Scared of the direction of WP.

[ominaxe]

I started writing this in reply to the newer post about Microsoft and Nokia's internal testing of 8.1 but it got a little long winded. Everyone was so excited about a notification center and I just had to say: Is anyone else loathing the idea of notifications? Or the path WP is taking in general?

You know, the one reason I like WP is because it's so unintrusive and simple. I think the notification center defeats the purpose of the whole thing that made WP so special: Live tiles and the glance and go nature of them.

One of the main reasons I hate Android and iOS is because I feel like I'm constantly twiddling my thumb, whether it's going through notifications, multi-tasking, or ending processes -- I always feel like I have to be doing something on it. I for one didn't see any point in multi-tasking when mango was released, it just makes things more complicated. Maybe it's because I'm not a power user or anything, but I never saw a point in it. I only do one thing at a time. I liked just going back to the home screen if I needed to do anything new and everything I needed was right there; two presses (or one if I press the new notification button) and I'm where I need to be. Because opening up a new app is so fast, I feel like multitasking actually takes more time with the long back press, the swiping, and the reopening. Plus I feel like there's always an application open that I don't even want opened.

I think the only thing I like about W8 is that it has more tile sizes on the start screen and more applications. Other than that, I think it's more buggy and more complicated .. I miss pre mango W7 (except the 2 fixed tile sizes and less applications). I think there should be a vanilla mode or something on the OS.

I hate that WP is trying to play 'catch up' when I think it's completely unnecessary. WP doesn't need everything that Android and iOS needs. And I think that by trying to capture more of an audience, they're neglecting their original intent of a fast, light, simple, straightforward mobile OS.

Rant over.

 

[Chregu]

I don't use multitasking often. However when I use it, I use it to copy and paste things from one app to another or to a message I am writing. This is an essential feature I just need sometimes. Also, if you want to go back to the exact point in an app you have left, let's say after reading a message, it's more practical. If you go over the homescreen, man apps just restart, and that's how it should be.

The way notifications work on Windows Phone at the moment is not acceptable. I don't need a notification center, but I need a solution.

I explained this before, I'll explain it again. Let's say you use WhatsApp, Viber, Skype, and Facebook. Just four basic apps, nothing power-usery about it. Of course, next to this you have also an email account, missed calls and messages. That makes 7 notifications you can get. Now, how many notifications are supported by the Windows Phone lockscreen? Excactly, 5.

That means, if you want to know if you have missed a message or a call, you have to start your phone, enter the pass-code, and then scroll down to your apps every time. Of course, you can have all of them on top of your homescreen, but that negates the entire freedom of having a choice to personalize your homescreen.

 

[brunoadduarte]

Multitasking is useful for me, but the way it's implemented in WP and Android is very, very poor. iOS 7's isn't too bad, but it isn't that good either. That and the way we close apps in both OSs (WP and Android, that is). Or maybe I'm saying that because I've used a UI so ingenious that I'm spoiled because of it.

I'm not going to stand here and defend that multitasking is for everyone. Some people use it, some don't and that's fine. If you happen to need it, it's already there and there's no need to moan about it if it isn't. What I am going to defend is that it needs to exist simply because there are, in fact, people that use it and need it.

As for the notification centre, it's needed because everyone uses their tiles differently and some people don't even have all their apps in the homescreen. As an example, I use VIber a lot over Whatsapp and I don't have it on the homescreen. But if I get a text on Whatsapp, I don't have anything else to warn me except a toast that disappears after a few seconds.

There's a problem with WP's homescreen. Awesome as it is, it can get really cluttered, really fast and searching for what we want can get tricky. For that reason I believe that a centralized area for notifications is needed.

 

[ominaxe]

@Chregu
Ah, you're talking about the lock screen .. Yeah, that's whole other issue entirely. And you can only really choose one to see fully at a time.. I don't think they want to clutter the lock screen too much seeing that it's the only real visual customization you can have. I'm okay with the lock screen as is though. But I also don't have a password on my phone.

