Bold prediction about Tango

[KingCrimson]

I'm hoping for notification center. When Android & iOS both have it, Windows Phone can't live without it either.

 

[Big Supes]

I'm hoping for notification center. When Android & iOS both have it, Windows Phone can't live without it either.

Neither have live tiles. I say just add toasts to the Me tile and be done with it.

 

[KingCrimson]

Neither have live tiles. I say just add toasts to the Me tile and be done with it.

What is a "toast"?

 

[scottcraft]

What is a "toast"?

That's the notification you get across the top of the screen when you get a text or other alert. You can swipe it away or it goes away after four seconds.

 

[Big Supes]

Just to clarify, the Me tile could easily record any toasts that go unseen; unseen toasts seem to be the most common argument for a notification centre.


Sent from my HD7 T9292 using Board Express

 

[mkr10001]

Just to clarify, the Me tile could easily record any toasts that go unseen; unseen toasts seem to be the most common argument for a notification centre.


Sent from my HD7 T9292 using Board Express

Yeah that would be good. I don't know why people want to make it like iOS and android :/

 

[Verkunder]

I've got the homebrew folders application on my device and never use it. How many apps do you people have? Besides, don't the hubs take care of accomplishing the same needs as folders? All my music apps are in the Music+Video hub, etc.

As for notifications, I'd imagine they could show up on the lockscreen. A third screen ("swiping to the left") would mean it's no longer Windows Phone. And besides, don't the LIVE TILES show your notifications? That's the whole point! I really don't see a notifications area coming to Windows Phone anytime soon.

 

[blehblehbleh]

Just to clarify, the Me tile could easily record any toasts that go unseen; unseen toasts seem to be the most common argument for a notification centre.


Sent from my HD7 T9292 using Board Express

I think people want the notification center though because it'll show them the messages without having to open the app. I think a notification center wouldn't be too bad as long as it does other stuff (e.g. recent app history, like Windows 7 start menu or being able to pin five of your most used apps)

Plus there might be people like me, I don't even use the Me tile so I wouldn't get the toasts unless I opened the app.

I think it's just one of those "standards" like visual voicemail, and I just looked up how iOS5 is gonna do it; I think they made messages come and go like toasts in WP?

 

[anon(5335899)]

I personally like the way the Nokia N9 works with this:

From Start screen;
Swipe Left for a combined notification/Social messaging screen. it wil basically show the messaging like now in people hub and on top would be notifications about updates/incoming text/messages/missed calls..

The right arrow icon to goto the apps screen would remain as-is

Swipe Right would show running tasks



In apps swipe Left would return to whatever screen you were on relative to start screen (message/notification, Start of apps)

swipe down would close the app


Although that system would basically mean the back/start button would become kind of obsolete.

 

[Big Supes]

Yeah that would be good. I don't know why people want to make it like iOS and android :/

Me neither. It makes no sense. Those OS's have nothing equivalent to live tiles so big notification centres are necessary.

I think people want the notification center though because it'll show them the messages without having to open the app. I think a notification center wouldn't be too bad as long as it does other stuff (e.g. recent app history, like Windows 7 start menu or being able to pin five of your most used apps)

But, the Me tile shows you notifications without you having to access it; it's live.

Plus there might be people like me, I don't even use the Me tile so I wouldn't get the toasts unless I opened the app.

Well, if you didn't want to use it... well, there's no a lot anyone can really do about that. I honestly don't know who WOULDN'T use the Me tile. It's awesome. All my social notifications alerts through one live tile, with the ability to access all the notifications as a list, check in, post status updates or profile picture changes to any, or all of my social sites, at the same time... and not to forget, the combined news feed is great.

Including toasts to the Me tile would be the most logical way forward, IMO. It's simple.

I think it's just one of those "standards" like visual voicemail, and I just looked up how iOS5 is gonna do it; I think they made messages come and go like toasts in WP?

It's the standard for iOS and Android as they don't really have any other options. I mean, what else could they do? They both have a bunch of static icons that don't offer any real time information. Windows Phone does and I think it's important that the platform focuses on it's strengths, instead of looking towards the competitions weaknesses.

 

[anon(5335877)]

Well, if you didn't want to use it... well, there's no a lot anyone can really do about that. I honestly don't know who WOULDN'T use the Me tile. It's awesome. All my social notifications alerts through one live tile, with the ability to access all the notifications as a list, check in, post status updates or profile picture changes to any, or all of my social sites, at the same time. Including toasts to the Me tile would be the most logical way forward, IMO. It's simple.

