Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Mschussler13

macrumors newbie
Nov 15, 2012
1
0
Actually yes it does... If u go to ur settings and then go to general go down to accessibility then down to turn led light on
 

tvith

macrumors member
Nov 1, 2012
94
9
I miss the luxury of having an led notification light. I understand some may get annoyed and I'm sure almost all iPhone users, that have been using the iphone for yrs, wouldn't want it, but me personaly...I loved having that. I didn't have to unnecessarily turn on the screen. It's even better when you can assign different colors for different messages, blue for txt, red for missed call, green for emails, etc.

No right or wrong in this situation, like I said, some love it some hate it and the rest just don't care if they have it or not.

----------

Actually yes it does... If u go to ur settings and then go to general go down to accessibility then down to turn led light on

That's the flash notification...the one OP mentioned he wasn't referring to. All that does is make the phone look like it's having a seizure, lol. One of girls I know have it and the first time I saw it I thought her phone was going crazy.
 

rorschach

macrumors 68020
Jul 27, 2003
2,269
1,841
All you people naysaying a notification LED would embrace it, call it brilliant, if Apple put it on the phone. But because they didn't, it's unnecessary.

Do I think one should be included? It's not a requirement, but I would definitely love it. I've always loved the idea of the icon on the home button glowing like the MacBook sleep indicator.

Actually I always found the pulsating sleep light to be incredibly annoying at night in a dark room when I was going to bed. It's very nice having a MacBook Air with no sleep indicator now.

A blinking notification light on the iPhone would be very annoying, not to mention unhelpful since it wouldn't tell you whether you had a new voicemail from someone important or whether someone commented on your LOLCAT photo on Facebook. (And even if it did differentiate between a call and an email, it still wouldn't tell you who they were from...which means you'd again have to check anyway.)
 

Matthew9559

macrumors 6502a
Apr 7, 2007
941
55
Cleveland, OH
Actually the iPhone does. It's an option to turn on under accessibility options. Settings > General > Accessibility > LED Flash.

EDIT: Looks like I am late to the party. :p
 

NismoRoadster

macrumors regular
Mar 16, 2011
135
5
Cerritos, CA
Back in my day, i would be able to see the flashing notification on my Ericsson glowing in a dark movie theater next to the crying baby. Now theres only the crying baby, whats up with that.
 

kingestkong

macrumors newbie
Jul 27, 2012
22
8
To me it's very simple. Put an led notification light on the front and give users an option to turn it off. This way, everyone is satisfied.

Personally, this is my biggest gripe with the iPhone. I had this on the BB and thought it made a lot more sense to glance at the phone than to light up the screen all the time. Especially if you're in business environments.
 

mikeydeezy

macrumors 6502a
Jun 15, 2010
617
71
MN, USA
I love the Apple Geniuses (see what I did there?) that complain of wasting battery life with 1 LED light and yet suggest powering your screen every time you think you missed something.


Never change, Macrumors.
 

TonyTouch

macrumors newbie
Oct 8, 2012
18
1
I'll admit, this is one feature I miss about my old HTC Droid Incredible. For example, if I leave my desk at work, I always come back and have to wake up my iPhone to see if I have any texts. With the old phone, I could just wait for the light to blink (which you could turn off by the way).
 

Jordan921

macrumors 603
Jul 7, 2010
5,069
2,171
Bay Area
When I had my blackberry I really liked the notification light. I was really hoping apple would add it to the home button and make the little square light up somehow.
 

tardman91

macrumors 65816
Oct 21, 2009
1,134
344
Tampa Area, FL
I really liked my Nexus One with the changeable-color trackball. You could set it for different colors depending on the notification (text, email, etc.). That said, I really don't miss not having it on my iPhones.

If I had to choose iPhone or notification LED, iPhone wins every time.
 

meistervu

macrumors 65816
Jul 24, 2008
1,027
27
Actually I always found the pulsating sleep light to be incredibly annoying at night in a dark room when I was going to bed. It's very nice having a MacBook Air with no sleep indicator now.

A blinking notification light on the iPhone would be very annoying, not to mention unhelpful since it wouldn't tell you whether you had a new voicemail from someone important or whether someone commented on your LOLCAT photo on Facebook. (And even if it did differentiate between a call and an email, it still wouldn't tell you who they were from...which means you'd again have to check anyway.)

One would think that if notification light is implemented, there would be the option to turn it off. If you hate annoying blinks, problem solved.

For those who want them, I would make the light customizable. For example, only people in a blue blinking group will trigger the blue blinking LED. There are all sort of creative way they can make it so that the lights are customizable to the infinite degree: color, blink rate, Morse code. And it can be made really simple to customize to. For example, to set it to blink a Morse code, just enter a sentence in the setting, for example, "Bart called."