I just want MS to be careful the way they progress .. I don't want it turning into a cluttered up mess like iOS with way too many folders/notifications or Android with way too much .. everything.

@brunoadduarte
I guess if you are a heavy user with many applications the home screen can get pretty messy. Because I'm not a very heavy user I don't see these issues at all and I can understand see your point of view. But really, I don't even need my home screen scrollable and I see everything I need to, so for users like me a notification center is pointless. I just hope that the notification center isn't put front and center and doesn't ruin the simplified experience. An ability to turn off multitasking would be nice too. That's something you can't get away from.

 

[derDaniel]

First off, there is no multitasking in wp.

I don't think that a notification center will kill the experience but make it better.
Is not about the tile information, it's about the missed toast notifications like scoring of your fav sport team or music updates you only get once.
Also the network short cuts would perfectly fit in this thing.
Think of it as a control center.

 

[teckris]

ok.. MS will make notification center as an Application so that those who want need to install
why to get worried when you cant even control ANYTHING here

 

[11B1P]

First off, there is no multitasking in wp.

Is not about the tile information, it's about the missed toast notifications...

I don't understand your thought on multi tasking. I regularly use two apps together, using info off of one of the apps, for info on the other app.

I agree with toast notifications. They need to stay visible until I dismiss them.

 

[Huime]

First off, there is no multitasking in wp.

I don't think that a notification center will kill the experience but make it better.
Is not about the tile information, it's about the missed toast notifications like scoring of your fav sport team or music updates you only get once.
Also the network short cuts would perfectly fit in this thing.
Think of it as a control center.

Yes there is. For example, wptorrent downloads in the background...
It is just restricted to a few apps...

 

[metalchick719]

I think that sometimes, notifications aren't necessary, or at least they can be improved. For instance, it drives me batty when a notification comes up on Facebook Beta when someone replies to a post and it keeps appearing every other second for around a full minute. I absolutely hate it, especially if I'm doing something else like playing Wordament and want to see my score. The notification just STAYS up there exactly where I would have to look to see it. I'd rather see notifications in the center of the screen and not appearing every other second for a full minute or whatnot.

 

[cckgz4]

As long as they don't have a notifications constantly cluttering my screen, I'm good. As the OP mentioned, that is something I DESPISE, which is why I'm not on iOS and Android

 

[manicottiK]

The real question should be "what is a notification" and what do users need to know about them? I am solidly in the "a missed toast is a notification" camp, but I don't know what else should be considered a notification. To me, receiving an email should not be a notification and I wouldn't expect or want a "notification center" to list each incoming email as a notification.

I think that WP apps under use toasts because 1) they're a bit hard to program for and require a server-side component to push out new content and 2) the toasts themselves are easy to miss. Because of #2, fewer developers go through the effort for #1 and instead just do periodic tasks to update tiles with lots of info. A "toast log" would address this. But I still don't know if that's what the community wants.

 

[hopmedic]

The real question should be "what is a notification" and what do users need to know about them? I am solidly in the "a missed toast is a notification" camp, but I don't know what else should be considered a notification. To me, receiving an email should not be a notification and I wouldn't expect or want a "notification center" to list each incoming email as a notification.

I think that WP apps under use toasts because 1) they're a bit hard to program for and require a server-side component to push out new content and 2) the toasts themselves are easy to miss. Because of #2, fewer developers go through the effort for #1 and instead just do periodic tasks to update tiles with lots of info. A "toast log" would address this. But I still don't know if that's what the community wants.

I agree that an email shouldn't be considered a separate notification - it is right there on the live tile. As are phone calls, text messages, and more. To me, I'd say it should be a place to aggregate missed toasts. But that's me.

Toasts do not require a server side component to push new content, though that would be the most common use, I believe. A background agent could check for new information on a web service (or even check for something in the phone - a very simple example would be the time being past a certain point), and if it finds new information that it is programmed to look for, it can originate a toast from within the background agent.

