Windows 8 lacking important feature: Notification Center

[Calum Veteran]

[. . .] It also seems odd that third-party apps like WhatsApp Messenger don't appear on the lock screen.

I find that annoying. I'd like to be notified of missed Facebook notifications via a toast and an icon on the Lock Screen (Windows Phone's built-in Facebook integration currently doesn't provide either). I think I've seen in one screenshot of Windows Phone 8 that Microsoft are going to allow us to select a few apps for Lock Screen notifications, though, like we can on Windows 8 :)

[+Warwagon MVC]

No, you prioritize the apps that you care about. You can show plenty of tiles in the initial view, so just move apps that you care about there, like email or messaging.

You would have to scroll in a Notification Centre as well, unless you want a cluttered mess.

Where as you could pull down a notification window and see ALL of your notification. Because now each would be in on a thin line not a big fat tile.

But what if you already have your screen filled with all of your favorites tiles / apps, but you also have an app way on the right that you are using for a few hours that you want to see notifications about. So now you are saying for those few hours I have to move that tile to the first screen all the way to the left. Then move it all the way back when i'm done?

[Alwaysonacoffebreak]

Windows 7 doesn't have none of it (except the internal windows notifications) and you don't see anyone complaining, now when you can sort your apps into the metro screen to show your notifications it's still not enough?

Hypocrites...

[+Warwagon MVC]

Windows 7 doesn't have none of it (except the internal windows notifications) and you don't see anyone complaining, now when you can sort your apps into the metro screen to show your notifications it's still not enough?

Hypocrites...

Because Microsoft came late to the game there is a level of notification expectations. Sure the tiles show you notifications but people don't want to have to rearrange their tiles they just want it to work.

[BajiRav]

Outlook 2013 can use toasts.

Hey even Outlook 2010 uses toast (and 2007 did too IIRC). They are called custom alerts and are not system wide.

Because lets say I have 50 tiles. Do I have to scoll left, right, right , right , left , right back and forth back and forth trying to find the notification i'm looking for?

Not going to be any better. If you have 50 apps dumping notifications in Android/iOS - it's equally painful and you will have to scroll up/down.

[+Warwagon MVC]

Hey even Outlook 2010 uses toast (and 2007 did too IIRC). They are called custom alerts and are not system wide.

Not going to be any better. If you have 50 apps dumping notifications in Android/iOS - it's equally painful and you will have to scroll up/down.

True but at least with a notification center you have Just your notifications. Where as with the home screen you have a mix of titles that have notifications and ones that don't.

[Alwaysonacoffebreak]

-.-

[BajiRav]

True but at least with a notification center you have Just your notifications. Where as with the home screen you have a mix of titles that have notifications and ones that don't.

So? Are you suddenly worried about a busy UI after months of complaining about how metro is too simplified or made for dumb people?

[Kyang]

I get the argument for live tiles. I think a dedicated notification center would still be an improvement in at least one way. That is, notifications would be aggregated automatically, without requiring the user to do all the organizing and sorting of tiles. It isn't a painful or terribly difficult thing to do, but collecting them all in one place for the user would still make things even easier. It's just another way that the computer would be doing the work so the user doesn't have to.

[HawkMan]

The pulldown notification in Both android and iOS is pretty damnhorrible as far as overview go and there's far less organization and far more scrolling on those than on the start screen on WP or W8.

with all the crap putting notifications in those thigns on my iOS and Android devices, sorting out what are important notifications Ic are about is a nightmare. whereas on WP and Win8 I just put the important tiles on top and I see what's important and has news for me. and with WP each mail account also gets ot's own icon on the lock screen so I can see which account has new mail for me, important account or mostly trash account, or pretty much only trash account.

I'm sorry but an drop down notification sorry is a horrible solution and as far from the holy notification grail you can come.

[Brandon Live Veteran]

Hey even Outlook 2010 uses toast (and 2007 did too IIRC). They are called custom alerts and are not system wide.

Actually, Outlook 2013 uses the Windows 8 toast platform. It is in fact available to desktop applications.

