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Widgets and Notifications

F

fmalloy

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Nov 5, 2007
406
248
Anyone else think sticking widgets in the Notifications Center is a bad idea?

- You put the widgets after the notifications, and then you may or may not have to scroll the window to see your widgets, depending on how many notifications you got at that particular moment. So your widgets aren't exactly in the same place each time you access the Center. Not consistent at all.

- You put the widgets before the notifications, and your notifications might end up off screen, obscuring important notifications.

I think a better idea would be to use a "swipe right" from the first home screen as the widgets center. This is where Spotlight used to live. Separates the widgets from the notifications, but still keeps it easy access.

Widgets are not necessarily notifying you of anything (for example Philips Hue), so why do they get lumped in with notifications? Not very Apple like.
 
fmalloy said:
Anyone else think sticking widgets in the Notifications Center is a bad idea?

- You put the widgets after the notifications, and then you may or may not have to scroll the window to see your widgets, depending on how many notifications you got at that particular moment. So your widgets aren't exactly in the same place each time you access the Center. Not consistent at all.

- You put the widgets before the notifications, and your notifications might end up off screen, obscuring important notifications.

I think a better idea would be to use a "swipe right" from the first home screen as the widgets center. This is where Spotlight used to live. Separates the widgets from the notifications, but still keeps it easy access.

Widgets are not necessarily notifying you of anything (for example Philips Hue), so why do they get lumped in with notifications? Not very Apple like.
Click to expand...

Stocks, weather and calendar are already existing widgets so it IS apple like.
 
fmalloy said:
Anyone else think sticking widgets in the Notifications Center is a bad idea?

- You put the widgets after the notifications, and then you may or may not have to scroll the window to see your widgets, depending on how many notifications you got at that particular moment. So your widgets aren't exactly in the same place each time you access the Center. Not consistent at all.

- You put the widgets before the notifications, and your notifications might end up off screen, obscuring important notifications.

I think a better idea would be to use a "swipe right" from the first home screen as the widgets center. This is where Spotlight used to live. Separates the widgets from the notifications, but still keeps it easy access.

Widgets are not necessarily notifying you of anything (for example Philips Hue), so why do they get lumped in with notifications? Not very Apple like.
Click to expand...

Um, that's why there's a today tab, and a notifications tab. they're kept separate.
 
Um yeah, your concerns are wasted, widgets and notifications are on different tabs. What he said ^
 
Armen said:
Stocks, weather and calendar are already existing widgets so it IS apple like.
Click to expand...

Yes, but these are true notifications - they are notifying you about current stock prices, the current weather, and your calendar events. Things you want to check. For ESPN, a sports score widget makes sense.

But, widgets like the Philips Hue notifies you of nothing. It's just buttons to control your lights.

Believe me, the Notifications Center is going to turn into a dumping ground of things not remotely related to a notification.
 
fmalloy said:
Yes, but these are true notifications - they are notifying you about current stock prices, the current weather, and your calendar events. Things you want to check. For ESPN, a sports score widget makes sense.

But, widgets like the Philips Hue notifies you of nothing. It's just buttons to control your lights.

Believe me, the Notifications Center is going to turn into a dumping ground of things not remotely related to a notification.
Click to expand...

Luckily, you can disable any/all of the widgets. Also, as a previous commenter pointed out, widgets live in the Today tab, separate from notifications.
 
joejoejoe said:
Um, that's why there's a today tab, and a notifications tab. they're kept separate.
Click to expand...

If there was a third tab for widgets, that would help separate them, but it's still another button press after the swipe down.

Sorry, still think widgets should have their own screen, a swipe right from the home screen, unless they are truly notifying you of something.

----------
musika said:
Luckily, you can disable any/all of the widgets. Also, as a previous commenter pointed out, widgets live in the Today tab, separate from notifications.
Click to expand...

I still want the widgets; I don't want to disable them.

But, I wouldn't want them mixed in with any notifications. And sticking them in the Today tab doesn't make sense - what do widgets like the Hue have to do with today's weather, today's stock prices, today's calendar events, and today's reminders? Do the widgets only apply to today? No.
 
Last edited:
fmalloy said:
Yes, but these are true notifications - they are notifying you about current stock prices, the current weather, and your calendar events. Things you want to check. For ESPN, a sports score widget makes sense.

But, widgets like the Philips Hue notifies you of nothing. It's just buttons to control your lights.

Believe me, the Notifications Center is going to turn into a dumping ground of things not remotely related to a notification.
Click to expand...

like it isn't now? Today summary takes up too much space.
 
Armen said:
like it isn't now? Today summary takes up too much space.
Click to expand...

Yes, it does. But it's nice to know that all the stuff that's relevant to today are all in one place, even if you have to scroll. It's the place I go when I want to see stuff I need to know at the start of the day - weather, stock prices, meetings, to-dos. These are special notifications, and it's good their separate from your mail, message, voicemails, etc.

But I can see app developers going crazy and making widgets that do all kinds of things unrelated to notifications, like making tweets, FB entries, controlling lights, thermostats, remote control buttons, etc. which all have nothing to do with today's notifications, so why lump them in there, clogging it further?

Just surprised Apple didn't give them their own left-most home screen. That would make the most sense to me. Maybe they'll fix that in 8.1 ;)
 
The thing I like about them being in Notification Center is that you can access them from anywhere on your iPhone. I don't want them on a separate page on my home screen.
 
dannyyankou said:
The thing I like about them being in Notification Center is that you can access them from anywhere on your iPhone. I don't want them on a separate page on my home screen.
Click to expand...

