Shame you have to have apps open to show in notifications

I agree with this. I thought the whole point of notifications would be to be notified of something happening when an app isn't open. Kinda useless to have notifications when an app is open because I could just switch to that app easily to see what's new, since it's open already.

BadboyHouse said:

I would have liked to see the notification centre display notifications even if the apps aren't open. Like messages and emails - they only appear in the Notification centre if the actual apps are open in the background.

I tend to close apps if I'm not actively using them.

Probably asking a bit much though to have this functionality.

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minimize/hide them then

how can you expect to get notifications for an app if the app isnt running? this makes no sense.

Lvivske said:

minimize/hide them then

how can you expect to get notifications for an app if the app isnt running? this makes no sense.

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If push can work on iOS why not on OS X? After all, ML was "inspired" by iOS.

Agreed with this. If I'm already running mail, I already get the sound and badge on the icon. Notification centre should be able to receive notifications without having the apps open - just like on iOS / Android

KingArthurVI said:

If push can work on iOS why not on OS X? After all, ML was "inspired" by iOS.

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Glockron said:

Agreed with this. If I'm already running mail, I already get the sound and badge on the icon. Notification centre should be able to receive notifications without having the apps open - just like on iOS / Android

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Push does work on ML, but only Mac AppStore apps can use it.

Also, for something like mail, it needs to be running in the background to actually check for mail. Mail *always* runs in the background in iOS, even if you kill it from the multitasking tray.

I did not realize that but it makes sense on why my items haven't been showing up. It would be nice to see my five most recent emails even if I've read them.

I'm also guessing the Calendar only shows the next 24 hours regardless of how many events you set it to show.

quietstormSD said:

I agree with this. I thought the whole point of notifications would be to be notified of something happening when an app isn't open. Kinda useless to have notifications when an app is open because I could just switch to that app easily to see what's new, since it's open already.

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The point of notifications is to alert you that something new has happened, so you won't have to switch to an app to see if something new has happened or not.

Kinda useless switching back and forward to apps just to see if something has happened when you can use notifications and be told instead, don't you think?

I've found that it's handy to specify these apps to start on login via users and groups, but unchecked (hidden). Not a big deal.

BadboyHouse said:

But if I've got mail open, or messages for that matter, they will play a sound AND have a badge so they tell you if something has happened without switching.

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Yes, but you still have to switch to the mail or messages application to see who it's from and/or whether or not it's worth interrupting what you're doing to read it. With notifications you know straight away.

This is more of an application specific issue, as apps need to be designed to run in the background, for example by running a daemon process that checks for new messages.

I'm surprised that Messages sounds like it doesn't work though, I'll need to give it a try as I thought Messages was designed to run in the background even if the app is closed, is it an option perhaps?

haravikk said:

I'm surprised that Messages sounds like it doesn't work though, I'll need to give it a try as I thought Messages was designed to run in the background even if the app is closed, is it an option perhaps?

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Messages does work as you suggested. I just tried it each way with my wife and I got notifications even though I had purposely closed the messages app.

It may be working patchily, but it looks like it is intended to work the same way as the iOS version.

I think notifications are the way they should be.

If you got notified for every event in every app, many many users would complain like "why do I keep getting those notifications that bother me and I even didn't open or use the app?".

What if, for example, I don't want to get mail notifications for let's say next couple of hours, but I do need reminders and Twitter notifications? I just close the mail app. And when I need them back just open it. It's that simple.
Otherwise, I have to go to system preferences every time I need them turned off.

Primo.TM said:

If you got notified for every event in every app, many many users would complain like "why do I keep getting those notifications that bother me and I even didn't open or use the app?".

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That would make more sense in the old scheme of things where apps were always open until you quit them, but with Lion introducing auto termination it makes more sense for apps to be able to still get notifications if they need to, but I think it really us up to the application, and more importantly up for the app to do it efficiently.

I think all Apple apps with support for notifications have options as to what alerts you'll receive, so it shouldn't be too hard to restrict what you get to what you want to receive. Plus notification centre itself lets you configure the apps I think?

I can already see this happening in a year from now in a Keynote.

"Mac OS 10.9, now your notifications reach you even if the app is closed, just one of 200 new amazing features!"

M. Malone said:

I can already see this happening in a year from now in a Keynote.

"Mac OS 10.9, now your notifications reach you even if the app is closed, just one of 200 new amazing features!"

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The feature already exists in ML. It's only for AppStore apps because Apple's not a charity and doesn't wants every Mac app developer using their push servers at will.

imessage is working as it should. I've closed the app and try to send messages and got the notifications, I even restart the mbp and tried sending message and got the notifications. haven't tried it yet with email though

Soundflunky said:

The feature already exists in ML. It's only for AppStore apps because Apple's not a charity and doesn't wants every Mac app developer using their push servers at will.

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Out of curiosity which apps work in the notification center when the app itself is closed?

Hwilensky said:

Out of curiosity which apps work in the notification center when the app itself is closed?

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If you setup Messages, it will keep a process running at all times that isn't bound to the Messages app, meaning you will get notifications of new messages even if Messages is closed.

Do Reminders and Calendar work with Notification Center when those apps are closed?

-PN

If iOS devices have push notifications, why can't Macs as well?

3bs said:

If iOS devices have push notifications, why can't Macs as well?

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They can, Messages works this way (and my calendar events show up even though Calendar is not running) but apps have to be written in a way that they can do this. Most just have not.

.... Do you not get a badge over your Phone messages, Emails, Texts, etc etc etc in iOS even though new messages and what not shows up in notification center ?

I personally don't always have a chance to clear out every single email so my badge counter may stay on mail.app for days, also my dock is much smaller than the default size so seeing the difference between 28-29 while working on something can be difficult.
I do not however find it difficult to notice the notification bar inform me of a new email.

Why does that tiny little light below an app bother so many people?