Why do all apps have the same notification sound?

[jdhooghe]

The inability to choose a custom SMS tone is the first HUUUUGE issue. I should talk a poll to see how many Nokia users use the Nokia Message sound. In fact, I'll post that next.

Blackberry was very popular because it allowed custom notifications for each person. Apple recently added this ability and when I still had my 4S, I found this extremely useful as I have a work email, a personal email, tutoring clients, my fiance, my friends, facebook alerts and a crap load else. I am in the lab and I don't want to have to pick up my phone for every. single. notification because I do not know what it is. It is easy to blow off a basic feature if you don't use it. Don't knock it until you try it ^_^

 

[D M2]

I agree with OP

 

[haydt1]

I don't see how 2013 is relevant to this argument. What I understand is that you want to hear which app gave you the notification, but I don't understand why. Notification is a notification. Do you not look at your phone for certain type of notifications or what is it?

No I don't want to look at my phone just because I received a notification. Some are important and others are not. Additionally I should be able to assign separate tones for my wife and children versus other people. Some things are important and others aren't. I don't care about FB but a text from my daughter is a different story. Have been able to do this kind of thing on BB and other platforms forever. That's why.

 

[Gaichuke]

No I don't want to look at my phone just because I received a notification. Some are important and others are not. Additionally I should be able to assign separate tones for my wife and children versus other people. Some things are important and others aren't. I don't care about FB but a text from my daughter is a different story. Have been able to do this kind of thing on BB and other platforms forever. That's why.

I do see how that might be useful to some people. I just don't believe it's a feature that majority of the people actually use.

I'm confused of your examples though. Let's imagine that WP8 supports custom ringtones. Your phone rings and you can hear it's not from your wife or daughter (default ringtone), do you not then always look who's calling?

 

[EauRouge]

I don't see how 2013 is relevant to this argument. What I understand is that you want to hear which app gave you the notification, but I don't understand why. Notification is a notification. Do you not look at your phone for certain type of notifications or what is it?

Exactly, depending on what I'm doing checking my FB notifications falls low on my priority list

 

[tk-093]

I do see how that might be useful to some people. I just don't believe it's a feature that majority of the people actually use.

I would argue that there doesn't have to be a majority of people wanting something for it to be something that should be provided. For example there are way more Android and iPhones out there then there are Instagram users, yet that's considered a must have feature (I know it's an app...) Things like VPN or S/MIME for encrypted emails are something that is nowhere near used by a majority of users, yet it's considered a very important feature, especially to drive enterprise adoption. I'm sure there are other examples people can come up with.

So while it might not be used by a 51% of people... that is too high a number. Is it a critical feature, no, but it gives off a sense of a lack of polish.... IMO

 

[ammarmalik2011]

How are you coming to the conclusion that this is a feature people don't use? First of all it's not available on WP8, so people can't use it even if they wanted to. Secondly on iOS all apps have their own distinct notification sound so you don't have to manually use this feature, it's already in place.

 

[sniffs]

I don't see how 2013 is relevant to this argument. What I understand is that you want to hear which app gave you the notification, but I don't understand why. Notification is a notification. Do you not look at your phone for certain type of notifications or what is it?

Because some apps might have more importance than others? If I'm expecting a text message and I keep hearing facebook beeping, and I keep turning my phone on, unlocking it to check, that's not only wasting my time, but it's wasting precious battery life.. kind of dumb, donchathink?

 

[Gaichuke]

How are you coming to the conclusion that this is a feature people don't use? First of all it's not available on WP8, so people can't use it even if they wanted to. Secondly on iOS all apps have their own distinct notification sound so you don't have to manually use this feature, it's already in place.

I'm saying that it's a feature people don't really use in any platform where it's available. I haven't never used iOS but if there really is a different notification sound for every app, that sounds horrible. How do you even know which one makes which sound if you have dozens of apps that give notifications?

Because some apps might have more importance than others? If I'm expecting a text message and I keep hearing facebook beeping, and I keep turning my phone on, unlocking it to check, that's not only wasting my time, but it's wasting precious battery life.. kind of dumb, donchathink?

Text and email should have their own distinct notification sounds since they are clearly different type of notifications. But should there be any difference in the sound when notification comes from FB and Twitter? I personally don't think so.

 

[tk-093]

I'm saying that it's a feature people don't really use in any platform where it's available. I haven't never used iOS but if there really is a different notification sound for every app, that sounds horrible. How do you even know which one makes which sound if you have dozens of apps that give notifications?

How can you say "it's a feature people don't really use in any platform where it's available." then turn right around and say you've never used one of the platforms you're talking about? It's a feature people use every day. Some apps come that way from the start.

I have yet to see anybody on iOS or Android (and I've used them both, heavily, and continue to for my job) complain about specific notification sounds. If you have the ESPN Scorecenter app configured and you get a notification, guess what, it's the ESPN tune. Not confusing at all. Most apps let you pick and choose what notification sounds you want so if you feel it's best to have all your apps sound the same (something nobody wants) you can probably do that.

 

[rockstarzzz]

I am going to assume this is not a rhetorical question and demands an answer. I am 99% sure, none of us at Windows Phone Central design Windows Phone. You should actually go and vote here - Custom sounds for SMS, MMS, Email, Notifications etc

I bet you can make a difference by doing that, instead of opening this thread and expecting an answer to the question without going through the most weirdest discussion about what year we live in.

