Not impressed by the action center

[anony_mouse]

I wouldn't call it necessary to have a toggle to turn off data. I never turn off date and when I have wifi on I don't worry about battery drain. I leave my phone on wifi with data on and when I wake up its still at 100 percent after 8hrs on standby. Anyways I like how the action Center on 8.1 is. It's more practicle than IOS and more easier than android imo

I think we can quickly conclude on the data toggle by using a bit of empathy. It should be there because a lot of people use it often. Even if that doesn't include you.

I don't really get the point of the new notifications. Isn't the point of the tile UI to show notifications?

 

[Blacklac]

I wouldn't call it necessary to have a toggle to turn off data. I never turn off date and when I have wifi on I don't worry about battery drain. I leave my phone on wifi with data on and when I wake up its still at 100 percent after 8hrs on standby. Anyways I like how the action Center on 8.1 is. It's more practicle than IOS and more easier than android imo

There's no way after 8hrs, even in Standby, you have 100% battery left.

 

[AndreStudart]

Just turn on wi-fi sense (don't know if it's this that does what I will explain), don't know if you guys know this, but on wp8.1 when you leave a known wifi, it will turn on data connection, and when you return to any known wifi, it will turn off data connection, I guess this is why they didn't put data toggle on action centre.

 

[anony_mouse]

Just turn on wi-fi sense (don't know if it's this that does what I will explain), don't know if you guys know this, but on wp8.1 when you leave a known wifi, it will turn on data connection, and when you return to any known wifi, it will turn off data connection, I guess this is why they didn't put data toggle on action centre.

That totally misses the point. Some people sometimes want to switch off data even when not connected to wifi.
Anyway, hasn't WP always turned off mobile data when it's in range of and connected to wifi? Every smart phone I've ever owned has. What exactly does wifi sense do?!

 

[Kram Sacul]

The action center with the custom toggles is probably my favorite thing about WP8.1. Even the notifications are nicely done and clean looking even if they're now very redundant in WP. I guess it's nice to have if you ignore your live tiles, lock screen and glance screen.

The one thing that kind of bothers me is that MS got a little lazy in following the rules of their UI. The clear all and all settings buttons are missing circles around the icons to indicate that they have a function. They made the same mistake in the expanded volume controls and in a few places in the new Store.

Mock-up with added circles around icons to indicate they can be touched

 

[TechAbstract]

The action center with the custom toggles is probably my favorite thing about WP8.1. Even the notifications are nicely done and clean looking even if they're now very redundant in WP. I guess it's nice to have if you ignore your live tiles, lock screen and glance screen.

The one thing that kind of bothers me is that MS got a little lazy in following the rules of their UI. The clear all and all settings buttons are missing circles around the icons to indicate that they have a function. They made the same mistake in the expanded volume controls and in a few places in the new Store.

Mock-up with added circles around icons to indicate they can be touched
View attachment 64201

Isn't that just logical when people see "Clear All" and "All Settings" in the Action Center, they would know those are functions.

 

[Kram Sacul]

Isn't that just logical when people see "Clear All" and "All Settings" in the Action Center, they would know those are functions.

Yeah, but this is WP. Everything is supposed to be clear. If something is a button it should look like a button and not just an icon with some text next to it. These are MS' own rules.

 

[monedetoune]

Yeah, but this is WP. Everything is supposed to be clear. If something is a button it should look like a button and not just an icon with some text next to it. These are MS' own rules.

it has a lot to do with WP being a typography based ui. have a look at the settings. its just a list of functions without any icons. this is what they are trying to implement.

 

[Kram Sacul]

it has a lot to do with WP being a typography based ui. have a look at the settings. its just a list of functions without any icons. this is what they are trying to implement.

The system settings is a special case. Since it's all text there's not a lot of confusion. The action center is mixed up. The quick settings buttons are correct. The Notifications are text so that's fine. The problem is with the clear all and all settings. They're just there and don't follow anything else in WP. It's like they either forgot to add the gray box like the quick toggles:


or circles around the icons like in an app bar:



I guess it's not that big of a deal though. At least they're clearly labeled.

The sound controls on the other hand. They really screwed that up.

 

[Loco5150]

Yup, I wondered the wifi thing also. For me it does not make sense that you cant turn it off directly. There should be maybe "long press" option for the settings to open or something?

 

[Chris Sandiford]

a few months back when I heard about the action centre I was very excited and I'm glad its there. Notice I said the action centre and NOT the notification centre. Just in case someone tries to act smart or anything
Moving on. lets face it everyone, I can guarantee to you100% that the two most used toggles are data Connection ON/OFF and the Wi-Fi. So here are the 3 bummers that I found in the action centre. Data connection as in Data Pack as in 3G,4G, etc.;
1. Absence of a Data Connection toggle
2. the Wi-Fi toggle isn't really to turn it on or off but to take you to the setting for Wi-Fi where you can turn it ON/OFF. Now hold on, I know that you can use the Wi-Fi button to directly turn it ON but NOT to directly turn it OFF. This makes it a total of 3 steps 1.swipe down 2. tap the Wi-Fi button 3. switch Wi-Fi off from the normal settings menu. In contrast to the old way of toggling Wi-Fi on and off which was adding a tile and pressing that tile will take you directly to Wi-Fi setting. See? a total of 2 steps only. So Microsoft added an extra step really unless they change that into an ON/OFF toggle like a rotation lock or airplane mode

3. (not really relevant but there is a millisecond lag while swiping down between revealing the action centre and notification centre which ruins the beauty of the action + notification centre

Nope.
Why switch off WiFi or data?

