Why do all apps have the same notification sound?

[Microsoftjunkie]

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.

I agree, this is a better solution.

 

[aafa]

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.

this brings 2013 relevancy back. Smartphones are supposed to be getting smarter. what is the harm in having our phone customized to our needs. believe it or not, but people want to distinguish one notification from another.

ie, I have a WhatsApp group of 4. they can go ranting on about something irrelevant...at the same time, I am receiving SMS texts from my hockey team that I will be playing in a few hours...I want to prioritize the hockey texts over irrelevant rants. So OP is asking for customization! And when I was on Android a few months back, I had a nice 'hum' tone for WhatsApp notifications.

So you have to understand people's priorities and not question them.

 

[jdhooghe]

One of the things that made BlackBerrys so awesome was their ability at customization of alerts. It allowed people to be very efficient with their time. While some people may not use it, that doesn't mean that it isn't important. If we want Windows Phone 8 to obtain more market share, it must have the features that all the other top smartphones have. It is a no-brainer.

A similar case is that the new Z10 only has one alarm. One could argue that this is frankly ridiculous and multiple alarms is a basic feature that needs to be there. I don't use only one alarm and in fact, would cause me to oversleep all the time although some people are able to get up after only one alarm. It depends on the person and what their needs are.

 

[Ultimateone]

This thread makes me so angry haha.

 

[rockstarzzz]

Wow so many rants. I hope those ranting are also voting for this feature on user voice! I posted link earlier. If your desperation is really high, let me tell you, you can use 3 votes without logging in, 3 votes with Facebook, 3 votes with twitter and 3 votes with your email id. So depending on your desperation for this feature, go vote on uservoice. Its got over 26k votes already and voting there is THE only solution. Ranting on this board is just using bandwidth.

 

[Gaichuke]

this brings 2013 relevancy back. Smartphones are supposed to be getting smarter. what is the harm in having our phone customized to our needs. believe it or not, but people want to distinguish one notification from another.

ie, I have a WhatsApp group of 4. they can go ranting on about something irrelevant...at the same time, I am receiving SMS texts from my hockey team that I will be playing in a few hours...I want to prioritize the hockey texts over irrelevant rants. So OP is asking for customization! And when I was on Android a few months back, I had a nice 'hum' tone for WhatsApp notifications.

So you have to understand people's priorities and not question them.

There's absolutely nothing wrong in questioning people's opinions, that's how you learn to understand them. Valid opinions can easily handle a bit of questioning and critique.

But you're right, it's already 2013 and smartphones are supposed to be getting smarter. How come we are then requesting for a solution that actually is not very smart? I mean, it's the same solution since the times when first feature phone came out that was able to receive emails in addition to text messages. That time a new notification sound was needed and it was a valid choice back then. Today on the other hand users are dealing with dozens of different services and the notifications from them, it's immediately a very different situation. Just keep on building unique notifications for each application will only overwhelm the user until the original purpose of that system is lost and people are using it just to distinguish between notifications that require your attention and which do not. I don't see anything smart in that.

In your example, it would make much more sense to me if you'd receive notification sound only from the SMS text and no sound at all from the WhatsApp group. You would still be notified of the WhatsApp conversation in the lock screen the next time open your phone, but it would not give you notification sounds since they are not urgent enough for you.

 

[Gaichuke]

One of the things that made BlackBerrys so awesome was their ability at customization of alerts. It allowed people to be very efficient with their time. While some people may not use it, that doesn't mean that it isn't important. If we want Windows Phone 8 to obtain more market share, it must have the features that all the other top smartphones have. It is a no-brainer.

Instead of trying to play catch-up, a much better way to obtain more market share is to leapfrog the competition when talking about features. Instead of trying to offer the same things as your competition does, offer something better.

Wow so many rants. I hope those ranting are also voting for this feature on user voice! I posted link earlier. If your desperation is really high, let me tell you, you can use 3 votes without logging in, 3 votes with Facebook, 3 votes with twitter and 3 votes with your email id. So depending on your desperation for this feature, go vote on uservoice. Its got over 26k votes already and voting there is THE only solution. Ranting on this board is just using bandwidth.

That feature request is not about the same thing we're talking about.

 

[rockstarzzz]

If that doesn't rock your boat - may be this Unique Notification Option for Individual Email Accounts

I know it only partially addresses the issue, but if you want, you can create another one open for all to vote by using OP of this thread.

 

[conanheath]

Wow so many rants. I hope those ranting are also voting for this feature on user voice! I posted link earlier. If your desperation is really high, let me tell you, you can use 3 votes without logging in, 3 votes with Facebook, 3 votes with twitter and 3 votes with your email id. So depending on your desperation for this feature, go vote on uservoice. Its got over 26k votes already and voting there is THE only solution. Ranting on this board is just using bandwidth.

I have voted. I work in the service industry. It is very well documented in studies that basically, "he who complains loudest, gets what he wants". If nobody complains, MS sits there and thinks they have a great product and no reason to change. I see it all the time. Even when we *****, there is no guarantee of change. The only way to make progress with big business is hit them where it counts, their pocket book. You want to hit them where it counts, you make sure they can't look any where and not see somebody complaining about their product. Why? Because they know potential customers also see it and trickle down will see sales fall. That is the only thing they care about.

So basically, if we want change, complain loudly and complain often. Its the only method that works. Unless you are the government.

 

[D M2]

Just keep on building unique notifications for each application will only overwhelm the user until the original purpose of that system is lost and people are using it just to distinguish between notifications that require your attention and which do not. I don't see anything smart in that.