I only point this out to show that there is more than one way to get a toast. It can be a push or a pull operation. Of course the pull operation is going to only happen once every 30 +/- 10 minutes, where a push operation can be instant. Myself, I wouldn't say that the push notifications aren't used as much because of the effort, but because many of us are trying to do this on a shoestring, and the expense of having a hosted service can add up. Also, not all app ideas are good candidates for toasts, of course. :wink:

 

[Chris_Kez]

The real question should be "what is a notification" and what do users need to know about them? ... I still don't know if that's what the community wants.

Great points. The sad truth is that there will be no real consensus; all we'll hear is a lot different opinions, from the most vocal users (not necessarily the majority of users). To satisfy everyone's notification *needs* would require a ridiculously complex system with a lot of flexibility and customization. And that would conflict with what a lot of people *want*, which is simplicity. Ultimately, MS will hand us something that improves the experience for a lot of users, while generating a ton of hand-wringing here.

 

[brunoadduarte]

As far as I'm concerned, I don't need the NC to tell me what was every single notification about. What I need is an app by app count in a central location.

 

[N_LaRUE]

With regards to the users wanting to convert WP into a secondary version of Android, which I don't think will happen, I personally think MS will sort out a system that maintains the integrity of WP.

I don't see why a notification centre can't be as customizable as the lockscreen, for instance. You setup which notifications you want, or none. That would make the most sense. Personally I just want the Glance screen coming in Black for notifications so I know when I missed something.

As for any other feature that the screaming hordes want, most coming from Android or Symbian. I hope they realise that WP isn't going down the path of either and that WP will be a system that will continue to be different from them for good reasons. I expect better experience in WP8.1 and hopefully a tad more open APIs so that developers can offer better experiences as well.

 

[Chris_Kez]

Is anyone else loathing the idea of notifications? Or the path WP is taking in general?...they're neglecting their original intent of a fast, light, simple, straightforward mobile OS

Well, part of the goal of a notification center is to provide a faster, lighter, simpler more straightforward way to digest incoming updates. If I've been away from my phone for an hour, isn't faster and easier to pull up a single view of recent activity than it is to jump into multiple apps (especially for toast notifications, since lots of these things just disappear into the ether)? As long as you can control what kind of notifications you get, it should be a net positive.

As far as needing to "twiddle" all the time (or not)- that is your choice. You could completely ignore the notification center (as my wife does on her iPhone. I honestly don't think she has ever looked at it; and she has certainly never cleared it out or cleaned up in a year of use). Or you could trim the apps that provide notifications to just those that are critical. With regards to multi-tasking and killing processes, again this is something you choose to do. These things are completely invisible unless you purposely engage with them. You could simply hit the Start or Home button and always launch an app from there. No need to long press or double-tap. Just ignore it. Modern mobile OS's do not need to be micro-managed; they will allocate resources or kill processes all on their own.

 

[teckris]

the notification center if it comes may be providing feature to hide toasts and also the TOASTS themselves are to be improved. I cant digest the continuous burst of toasts after I connect my phone to internet why cant an app provide just one notification with count of all the notifications for it so far??

 

[hopmedic]

...If I've been away from my phone for an hour...

It's possible to be away from your phone for an hour????

 

[jlynnm350z]

I didn't know they were going in any direction. If they are its at a snails pace. The difference between Android 2 to 3 to 4 is huge ui improvements and features. Windows? I can't even tell whats new with these meager little updates. I love Windows phone don't get me wrong bit I don't see anything exciting coming down the road, especially at this pace. I understand you can only due so much. Android has slown down quite a bit with there recent updates. But their miles ahead of windows when it comes to features. Go windows!!

 

[DallasXanadu]

I'm not really for or against the current notification system - I really enjoyed the way WebOS did it. But what I would like to see at LEAST is once I've responded to the notification and opened the app it pointed me to, for the notification to disappear from the screen. It seems like it stays up there for a good 30 seconds after I've already read the text, etc. Also, why do I get FB notifications AFTER I've seen the post?