I use Flight mode and Bluetooth the most.

If you want silence or no interruptions at home, silence your phone. You obviously use your phone in a non-standard way to most hence it doesn't fit your lifestyle.

 

[anony_mouse]

Nope.
Why switch off WiFi or data?

I use Flight mode and Bluetooth the most.

If you want silence or no interruptions at home, silence your phone. You obviously use your phone in a non-standard way to most hence it doesn't fit your lifestyle.

This post is very interesting from a psychological point of view. To summarise: I am standard and normal and right, and anyone who does something different is non-standard and weird and wrong.

There are good reasons for some people to disable data from time to time, and we've been over it in this and other threads.

Personally I never switch Bluetooth on, but using the power of empathy I understand that some people do, and that doesn't make them wrong or stupid. They probably have good reasons to do so. So I think it's a good idea to include a Bluetooth switch, even though I never use it. I wonder if some of our contributors here are capable of understanding such a concept.

 

[brain box]

Well for me its a good thing the Wi-Fi settings comes up when u hit it in the action center, considering I have four different Wi-Fi conns to chose from

 

[Chris Sandiford]

This post is very interesting from a psychological point of view. To summarise: I am standard and normal and right, and anyone who does something different is non-standard and weird and wrong.

There are good reasons for some people to disable data from time to time, and we've been over it in this and other threads.

Personally I never switch Bluetooth on, but using the power of empathy I understand that some people do, and that doesn't make them wrong or stupid. They probably have good reasons to do so. So I think it's a good idea to include a Bluetooth switch, even though I never use it. I wonder if some of our contributors here are capable of understanding such a concept.

You are only non-standard from the weight of replies against how you are using your phone, ergo my comment. I never mentioned stupidity. You do what you do, however non-standard your reasoning.
But if the rest of us are really "non-standard and weird and wrong" then I guess you have a point and the whole of 8.1 should be rewritten for your minority usage.

 

[A895]

You are only non-standard from the weight of replies against how you are using your phone, ergo my comment. I never mentioned stupidity. You do what you do, however non-standard your reasoning.
But if the rest of us are really "non-standard and weird and wrong" then I guess you have a point and the whole of 8.1 should be rewritten for your minority usage.

Having options is not bad. Having an option to toggle data would be optional and helpful for those who want to use it. I don't see what's the big deal here.

Posted via Windows Phone Central App

 

[anony_mouse]

You are only non-standard from the weight of replies against how you are using your phone, ergo my comment. I never mentioned stupidity. You do what you do, however non-standard your reasoning.
But if the rest of us are really "non-standard and weird and wrong" then I guess you have a point and the whole of 8.1 should be rewritten for your minority usage.

I won't bother going through the arguments for and against a mobile data switch - you can find them above and in other threads.

I would rather discuss the psychological issues here which are really far more interesting. You talk about "non-standard reasoning" and me being "non-standard". Why do you think my reasoning is non-standard? What do you mean by "non-standard"? I believe I have good reasons to, for example, switch data off in some situations. If you found yourself In the same situations, I think you might do the same. Perhaps you don't find yourself in the same situations, so the issue never arises for you. Or perhaps you do but you follow different reasoning. I'm not being judgemental about this - I don't argue that you are wrong or, to use your term, non-standard. I'm just curious why you feel so strongly against adding a minor feature that a reasonable number of people find very useful; more or less than 50% I couldn't say, but nevertheless a reasonable number judging by this thread. I can't help feeling it's a bigger issue than just the presence or absence of a small control in a UI, so I'd like to get to the bottom of it.

(You also claim that I think everyone else is "non-standard and weird and wrong", which was precisely the opposite of my point).

 

[Loco5150]

Anyone who travels might want to toggle data on/off a lot, or have limited dataplans... Its weird they left it out.

 

[rocking23nf]

i dont know why it needs to tell me in the action center that beats audio is turned on.
battery is draining wayyyyyyyyyy quicker on the htc 8x also, I have disabled everything that I could find.

 

[JHunsaker]

i dont know why it needs to tell me in the action center that beats audio is turned on.
battery is draining wayyyyyyyyyy quicker on the htc 8x also, I have disabled everything that I could find.

You can disable the beats audio from showing up by going to settings-> notifications and actions. Then find Beats Audio and click it. Settings will open just for Beats Audio and then you can customize it just the way you want.

 

[Simon Shihab]

use cortana to turn off wifi

as for the 3rd point yes agree about that. Made a topic about it.

another problem with the notification center doesn't cooperate with the tiles. Maybe the apps need to update for 8.1

I cannot turn on/off settings or open websites with cortana. It only begins a bing search
Can you help me?