You're right about that.

I suppose a good compromise would be a new tab to separate the widgets from today's notifications. Tap once on the tab, it remembers that so the next time you come back the widgets are all there.
 
I think it's a clever place for the widgets; they tell the user today's info (like the ESPN one we saw) or information happening right now (like the eBay one).

Let's just hope developers for clutter them with useless/irrelevant info or horrible UI.
 
lewisd25 said:
Yes, that is how I have my phone set up. Weather on top, just below the day and date.
Click to expand...

Today summary includes weather. I want just weather and it's not an option. Look how much space today's date takes up.

ios-7-weather.jpg
 
fmalloy said:
If there was a third tab for widgets, that would help separate them, but it's still another button press after the swipe down.

Sorry, still think widgets should have their own screen, a swipe right from the home screen, unless they are truly notifying you of something.

----------



I still want the widgets; I don't want to disable them.

But, I wouldn't want them mixed in with any notifications. And sticking them in the Today tab doesn't make sense - what do widgets like the Hue have to do with today's weather, today's stock prices, today's calendar events, and today's reminders? Do the widgets only apply to today? No.
Click to expand...

Dude nothing in today view is a notification to begin with. It's already widgets. Apple is giving you the option to add more.

Don't know why you're having a hard time understanding this.
 
fmalloy said:
Anyone else think sticking widgets in the Notifications Center is a bad idea?

- You put the widgets after the notifications, and then you may or may not have to scroll the window to see your widgets, depending on how many notifications you got at that particular moment. So your widgets aren't exactly in the same place each time you access the Center. Not consistent at all.

- You put the widgets before the notifications, and your notifications might end up off screen, obscuring important notifications.

I think a better idea would be to use a "swipe right" from the first home screen as the widgets center. This is where Spotlight used to live. Separates the widgets from the notifications, but still keeps it easy access.

Widgets are not necessarily notifying you of anything (for example Philips Hue), so why do they get lumped in with notifications? Not very Apple like.
Click to expand...

I think they should have a separate area for widgets. Maybe a left swipe from the home screen to the widgets panel. I'll take what we got though. This update is A breath of Fresh air.
 
joejoejoe said:
Dude nothing in today view is a notification to begin with. It's already widgets. Apple is giving you the option to add more.

Don't know why you're having a hard time understanding this.
Click to expand...
The Apple-supplied ones are widgets, but they are all displaying a notification of something, whether it's notifying you of the weather, your next meeting, stock quotes, or reminders, all of which are relevant to today. That's why the tab is called "Today".

A tweet, a FB status update, or Philips Hue light buttons are widgets but they don't notify you of anything, much less relevant to today. It opens the door to lots of cool widgets...that have nothing to do with notifications or what's happening today, yet they'll all get dumped there, cluttering it up as a mish-mosh of third-party control buttons, IM text boxes, and other stuff that are unrelated to today's info.

I think you guys are having a hard time understanding that a lot of widgets are not only going to be irrelevant to today, but don't even notify you of anything so why do they go into the Notifications Center under Today?
 
fmalloy said:
The Apple-supplied ones are widgets, but they are all displaying a notification of something, whether it's notifying you of the weather, your next meeting, stock quotes, or reminders, all of which are relevant to today. That's why the tab is called "Today".

A tweet, a FB status update, or Philips Hue light buttons are widgets but they don't notify you of anything, much less relevant to today. It opens the door to lots of cool widgets...that have nothing to do with notifications or what's happening today, yet they'll all get dumped there, cluttering it up as a mish-mosh of third-party control buttons, IM text boxes, and other stuff that are unrelated to today's info.

I think you guys are having a hard time understanding that a lot of widgets are not only going to be irrelevant to today, but don't even notify you of anything so why do they go into the Notifications Center under Today?
Click to expand...

two can play at this game

yes we understand

a facebook status update is relevant to how i'm feeling/what i'm thinking today

as is a tweet

if you don't want clutter in your today view

you don't need to add any extra widgets

we can all just agree to disagree buddy
 
fmalloy said:
The Apple-supplied ones are widgets, but they are all displaying a notification of something, whether it's notifying you of the weather, your next meeting, stock quotes, or reminders, all of which are relevant to today. That's why the tab is called "Today".

A tweet, a FB status update, or Philips Hue light buttons are widgets but they don't notify you of anything, much less relevant to today. It opens the door to lots of cool widgets...that have nothing to do with notifications or what's happening today, yet they'll all get dumped there, cluttering it up as a mish-mosh of third-party control buttons, IM text boxes, and other stuff that are unrelated to today's info.

I think you guys are having a hard time understanding that a lot of widgets are not only going to be irrelevant to today, but don't even notify you of anything so why do they go into the Notifications Center under Today?
Click to expand...
Let's rename the "Today" tab to "Widgets". Problem solved. :rolleyes:

Also, most widgets will probably show you relevant information for things that are currently happening. Otherwise it often wouldn't make sense to create a widget.

Another solution for you: don't use them.
 
Wouldn't it be easier to just rename the "Today" tab then? Like "Dashboard" or something.
 
Armen said:
I just want weather. not 4 lines of text telling me the weather.
Click to expand...

Maybe with widgets, weather apps will be able to add a visual weather information, instead of text solution from apple?
 
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