That doesn't even make sense, It doesn't overwhelm people at all, "until the original purpose of that system is lost and people are using it just to distinguish between notifications that require your attention and which do not"
The original purpose of that system isn't lost because people wanting to distinguish between notifications is the original purpose.

Why do you have such a problem with this ? I had about 6 different notification sounds on my old android phone and I knew exactly what each one was and I would like to be to do the same on my WP, It doesn't take long to used to the different alerts. Just because we want the option to be able to do that doesn't mean that everyone has to use it, You could still use the same generic tone for every notification if you want or none at all, There obviously is more of a need for it than YOU think seeing as how nearly every reply you have got in this thread has agreed that we want/need customizable notifications, Seriously can't get my head around why you just don't get it.

 

[ammarmalik2011]

It hasn't overwhelmed the over 1 Billion iOS + Android users

 

[Gaichuke]

That doesn't even make sense, It doesn't overwhelm people at all, "until the original purpose of that system is lost and people are using it just to distinguish between notifications that require your attention and which do not"
The original purpose of that system isn't lost because people wanting to distinguish between notifications is the original purpose.

Why do you have such a problem with this ? I had about 6 different notification sounds on my old android phone and I knew exactly what each one was and I would like to be to do the same on my WP, It doesn't take long to used to the different alerts. Just because we want the option to be able to do that doesn't mean that everyone has to use it, You could still use the same generic tone for every notification if you want or none at all, There obviously is more of a need for it than YOU think seeing as how nearly every reply you have got in this thread has agreed that we want/need customizable notifications, Seriously can't get my head around why you just don't get it.

No need to get agitated. I don't have any power to influence WP team decisions so it should not matter what I think.

I keep saying that because the number one example people seem to give is about how they want to be able to know which notification requires immediate attention and which doesn't. I know this is starting to get somewhat philosophical already, but for me a notification sound that is not worth your immediate attention is a redundant notification sound. You get the notification next time you open your device anyway, so why should there be a sound for that if you're not going to react to it? I know that occasionally the priorities change, but it just seems so inefficient.

Many people here think differently from me, but htis is a forum full of smartphone enthusiasts. Our general opinion is way too biased to be used as a sample population in these kind of questions.

 

[Gaichuke]

It hasn't overwhelmed the over 1 Billion iOS + Android users

That's because huge majority of them just use the default notification tune for all of their apps.

 

[ammarmalik2011]

That's because huge majority of them just use the default notification tune for all of their apps.

And that's exactly what my OP was. Default notification sound for all apps. Currently all apps use the default notification sound of the OS; which is the same sound for all apps.

 

[Huime]

its a fact that non of these dev have excess to change the notification.

 

[jdhooghe]

Take a poll over at crackberry to see if they were overwhelmed by multiple notification sounds. See if what you think as most people fits reality. Take the same poll over to android central.

 

[Gaichuke]

And that's exactly what my OP was. Default notification sound for all apps. Currently all apps use the default notification sound of the OS; which is the same sound for all apps.

That makes much more sense already. I thought you wanted to have different sounds for each of the services mentioned in your OP and more. Currently we have sounds for ringtone, email, SMS/IM and voicemail. Adding just one more sound for application notifications should be something everyone can still handle and use.

Take a poll over at crackberry to see if they were overwhelmed by multiple notification sounds. See if what you think as most people fits reality. Take the same poll over to android central.

Polls conducted in either of those places have very little predictive power over what general public thinks.

 

[sniffs]

That makes much more sense already. I thought you wanted to have different sounds for each of the services mentioned in your OP and more. Currently we have sounds for ringtone, email, SMS/IM and voicemail. Adding just one more sound for application notifications should be something everyone can still handle and use.



Polls conducted in either of those places have very little predictive power over what general public thinks.

Gaichuke, I fail to see why you are pushing against this? Are you purposely trying to be the devils advocate? or do you honestly believe having more features on your phone is a waste?

Of 3 pages, the majority of the posters want this feature yet you're the only one that doesn't.. you're either trolling because you think it's fun, or you honestly believe having more features is pointless?

 

[Gaichuke]

Gaichuke, I fail to see why you are pushing against this? Are you purposely trying to be the devils advocate? or do you honestly believe having more features on your phone is a waste?

Of 3 pages, the majority of the posters want this feature yet you're the only one that doesn't.. you're either trolling because you think it's fun, or you honestly believe having more features is pointless?

You're setting me up with a false dilemma. Not cool at all.

I don't know what exactly do you want to hear. I study UI/UX design and I honestly think that if all applications could have a custom notification sound of their own instead of sharing one common together, it would be a very bad and inefficient choice. Average users would end up not using it because it would only work against them and the number of users that would benefit from and actually use it is way too small to justify allocation of WP OS development resources for working on it. There's plenty of better targets for those resources.

 

[tk-093]

You're setting me up with a false dilemma. Not cool at all.

I don't know what exactly do you want to hear. I study UI/UX design and I honestly think that if all applications could have a custom notification sound of their own instead of sharing one common together, it would be a very bad and inefficient choice. Average users would end up not using it because it would only work against them and the number of users that would benefit from and actually use it is way too small to justify allocation of WP OS development resources for working on it. There's plenty of better targets for those resources.

How in the world can it be a bad and ineffcient choice? Since you study UI/UX design, I think... well, I hope, you would agree that having every icon/tile look exactly the same is a poor design. This is no different then having every notification have the same sound. No different.

How in the world would average users not use it? I install the ESPN app, it has an ESPN tone. The user doesn't have to do anything.. It's already there.

Sure this is a forum and can be all types of opinions, but I've yet to see any logical reason to want all notification sounds to sound alike...