[siah1214]

Hey even Outlook 2010 uses toast (and 2007 did too IIRC). They are called custom alerts and are not system wide

You don't know what toasts are do you

[Julius Caro]

Indeed, apps have the option for recurring toast notifications. I have noticed Tweetro notifies me (e.g. a direct message) every 5 minutes or so if I choose not to pay attention (or in the cases mentioned above, if you miss it for whatever reason). By the way, the app does not need to be running for the live tile / notifications to be updated, which makes it all the more effective. For that matter, it keeps updating even if your system is in standby! (OS X ML does have something similar called Power Nap, but not sure if it works well) E.g. in the above case, Tweetro sends up the notification even though I haven't opened it at all since the last reboot. That said, the alpha apps in RP don't seem to work flawlessly, some don't even support notifications yet and some don't update live tiles / notifications correctly, but pretty sure these teething issues will be solved GA time, if not RTM.

iOS used to have the recurrent notification and it was annoying as hell.

also, i blame apple for giving it the name of "notification center".

my guess is windows will eventually implement something similar. the tiles are only useful for notifications if you arrange them properly and check them every now and them. but a tile is NOT a notification. just because its updated doesnt mean u noticed. especially if all other tiles are doing the same.

The pulldown notification in Both android and iOS is pretty damnhorrible as far as overview go and there's far less organization and far more scrolling on those than on the start screen on WP or W8.

with all the crap putting notifications in those thigns on my iOS and Android devices, sorting out what are important notifications Ic are about is a nightmare. whereas on WP and Win8 I just put the important tiles on top and I see what's important and has news for me. and with WP each mail account also gets ot's own icon on the lock screen so I can see which account has new mail for me, important account or mostly trash account, or pretty much only trash account.

I'm sorry but an drop down notification sorry is a horrible solution and as far from the holy notification grail you can come.

android (and i believe iOS too) lets you choose whichs apps should never be allowed to trigger a notification, but most apps DO have a way of customizing the notifications. if you're so bothered with 'meaningless' notification (ive noticed them on both OSs), then you can hand-pick which to disable pretty easily (especially in jellybean). but i dont see how this is any different than coming up with a custom arrangement of your live tiles.

[ahhell]

True but at least with a notification center you have Just your notifications. Where as with the home screen you have a mix of titles that have notifications and ones that don't.

Have you even used Win 8 or WP7? It's pretty damn obvious when you have "notifications". Having a separate place as well would just be stupid.

[BajiRav]

Actually, Outlook 2013 uses the Windows 8 toast platform. It is in fact available to desktop applications.

Good to know

You don't know what toasts are do you

I do but didn't know Outlook 2013 (or desktop apps) could hook into the system wide toasts. Older versions of Outlook had their custom toast notifications.

[Reggie Burnett]

The people saying that WP8 doesn't need some central place for notifications have clearly not really used systems where they can get lots of notifications. On my IPhone 4 I must have 40 apps installed that can send me notifications. An Atari app that lets me know about once a month about some updates, Groupon that pings me about once day, Mint for some bank alerts, ESPN for scores, Words with Friends (and related games), and I could go on and on. Am I supposed to pin 40 apps to my start screen even though some of those will only alert me once per month? Really? I am supposed to put 40 apps on my already cluttered start screen? Also, am I suppose to remember when i start watching an eBay auction and pin the live tile to my start screen so I can be alerted when the auction is near it's end? What if I forget to pin it and I'm in the shower when I get the toast? Ooops! guess I missed out on that auction. Maybe I'm supposed to leave eBay pinned to the start screen even during the times when I'm not doing any eBay activities. Just this morning I was eating breakfast and had my Focus (yes, old I know but it's running Mango) in my pocket. I heard a ping but couldn't get it out of my pocket to see it. No live tiles were updated so as i type this I have no idea what app alerted me. None.

The solution is so simple. Simply put the toast messages into the notifications on the me tile and update the me tile number. So when I get an alert even if the app is not pinned, I could go to that page and see my missed alerts. So simple and doesn't damage the live tiles concept at all.