waiting for a package and you have no idea when its supposed to get here so you're going out of the house every 30 minutes to check vs. the UPS guy ringing the doorbell letting you know its there. Get it?
Click to expand...

......you know what - I do agree with you now, I have seen the light!!!!

Before I really 'got' this, I would have( for example) a message come in and it would obviously display in the notification centre. I would then clear it from the centre but would still have to go to the message app to clear the badge.

Now - because you've explained more, I can turn off all the badges and when I get a message now - I just view it in the notification centre. I I don't wanna respond - I can just clear it from there without the need to go and clear the badge which now won't obviously show. :)
 
AlphaVictor87 said:
Personally i turned off all the badges for every notification that can show up in the notification center so i would use it. I hated having all those little red badges everywhere.

Some apps don't show up in the notification center, but i'm sure they all will eventually when updates of apps start coming out for ios 5
Click to expand...

I had a thread a while back that basically raised the same point. Why on earth clearing the notification also does not clear the badge is beyond me. IMO this is one of the most unintuitive things I have seen apple do. You essentially have two areas to clear the same thing...

The fix, disable bubbles on all apps like you suggested.
 
Dino F said:
Ok - so I know I am gonna get slated for this but hey it's just my opinion!

I am struggling to honestly find a use for this. I understand that it is supposed to show all your notifications all in 1 place but it's not really needed is it ?

When you unlock your iPhone, instead of pulling down the notification centre, isn't it just the same thing to just look at your apps which have badges against them? The only use for the notifications centre is if you have the badges turned off or have I totally misses the point?!
Click to expand...

:cool:

Your right.....I am going to tell you why:

Lets say you get a notification when your browsing other apps....of course you'll see the banner.....ahhhh you will probably ignore it if your busy doing something. Will you remember to pull down notification center? I won't........chances are.....if your busy doing something in another app and your message pops up......your going to forget you got a message. Since apple made this a totally NEW feature....they did it half ars.

The smart thing for apple to do is put the notification you get in the status bar.....so when you are browsing and get a message......not only will you see what notification it is.....but the fact that its there. If your going to copy android.....might as well go all the way with it:confused:

It is an ok feature. However, pretty useless without having the notifications in the status bar to remind you of the message.

With that thought....I am going to bed.......and I might get the Galaxy Nexus;)
 
it is nice but as usual apple left it primitive. to clear something you have to tap the x then the clear button but it does not mark the message read. You can't access any phone functions no weather on the lock screeen.
 
I think its the best thing they ever added! I can check new emails and messages without having to even open my phone, and if I'm in an app I can see previews by swiping down. Its pretty awesome!
 
steve knight said:
it is nice but as usual apple left it primitive. to clear something you have to tap the x then the clear button but it does not mark the message read. You can't access any phone functions no weather on the lock screeen.
Click to expand...

Agreed. Would love to be able to mark the message (text/iMessage/e-mail) read.

Also waiting for Apple to open up the API for developers to add Widgets for their own apps. Would like to have the option to show recent tweets from people I'm following, or even status updates from FB friends!
 
hopefully before android can do it by reading your mind. But apple is like a glacier in making ios improvements.
 
Dino F said:
Ok - so I know I am gonna get slated for this but hey it's just my opinion!

I am struggling to honestly find a use for this. I understand that it is supposed to show all your notifications all in 1 place but it's not really needed is it ?

When you unlock your iPhone, instead of pulling down the notification centre, isn't it just the same thing to just look at your apps which have badges against them? The only use for the notifications centre is if you have the badges turned off or have I totally misses the point?!
Click to expand...

Uhm... No...

Why? Do you only have 2 pages of apps?

Some people have more than just 2 pages of apps and on top of that, folders. So you suggest that these people search multiple pages plus folders just to get to his or her FaceBook feed.
 
I for one am glad that the OP asked the question! I never realized that the annoying little red numbers were called badges. I am the anal type that cannot stand having all those red numbers all over my apps so I would have to go clear them all out when I got new notifications. Now, I've just turned all but a very few off. I am also one that likes the notifications because you can pull them down when you're in another app. I also love the notifications on the lock screen, especially text messages and Facebook! I might learn all the little tricks in iOS5 before 6 comes out. Nah, probably not.
 
Ya, by the time iOS6 comes out, everyone will have just gotten used to 5....

Guess that's a good thing though. The OS we're using will not become stale (jailbreakers, we get that your customizations are important -- I personally respect what you're doing. I just don't have the time or energy to do it myself)
 
i won't beat you up over it but the notification center has been great for me. It makes a everything a quick look! I can see what meetings that are coming up, texts and emails that are new all with one swipe that takes just a second. I hated going into 6 apps to see all of this. Now all new items are in one place and ready to go. I love it.
 
Yes they do have to improve it but if you don't like it then why in the world would you use it?? Play with iCloud or something.
 
SteveAbootman said:
Also waiting for Apple to open up the API for developers to add Widgets for their own apps. Would like to have the option to show recent tweets from people I'm following...
Click to expand...

How can you not already do this?

Twitter.app >> My Profile >> Following >> Choose a profile >> More >> Notification Options >> Enable/Disable

Agenda inserts into Notification Center... Due inserts into Notification Center... FourSquare inserts into Notification Center... etc etc etc.
 
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