I don't really use the Me tile that often, probably because I'm not posting statuses very often. But I do use it whenever I get social notifications.

 

[Big Supes]

I don't really use the Me tile that often, probably because I'm not posting statuses very often. But I do use it whenever I get social notifications.

I love it for Twitter and Facebook. Thankfully, I don't have to access those apps. Also, the "what's new" feed is a nice way of digesting all of your social interactions across all sites.

 

[anon(5335877)]

I love it for Twitter and Facebook. Thankfully, I don't have to access those apps. Also, the "what's new" feed is a nice way of digesting all of your social interactions across all sites.

What I like is that the notifications actually seem to work. I remember back on iOS and Android, the stupid Facebook app for those would sometimes give me notifications for things that happened hours ago.

 

[Pronk]

I love it for Twitter and Facebook. Thankfully, I don't have to access those apps. Also, the "what's new" feed is a nice way of digesting all of your social interactions across all sites.

I do use the Me tile, but it's rarely up to the minute accurate, or even that informative if it tries to tell you more that 1 person did something. It's handy for sure, but it's still true that if you want to know what's happening right now, you still have to go to the individual apps anyway (and that's definitely true for Facebook, as you don't know what you might have missed because WP is still considered 3rd party).

That's why I can see a notification centre (or even just a missed toast list) being useful. If you really need to know what's going on and be bang up to date, you need toasts - but if you miss a toast, it's gone for good. The Me tile as is isn't a replacement, but it could certainly easily serve an extra role to tell you if you had missed any toasts, and those notifications added to the notifications list you get when you click on the me tile already.

That would make it much more useful and would be (I imagine) relatively simple to do.

 

[anon(5335877)]

I do use the Me tile, but it's rarely up to the minute accurate, or even that informative if it tries to tell you more that 1 person did something. It's handy for sure, but it's still true that if you want to know what's happening right now, you still have to go to the individual apps anyway (and that's definitely true for Facebook, as you don't know what you might have missed because WP is still considered 3rd party).

Lol maybe the push isn't as good as I thought then. Probably because I'm not always constantly checking my phone.

Anyway, I do second that, when multiple people like my Facebook post I think it won't tell me the entire list. Like in the notifications it'll try to by saying "Bob and Cathy like your status", but when I actually click on the status it'll say, "7 people like this." I can't click on that and have it tell me who those seven are.

Also, if someone likes your comment, or even worse, someone else's comment, you can't see that. You can get a notification when someone likes your comment, but you'll never see likes for anyone else's comments.

I'd really like Microsoft to improve here and add more functionality. I want it to be able to replace the Facebook app for the most part. Oh, and add sending messages to people who are offline/fix it so that the people who are mobile don't show as offline on Facebook chat.

 

[Big Supes]

I do use the Me tile, but it's rarely up to the minute accurate, or even that informative if it tries to tell you more that 1 person did something. It's handy for sure, but it's still true that if you want to know what's happening right now, you still have to go to the individual apps anyway (and that's definitely true for Facebook, as you don't know what you might have missed because WP is still considered 3rd party).

Although the live tile doesn't give you the 'content' when you have multiple alerts, it only takes, literally a second to access the app and swipe to the right to get a detailed lists of your alerts. In regards to the privacy settings for FB, the only thing that is effected is private messages/IM - which go via the message hub. I've found around 80% of messages come through the message hub, the rest I stumble upon when I'm on my PC.

That's why I can see a notification centre (or even just a missed toast list) being useful. If you really need to know what's going on and be bang up to date, you need toasts - but if you miss a toast, it's gone for good. The Me tile as is isn't a replacement, but it could certainly easily serve an extra role to tell you if you had missed any toasts, and those notifications added to the notifications list you get when you click on the me tile already.

That would make it much more useful and would be (I imagine) relatively simple to do.

Absolutely. IMO, it's only a matter of time before Facebook authorise WP so the addition of Toasts to the Me tile would pretty much have the bases covered.

For the record, my geekness requires something new and exciting to play with in Apollo, but to jump on the 'notification centre' bandwagon just seems unoriginal, and boring. The two things WP isn't.

 

[Big Supes]

Lol maybe the push isn't as good as I thought then. Probably because I'm not always constantly checking my phone.

Anyway, I do second that, when multiple people like my Facebook post I think it won't tell me the entire list. Like in the notifications it'll try to by saying "Bob and Cathy like your status", but when I actually click on the status it'll say, "7 people like this." I can't click on that and have it tell me who those seven are.

