After Action Center, are live tiles still equally necessary?

HAMEDACC

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Personally, I don't feel any need for Live Tiles functions now
in small size ,which only shows numbers, it is the same as other OS(s)
in medium and large size (except weather apps) all the other functions could be seen in action center. like:
- calender alarms and schedule
- breaking news
and I think as Action Center will being upgraded this Functions of Live Tiles going to be useless more

P.S Live Tile Concept has been great Idea at that time
 

HAMEDACC

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Live is and will still a unique and exclusive feature for Windows Phone only.
Before, I used to see the tile(large one for my Whatsapp) which showed 10 msgs and the last one so I had to enter and check the rest 9
but now there is no need for the tile and check last one, just go to Action Center and check all of them
U do another way?
 

WavingReds

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Some apps like messaging apps, no but a number of how many messages it has, sure

Other apps, yes. Definitely

wp_ss_20140622_0005.jpg

Take for example, WPC app, sometimes I just wipe the enter notification but still like to be reminded of what's new. It shows that

My Movie Blaze app that I like to keep track of movies I like to watch. It's nice to glance at what's coming out and it's date.

Or MyTube, I don't want to be flooded with feeds in the AC, the live tile helps me glance at what's new. Same goes for instagram.

Live Tiles is still a great concept even with AC or NC whatever. It's all how you want to use your phone.

To each their own.
 

Ma Rio

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MS made a mistake, if they wanted to force out Live tiles, they should have just kept improving them and NOT implement the so-much-overused-pull-down Action Center.

Mistakes, mistakes, mistakes.
 

wpgeek820

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I have prioritized my notifications. For example, the most urgent ones like WhatsApp, Facebook come into the notification center. So I check the notification center first.

Then, if I have more time, I check the tiles and look for any new notifications there especially WPC, Twitter etc and I go into these apps only if I see a count. The rest of the tiles, I ignore.

If used properly, the Notification Center and the Live tiles get along really well.
 

a5cent

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I think you're looking at it the wrong way. It's not that live tiles are now unnecessary, but that the notification centre was never necessary in the first place (at least not the implementation that we now have). I still don't know what I'm supposed to use the notification centre for. That I have to configure the notification centre for half an hour for it to work decently, and that I have to revisit those setting whenever I change the apps, makes it a ridiculously poor/android solution IMHO.

The quick access toggles are great, but the rest... meh.
 

JaiMento

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I still don't know what I'm supposed to use the notification centre for.

For me, I actually prioritize my Live Tiles. I'll check all of my Live Tiles first for notifications. After that, I'll check the Notification Center for whatever I got notifications for that don't have a tile pinned to my start screen, like blocked calls. I find the Live Tiles to be better than the Notification Center (most of what is important to me is pinned at the top of my Start Screen, so I see that I have notifications for them without having to do anything), however, I don't feel like pinning everything I want notifications for to my Start Screen. This is where the Notification Center comes in handy for me.
 

a5cent

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however, I don't feel like pinning everything I want notifications for to my Start Screen. This is where the Notification Center comes in handy for me.

Yeah, I know. I think I was the first person on this site to suggest that as the primary focus of a potential notification centre on WP. I did so about two years ago. I just find the notification centre, as we now have it, a very poor solution to that specific problem. It requires far too much configuration, and repeated configuration whenever I change apps. IMHO the notification centre is a great solution for the problems people have on iOS and Android. But that is not what I, as a WP user, wanted.
 

tgp

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Yeah, I know. I think I was the first person on this site to suggest that as the primary focus of a potential notification centre on WP. I did so about two years ago. I just find the notification centre, as we now have it, a very poor solution to that specific problem. It requires far too much configuration, and repeated configuration whenever I change apps. IMHO the notification centre is a great solution for the problems people have on iOS and Android. But that is not what I, as a WP user, wanted.

WP's notification center is rather poorly implemented. There's just one generic notification in the status bar, no matter how many types of notifications are present. Also, you can't swipe away just one if there are multiples of the same type, such as emails. And you can't do anything with them other than swipe away or tap to open. Hopefully the entire notification center will mature to make it much more useful.
 

clvrbas

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I was hoping for a swipe from left to right and showed a list of notifications, kind of like BB Hub, and then a pull down for Bluetooth, WiFi, airplane mode ECT. I still think live tiles will be applicable for a lot of our apps and still be a phone designed around my preference.
 

anon(5344611)

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WP's notification center is rather poorly implemented. There's just one generic notification in the status bar, no matter how many types of notifications are present.

I actually love this. I really dislike how cluttered the status bar on Android looks when you have multiple notifications, which you're going to check anyway. I also would like an option to only show the time, as before, but that's another issue.