Back to reality, I remembered depending on my phone as a pager greatly when I first switched over from a PalmOS phone to an iPhone, and find it unsettling that there was no way to find out unless I turned on the iPhone screen. I would find LED notification light useful. And not, the option to turn on the flash for notification doesn't work for me. You get the same number of notification as the screen or vibrate/ring before it stops, unlike a true LED notification where it blinks periodically until you acknowledge it. If you find it annoying, then configure it to your liking (2 hours max, for example).
 

tjl3

macrumors 6502a
Mar 8, 2012
595
4
I miss the luxury of having an led notification light. I understand some may get annoyed and I'm sure almost all iPhone users, that have been using the iphone for yrs, wouldn't want it, but me personaly...I loved having that. I didn't have to unnecessarily turn on the screen. It's even better when you can assign different colors for different messages, blue for txt, red for missed call, green for emails, etc.

No right or wrong in this situation, like I said, some love it some hate it and the rest just don't care if they have it or not.

Two things I'm happy about trading the notification light for are 1) being able to see my text messages as they come in when the screen is off and 2) seeing my texts, missed calls, and other notifications on the lockscreen.

I could never get past having to wake and unlock my phone to see what notification I missed.
 

Phil A.

Moderator emeritus
Apr 2, 2006
5,799
3,094
Shropshire, UK
Personally I'd like to see one implemented behind the home button (as a few others have said already) - a subtle pulsing light under there (like the sleep light on my MBP) would be pretty cool
 

SprSynJn

Guest
Sep 15, 2011
362
1
Japan
What I'm gathering from responses in this thread:

1. Fandroids don't look at their phones enough and therefore need an LED light.
2. "iSheep" are called this because they don't claim to need a feature that appears to be popular on other devices.

Personally, I'm in the second category. I check my iPad religiously to see if I have new notifications. I have never thought, "man I could really use an LED light to tell me so I can stop checking". I won't stop checking my addiction, so why do I need a light to tell me to?
 

touchmonkey

macrumors 6502
Oct 14, 2008
363
0
An optional notification led would be ideal
I have no dog in this fight, but I agree that its better to offer it, and let people who don't want it to turn it off.
Reminds me of when the Big A changed the behavior of the screen lock button to mute without giving one the option.
When its a software issue, give people choice.
 

theBostonian

Suspended
Apr 15, 2012
317
238
My iPhone 4 had a red light that went on once in the earpiece when I used it after a shower without properly drying my hair.

I wonder if the jailbreak community has a means of turning it on via an app or hack or something...?
 

chr606

macrumors newbie
Dec 29, 2012
2
0
I just switched from a Droid to the iPhone 5 and this is the only feature I miss!!

I liked it because when I'd leave the room, or my phone unattended (when I'm at home, for example, if I'm out it's usually in my pocket) I would see the light flashing and know to check it - I had a missed call or a text. Now with the iPhone I just find myself periodically turning it on and checking the home screen (after leaving the room, taking a shower, running outside, changing my laundry, etc.). I feel like one of those phone obsessed people who has to check it constantly hehe.
 

SprSynJn

Guest
Sep 15, 2011
362
1
Japan
After switching from a standard phone to an iPhone, I really do not miss the feature at all. Then again, the light on my other phone never really was noticeable. I have no problems checking my iPhone periodically for notifications.
 

Mrbobb

macrumors 603
Aug 27, 2012
5,009
209
Not gonna argue the merits but a light would be against Apple's zen-like design simplicity philosophy.
 

fchowd0311

macrumors newbie
Feb 7, 2013
4
0
Am I the only one here that doesn't want a light? I've used android phones with them and they weren't very helpful. They just told me what I already knew. If you need to know about notifications, set the notifications to repeat X times. If you leave your phone and come back, press the home button.

Most androids are getting rid of the lights so I doubt apple will pick them up.

No most androids are not getting rid of the lights seeing as the flagship android phone nexus 4 uses them and are highly customize-able as the nexus lights are full rgb and can display almost any color. And saying they cannot be useful is plain ignorant. There are plenty of situations were they are useful. For example, I take a shower and have my phone in another room so I cannot physically hear any notification from my phone. I leave the shower and from my color set up I can see if I have a missed call, email, text, Facebook message etc without even physically going to my phone. If I see no flashing light there is no reason to even approach my phone. It also almost "forces" me to check my phone. If there was no light and that same situation happened were I left the shower, I probably wouldn't even pay attention to the phone and probably view a message late. A flashing light just makes me check the phone.

So basically its particularly useful when you leave your phone for some amount of time, either going to the bathroom, gym or physical sport were you place your phone away etc.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.