Also, if someone likes your comment, or even worse, someone else's comment, you can't see that. You can get a notification when someone likes your comment, but you'll never see likes for anyone else's comments.

I'd really like Microsoft to improve here and add more functionality. I want it to be able to replace the Facebook app for the most part. Oh, and add sending messages to people who are offline/fix it so that the people who are mobile don't show as offline on Facebook chat.

I agree the current system can be improved....

 

[N8ter]

Without touching on everything, I like the "swipe to the left" (at the home screen) for notifications idea. It would make a lot of sense for those who obsess about what toasts they have missed.

More language support is only a matter of time before it arrives. Regarding BBM, that would be a strong selling point for WP. I miss BBM and haven't found a messaging service to rival it on iPhone or WP.

BBM isn't coming. Windows Phones don't have PINs, not to mention it would be one of the biggest fragmentations of a mobile platform in recent history since older devices cannot be retrofit with them even if the newer devices come with them.

 

[N8ter]

Neither have live tiles. I say just add toasts to the Me tile and be done with it.

The Me Tile is only Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn/Windows Live, which is fairly useless for a lot of people because they don't use those. Toasts for them won't help.

iOS has Badges and Android has Widgets and Badges which can functionally replace Live Tiles and are updateable with C2DM Push Notifications on that platform (as are the Badges on iOS). This also means the crap about lag and battery drain is foolish at best. That only happens for widgets that Poll instead of recieving PUSHed updates (which some do, BTW).

The only Platform at a disadvantage IRT Notifications is WP7. The only thing Live Tiles offer over badges (which they can contain) on iOS (since Android Widgets can literally replicate their functionality) is a pretty picture/animation and a waste of screen real-estate.

I'd totally give up Live Tiles for Notification Center. A Notification Cache is that important, and I can't believe people are still responding with the (intentional or otherwise) insinuation that Social Network Notifications are all that matters.

Any app you install on an Android or iOS device can put their Notifications in the Slider/Center or trigger a Toast (on iOS) or Notification Bar Notification. That is not the case for WP7 (which lacks a Notification Cache) and it's not the case for the Me Hub, which is locked down to a preset number of social networks - 1/2 of which the average consumer probably doesn't even care about (LinkedIn and Twitter, unless they use Twitter as a glorified RSS reader like me, it's good for that - no one I know is social on Windows Live, uses SkyDrive, or cares to share stuff through SkyDrive they use Facebook for that stuff - which has its own Office Live Apps deployment integrated with the service BTW).

WP7 has literally no advantages here. None.

Also, context is what makes working with an Android or iOS device easy. On WP7 you actually have to your your phone more just to do something like triage Notifications, because there is no context and you have no idea with that "1" or "3" is for. That's a huge disadvantage over the Lock Screen Comprehensive Scrollable Notifications on iOS or the brain dead stupid easy list presented in the Android Drop-Down. It's not a comparable experience. It's inferior, and factorably so.

Microsoft needs to improve it. It was supposed to save us from our phones, remember? Or maybe they're banking on us never getting a decent number of notifications?

 

[N8ter]

Yeah that would be good. I don't know why people want to make it like iOS and android :/

Every mainstream (and even some dead) platform (and even some feature phones) have a NOtification cache. What on earth does that have to do with Android or iOS?

The Functionality exists in Bada, iOS, Android, WebOS, Blackberries, and even Windows Mobile Devices had it.

The fact that Microsoft failed to implement something so fundamental to a Smartphone and people are asking for it is Microsoft's failure. It has nothing to do with users wanting it to be iOS or BB, becuase there were and still are too many reasons to pick up an alternative platform over this one. They're using WP7 cause they want to use WP7, and they're asking for this functionality because they need it. Seriously, opening app after app/hub after hub to check notifications? Isn't WP7 supposed to be all about good user experience? That is precicely the reason why Apple completely revamped their Notification systems. Badges with no context are a PITA and a Waste of Time to deal with.

Better for them to deliver than have all those users go to Android or iOS because some people find the need to draw comparisons everytime a request or critique is made.

Also, Me Hub Notifications aren't pushed. They're polled by a background task so there is a huge disparity in the consistent speed of delivery of Social Network Notifications on WP7 as compared to those other platforms. If you're a heavy Social Networker the Me Hub is almost useless. The MS FB App Notifications are consistently 5-30+ minutes late, and FB Chat oftengives no notifications (my experience with having 3 devices logged in) on WP7, especially if you often are on the move and/or switch formfactors (PC/Tablet/Smartphone).

The user interface isn't the only thing that needs to be worked on, from a notifications standpoint.