Regarding Live Tiles, remember their only purpose isn't notifications, but getting information quickly. For instance, the calendar shows my upcoming appointment, which I'd miss if I didn't go into the app. I'm also able to pin notes to my Start screen, to remember to do something or memorize stuff, and so on. At least for me, they're really useful.
 

a5cent

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WP's notification center is rather poorly implemented. There's just one generic notification in the status bar, no matter how many types of notifications are present. Also, you can't swipe away just one if there are multiples of the same type, such as emails. And you can't do anything with them other than swipe away or tap to open. Hopefully the entire notification center will mature to make it much more useful.

I wouldn't agree with that either. To me it sounds like you just want an Android solution on WP, whereas I would prefer a solution that is tailored specifically to WP's actual strengths and weaknesses. IMHO the current notification centre exists solely to appease those who can't get over their iOS/Android ways. Maybe that is necessary, but it's not as good as it could have been.

In a nutshell, your argument is that the notification centre needs more features, while my argument is that it needs to function completely differently if it is going to be a good match for the well liked concepts that are already a part of WP. I know that's abstract, but I think you'll get it.
 

tgp

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I wouldn't agree with that either. To me it sounds like you just want an Android solution on WP, whereas I would prefer a solution that is tailored specifically to WP's actual strengths and weaknesses. IMHO the current notification centre exists solely to appease those who can't get over their iOS/Android ways. Maybe that is necessary, but it's not as good as it could have been.

In a nutshell, your argument is that the notification centre needs more features, while my argument is that it needs to function completely differently if it is going to be a good match for the well liked concepts that are already a part of WP. I know that's abstract, but I think you'll get it.

Actually I agree with you. We might want it to function differently than iOS & Android, but I don't think that's what Microsoft had in mind. It looks very similar. It appears that they were trying to do with the notification center what iOS & Android have done. I was just pointing out that they did a poor job of it. You are absolutely correct that it should be tailored to fit WP's UI, but in its current state it doesn't fit, and neither is it very useful. It landed somewhere in between, not doing much for either side.
 

sejgiul

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I didn't want an action center and I hardly use it. It's useful for quick toggles yeah, but that's about it. I would have preferred a fast lane implementation instead of action center with toggles at the top. Fast lane with actionable notifications as on Asha and Nokia X :winktongue:
 

link68759

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Live tiles alone had one glaring hole: Miss a toast, miss it forever.

In discussions of "WP needs a NC!" I always saw that people just wanted a clone of android's status bar. I recognized that such a status bar would undermine how important developers considered live tiles to be and the app ecosystem would degrade over time. I recognized that if not implemented intelligently, there would be a significant amount of redundant notifications between the tile and the NC (a problem iOS still has), and using one or the other would result in the accumulation of junk.

My answer to every feature request that ends in "like Android" is usually always "then go buy an Android phone", but something was definitely needed to cover the aforementioned hole in live tiles. I supported the idea of fixing this, but I hoped MS would ignore the consumer desire to just copy Android.

Ideally, only missed toasts would populate the NC (which I proposed could be a tile itself), and it would automatically clear when the appropriate app was launched.

The flexibility of the notification center is elegant, and my idea to force the correct way on all users would obviously have been resented, so I believe they did what was best. They skirted around the data redundancy problem effectively. It just saddens me that it falls to the user to know how to configure it in a coherent way.

The true beauty of live tiles is often unappreciated: Less stress. When your phone beeps, you compulsively check it. You can't ignore it, even when you should be doing something else. This creates a perpetual stress and an actual, measurable addiction to your phone. These aren't monumental issues to be sure, but that doesn't mean they don't negatively affect our lives, and hourly mood.

The passive nature of WP's live tiles helps to discourage this. You see things when you check your phone; only when you happen to pull out your phone will you be presented with information. You aren't a slave to every beep and chirp, you don't feel the need to check your phone the moment something new happens, something which really can wait.

The NC allows this by configuration (silent toasts, don't toast for certain apps which could be using tiles already), but now not every user is automatically benefiting, and many will never realize the benefit they lost.

I won't use the tired and stupid "it's bad because my grandma couldn't use it" argument, I will only speak for myself and the configurability allows for my perfect ideal setup. But the unique image and inherent benefits of WP will take a hit on the whole for the default configuration of this NC.
 
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TonyDedrick

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^^^ I think its set up in a way that a user can receive whatever notifications they see as beneficial to their lives. That way, they are only a slave to the beeps that are important to them.
 

HAMEDACC

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MS made a mistake, if they wanted to force out Live tiles, they should have just kept improving them and NOT implement the so-much-overused-pull-down Action Center.

Mistakes, mistakes, mistakes.
I think real mistake is not about adding needed features, it is about its presentation
we see apple adds android or WP feature to its iOS, but with better quality and with apple essence which I do not see in MS actions
all essential features are necessary, just presentation and support make deference
Peace
 

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