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Add a small reminder of notifications in home screen / launcher

asked 2014-02-13 22:52:26 +0300

ssahla gravatar image

updated 2015-09-17 21:46:12 +0300

I think it would be nice to have some tiny indicator of new notifications that would stay visible in the bottom of the screen in the home screen and launcher screens – like a little dot, or several dots for several notifications.

Why? Example: While I'm doing something on the phone, an SMS arrives. I see the pop-up notification and think "I'll reply to that after I'm done with what I'm doing now". By the time I'm done, I have forgotten about the SMS. I put away the phone and don’t remember the SMS until the next time I wake up the phone and see the notification icon. But if I saw an indicator in the home screen, it would remind me ”hey, there's something down here you may want to deal with”.

(For this to really work, there would also need to a possibility to choose what notifications you want to see, but that’s a different issue and covered elsewhere.)


Edit: In 1.1.9.28, this is kind of implemented. When the home screen covers zoom back, notifications icons slide in from the left side, so you see them for example when switching to home from an app. However, this doesn't happen every time the covers zoom – not when you tap a cover on the home screen, for example. Also, when you flick up the Launcher, the icons appear so briefly that you don't really notice them.

So it's better now, but in my opinion it could be better. I'll leave the question open for now.

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Comments

1

it could be the glowing edge that indicates a pully

teun ( 2014-02-13 23:50:26 +0300 )edit

@teun, I thought about that too, but I think it would lead to confusion in gestures. There are bottom pulley menus too, and because you open the pulley with a pull (slide inside screen) and the event screen with a swipe (slide from edge), the visual indicator can't be the same.

ssahla ( 2014-02-14 00:04:04 +0300 )edit
1

@ssahla, if it's there only on home, think the confusion will be minimal

teun ( 2014-02-14 00:08:24 +0300 )edit

Is it not enough to have the led blinking if there is unread notifications?

veimis ( 2014-03-06 22:59:32 +0300 )edit
2

@veimis, the led is not blinking when I'm using the phone (the blink stops when I wake up the phone). What I'm proposing here is a small, persistent reminder. (Besides, in my example in the question the led won't light up at all.)

ssahla ( 2014-03-06 23:09:11 +0300 )edit

4 Answers

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10

answered 2014-02-14 13:15:05 +0300

chemist gravatar image

updated 2014-03-07 16:29:45 +0300

Let one corner of the bottom display glow in the same colour as the LED would be blinking. This does not lead to misunderstandings with pulley menus.

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Nice idea.

ssahla ( 2014-02-14 14:34:59 +0300 )edit

I also like it! Let it be one of the 2 bottom corners so one sees a connection with swipe_upwards_to_event_screen gesture.

zlatko ( 2014-03-07 13:31:00 +0300 )edit
2

This could be done with the led itself, see @veimis's answer and my comment there. With an intuitive swipe-up-from-led to open the events screen.

ssahla ( 2014-03-07 17:38:59 +0300 )edit
1

@ssahla I agree notification LED can serve that purpose, but 2 things: 1. LED is OK when device is not active, but I always prefer visual hint in UI - e.g. N900. 2. Notification LED in Jolla is plain ugly(colors,separation etc.) compared to N900, N9 and all current devices(HTC One, BB, Samsung SGS).

Of course these are personal preferences :)

zlatko ( 2014-03-07 18:39:59 +0300 )edit

same colour as the LED

But please don't reduce this feature to these three events (missed call, new message, new mail). Since I would like to have this for missed calendar event alarms, too. So I guess it should be implemented in a very general way, so all kind of phone events (which pop up in the notification screen) could be configured.

This is kind of related with https://together.jolla.com/question/53692/feature-request-improve-missed-callmessage-reminder-with-optional-periodic-notification-tone-flash-or-vibration/

Looks like these two feature request would end up in the same "notification configuration" screen.

ralooyar ( 2014-11-28 12:00:11 +0300 )edit
4

answered 2014-03-07 13:27:04 +0300

veimis gravatar image

As discussed in the comments of the question:

What about having the led glow until you have checked the notification? You could see the led glowing indicating an unread notification when you switch applications or just leave your phone an a table. Also it wouldn't be confused with anything on the screen.

So if there is a new notification and the phone is locked, the led is blinking. When you open the phone, the led stops blinking, but it could stay glowing until you have cleared all notifications. Then if new notifications come the led would be blinking again.

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Comments

2

this is about notification indication while working on the phone, I did not find a question about keeping the notification light on if there are still notifications but actually I do not care, most of the times I do not even go through the notification screen to delete all notifications and with being online this will get even worse as there are basically always notifications so the led is always on...

chemist ( 2014-03-07 16:37:16 +0300 )edit
1

I agree with chemist. I quit syncing the phone with my emails and fb etc for exactly the reason: there are always notifications. It bugged me so much seeing all the update reminders and other stuff blinking/glowing/or simply just there constantly so I always ended up with turning off all the syncs. With Jolla I'm glad the notification screen is hidden.

spacenewt ( 2014-03-07 16:59:38 +0300 )edit
2

This could be configurable, so you could have it 1) off 2) only when in lock/home/launcher screen 3) only when using the phone 4) always, even when locked.

And, be it the led or a dot or a glow in the corner, it would be useful only if you could choose what notifications you want to be reminded of (for example, reminder only for missed calls and unread sms, or whatever one considers important).

ssahla ( 2014-03-07 17:32:36 +0300 )edit
1

@chemist, @spacenewt Yes I see your point, so if this would be implemented, then definitely it needs to be configurable. I've managed to filter things so that most of the time I only get notifications from things I want to know and the I don't want to miss any of them.

veimis ( 2014-03-07 21:08:41 +0300 )edit
0

answered 2014-02-14 13:12:48 +0300

chemist gravatar image

How about the status-screen? Yeah you do not see it from launcher but at least every time you switch between apps or start one.

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answered 2014-03-07 15:59:08 +0300

tokaru gravatar image

I suggest to add a notification bar (similar to status bar e.g. in Android, but only visible when there are pending notifications).

The bar could be located at the bottom of the display, this would be quite logical with regards to the slide-up gesture and also add intuitivity to it.

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Asked: 2014-02-13 22:52:26 +0300

Seen: 673 times

Last updated: Sep 17 '15