What is a "notification"?

[manicottiK]

We've all read that a notification center is coming with Windows Phone 8.1. We've all argued about whether such a thing is needed or if Live Tiles are a notification center. We've debated logs for toast notifications. We've argued about swiping left, right, up, and down. None of that matters for this thread. I have a simple question: what is a "notification"?

Is getting an email a "notification"? Is getting a text or a call? How about someone mentioning me on Twitter or Facebook? What if I have GasBuddy and the price of gas changes near my house? What if the forecast for tomorrow changes? How big or small does a "notification" need to be to get into a notification center?

I don't know how iOS or Android handle such things and they and Windows Phone might have different answers to these questions.

 

[Boris Lozac]

Well, all of those obviously.

 

[jeffro02]

Anytime an app notifies you about anything, it is a notification. I am assuming that we will have some degree of control over which notifications appear in the notification center. At least, that is how it should behave. I know my old iPhone 4 let me customize which notifications appeared in the notification center.

 

[vakama94]

Anything that displays something you have to keep an eye on is a notification. For example missed calls, twitter mentions, Facebook tags and stuff, messages, etc.


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[mjrtoo]

I think the only notification we need to address is toast notifications that are not visible elsewhere. This whole thing is a disaster.

 

[Moiz Mian]

The way iOS handles it is any toast notification goes to your notification center. But you can also customize it in the settings. Like if you don't want gasbuddy notifications in the notification center, you can disable those. Android is a little more of a mess since it stores notifications that you're currently downloading apps, or your apps just finished updating, or even apps that run in the background keep a notification there permanently that you can't remove. I personally think the WP one will be more like iOS