 

[Gaichuke]

How can you say "it's a feature people don't really use in any platform where it's available." then turn right around and say you've never used one of the platforms you're talking about? It's a feature people use every day. Some apps come that way from the start.

As I say in post #14, I might be wrong in my conclusion. I have absolutely no proof for it, it's just something I feel might be the case. I must clarify that if it's forced to the user as it seems to be in iOS (if I understand correctly), of course everyone are using it.

But if the default behavior is that you must manually assign these notification sounds, I believe vast majority of the users won't bother doing anything with them and are happy using just one sound for every notification. I would also claim that the novelty of such feature will wear off quite rapidly even if you would use it initially.

 

[Bartdog]

This is what we call a "first world problem" :wink:.

 

[Ultimateone]

As I say in post #14, I might be wrong in my conclusion. I have absolutely no proof for it, it's just something I feel might be the case. I must clarify that if it's forced to the user as it seems to be in iOS (if I understand correctly), of course everyone are using it.

But if the default behavior is that you must manually assign these notification sounds, I believe vast majority of the users won't bother doing anything with them and are happy using just one sound for every notification. I would also claim that the novelty of such feature will wear off quite rapidly even if you would use it initially.

I think everything you wrote is the complete opposite of what people want, the biggest thing WP8 users want is customized sounds for the OS, its the number one thing requested on Microsofts website for suggestions.

edit: not everyone wants a boring notification sound for every app, customization per app and contact should have been implemented since day one.

 

[Gaichuke]

I think everything you wrote is the complete opposite of what people want, the biggest thing WP8 users want is customized sounds for the OS, its the number one thing requested on Microsofts website for suggestions.

edit: not everyone wants a boring notification sound for every app, customization per app and contact should have been implemented since day one.

Wrong. The feature request you're referring to is about having customized sounds for different notifications, eg. being able to put whatever audio file they wish for system sounds. That's very different thing from being able to assign each app separately what comes to the notification sounds.

I very much agree the request for custom SMS etc. tunes myself too.

 

[tk-093]

As I say in post #14, I might be wrong in my conclusion. I have absolutely no proof for it, it's just something I feel might be the case. I must clarify that if it's forced to the user as it seems to be in iOS (if I understand correctly), of course everyone are using it.

But if the default behavior is that you must manually assign these notification sounds, I believe vast majority of the users won't bother doing anything with them and are happy using just one sound for every notification. I would also claim that the novelty of such feature will wear off quite rapidly even if you would use it initially.

Nobody ever said the vast majority of people want "feature X." The vast majority of people don't need things like Skype, but it would be hard to argue that having Skype as an option is important. The vast majority of people don't use Instragram or Twitter, but again nobody would say it's not important.

It was mentioned above, but if you go to feature suggestion page located here: Feature Suggestions: Top (23514 ideas) You will see that the top two requested features are sound related with the number one being "Custom sounds for SMS, MMS, Email, Notifications etc" So it's pretty important to a lot of people. Vast majority? I don't know, but again it doesn't have to be.

 

[Gaichuke]

Nobody ever said the vast majority of people want "feature X." The vast majority of people don't need things like Skype, but it would be hard to argue that having Skype as an option is important. The vast majority of people don't use Instragram or Twitter, but again nobody would say it's not important.

It was mentioned above, but if you go to feature suggestion page located here: Feature Suggestions: Top (23514 ideas) You will see that the top two requested features are sound related with the number one being "Custom sounds for SMS, MMS, Email, Notifications etc" So it's pretty important to a lot of people. Vast majority? I don't know, but again it doesn't have to be.

Are you seriously comparing possible users of this feature to services like Skype (half a BILLION registered users), Twitter (200M+ active users) and Instagram (~100M active users)? Services that each offer a very specific additional function? We are talking about adding extra options to an already existing feature (notification sound) here. That comparison does not make sense.

And neither of those feature suggestion are addressing the function we're talking about, which is about enabling unique notification sounds to different applications.

 

[St_Deborah]

Wow... How did this become an argument. The OP had a valid point on something that would prove to be a useful feature as it is on many other operating systems. Heck, even the Sanyo Incognito - a dumb phone - allows the ability to assign different sms tones per contact. But when you're dealing with a smart phone, having setup 2 different work email accounts, 3 personal email accounts, Facebook, what's app, google voice, text me, Skype, Soundrivin, and CNN (which gives the same exact sound as my text me alerts) most would kinda want to filter out what's important. I don't think the people that have a lot going on or those that just simply want the feature should be knocked by those that don't use it. That's a bit selfish. In all honesty, the feature should at least be offered. Not everyone has my setup, but I know teens that even like the separate text tones just for wanting to know when they're getting a text from their ma vs their best friend.

 

[Ultimateone]

In another thread there is a person saying he keeps hearing a notification going off but has no idea where it is coming from and is not coming from a pinned tile. A custom sound per email or app would have made that ~find~ easier.

 

[Gaichuke]

I don't consider this discussion as an argument but a debate. I am very interested about everything involving mobile user experience and I find this topic fascinating. I hope my comments don't offend anyone.

The filtering of notifications by sound makes sense to me in principle but I just find the solution of having cacophony of different notification tones very inefficient method for accomplishing that. I mean, you're basically doing that to know which notifications are worth your attention and which are not. Much effective solution would be to have notification sounds only when they are worth attending.

How to accomplish this is a whole another thing though.