"Sleep" button / Alert functionality

[susslerville]

I've been using the 8X for over a week now and generally think it's great, but there are a few nagging issues that I've been searching through posts to try and find solutions to. Here's one: Upon receiving a new alert (email, text, etc.) the LED lights but the screen stays dark and must be "woken up" by pressing the small, low-profile "sleep/wake-up" button. Then the lock screen must be swiped up. So the process is: hear the alert tone, find and press the small sleep button, and swipe the unlock screen - just to get to the place where you can determine what your alert was for. I'm not sure why the 8X doesn't have an option to "wake" like other phones when an alert is received. This is compounded by the fact that the sleep button is so small and low. Does anyone know of a way to force a wake-up when an alert is received, or to wake the phone using any of the other, easier buttons (like volume), rather than the sleep button? Also, is this something that HTC could potentially address with a software update? I'm in the U.S. on Verizon Wireless. Thanks.

 

[sportrckr]

My phone wakes up the screen for most alerts, ie text, calls, calendar events, however it does not wake up the screen for emails or any other alert like the espn app. I also do not have the LED lighting up when I receive any alerts, I wish I did because then I wouldn't have to wake the phone up to see if I got any alerts while I was away from it.

 

[susslerville]

Sorry, that's correct. I was confusing the charging light for an alert light. My phone does not show an LED light for alerts. It wakes up momentarily for a new text message (for about 8 seconds), but not at all for emails. Still curious to know if there's any way around having the sleep button as the only wake-up option, and if HTC might potentially fix that as well as the lack of LED indicator for a new alert. Thanks again and sorry for the confusion.

 

[SaucePolicy]

The only other way I know of to wake up the phone is to hold the camera button down but only if you've turned the option on. Compared to sleep button it's about the same amount of effort.

I do agree with you that I wish there were notifications when an email is received and that the phone was easier to wake up. A lot of people keep their smartphones on their desks in front of them and when you get an alert, you just want to glance down and see if its worth waking the phone up for. For example, with iOS, you get an email alert, glance down to see if its worth waking the phone, then slide right and unlock if so, or ignore it if not. Even if you don't see/hear the alert when it comes in, checking for missed alerts is as easy as pressing the home button (one finger) compared to on the 8X which requires at least two fingers and squeezing the hard to find sleep button. If there was a way to just press the windows button to wake the phone, I'd be happy but I think that's impossible since it's not a physical button. Hopefully at least adding optional email toast notifications is something they can give us in an update.

 

[philxor]

I was a little surprised they didn't have toast notifications for email but I'm glad they do not since they would likely make it so you couldn't turn it off like text notifications. I don't like getting stuff on my lock screen for others to see and always turned it off in IOS. Obviously notifications are a weak part of the phone right now and I expect them to add more options in the future.

 

[3ibs]

The only other way I know of to wake up the phone is to hold the camera button down but only if you've turned the option on. Compared to sleep button it's about the same amount of effort.

I can't get this to work. The option is turned on but it just opens the camera app when I try to wake it up by holding the camera button.

 

[ajua]

I can't get this to work. The option is turned on but it just opens the camera app when I try to wake it up by holding the camera button.

That's how it works. Microsoft even called something like unlock to snap or unlock to camera. There's no way to unlock your phone using the camera button and have it show The start screen as the power button does. It would be great to have a setting for the Windows/Home button to use it as unlock button. My Optimus 7 had a physical home button and it could unlock your phone.

Almost evey smartphone that has the power button on the top make it hard to unlock with one hand.