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Will there ever be a *true* notification light?

cynics said:
Yep. It's for hearing impaired. It's like a rave in a dark room with an iPhone.
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The problem is that the user has to be in the same room to see the light flashing to know that there is indeed a message coming in..... I tried it for a couple of hours and quickly realized the futility of it.

As for vibrations -- that's fine if one has the iPhone in one's pocket or sitting on a surface where the vibration would cause the device to rattle, thereby catching the user's attention. Again, one needs to be in close proximity to the iPhone for this to be effective.

I for one would greatly appreciate some sort of notification system which would work when the iPhone is not in active use, is just sitting around in sleep mode. I have missed calls and texts because I've been in another room when something has come in and I haven't heard it happening and when I return to the room with the iPhone I don't think to immediately check it to see if I might have missed something. Hours...maybe even a day or so can go by and I don't know that I've missed calls/texts. It's very annoying. Not a deal-breaker but an annoyance.
 
Clix Pix said:
The problem is that the user has to be in the same room to see the light flashing to know that there is indeed a message coming in..... I tried it for a couple of hours and quickly realized the futility of it.

As for vibrations -- that's fine if one has the iPhone in one's pocket or sitting on a surface where the vibration would cause the device to rattle, thereby catching the user's attention. Again, one needs to be in close proximity to the iPhone for this to be effective.

I for one would greatly appreciate some sort of notification system which would work when the iPhone is not in active use, is just sitting around in sleep mode. I have missed calls and texts because I've been in another room when something has come in and I haven't heard it happening and when I return to the room with the iPhone I don't think to immediately check it to see if I might have missed something. Hours...maybe even a day or so can go by and I don't know that I've missed calls/texts. It's very annoying. Not a deal-breaker but an annoyance.
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I'm still not really sold on it and I came from an Android device that had it. The reason being that we always have our phone on us or near us. We are always checking it. Go hop in the shower, soon as you get out and throw some clothes on, you probably checking your phone. An indicator light wouldn't change that. Even while I'm in meetings at work, we all are constantly checking our phones Android or not discreetly. It's a communication device, I expected events to occur and don't need a light to tell me to check my phone.

If you are a socially active person, you are probably getting tons of IMs, FaceBook events, Emails, LinkedIN updates, Calendar, and so on. If you are not socially active and your phone doesn't have that much activity, then maybe a light would be helpful to let you know that one person reached out to you. I mean if you leave your phone around away from you constantly, then you probably aren't a heavy phone user to begin with.

Again, these are just my thoughts and I could really give 2 craps if Apple incorporated the feature or not (I'm almost certain they won't in the iPhone 6). I just don't think this is on any priority list at Apple considering all the other things that can be tweaked or added.
 
I always found the notification light on my Android phone (before I switched to an iPhone) to be annoying. It made me check my phone far more often than I would otherwise. Every time I saw the silly thing was blinking, I'd check it, rather than checking my phone throughout the day on my terms, if you will.

That said, I don't care if Apple puts the feature in. I just turned it off on my old phone, and just wouldn't turn it on on my new one. If enough people want it though, I hope they do it. Like others mentioned, it could be tastefully done around the home button, for example.
 
Tork said:
I always found the notification light on my Android phone (before I switched to an iPhone) to be annoying. It made me check my phone far more often than I would otherwise. Every time I saw the silly thing was blinking, I'd check it, rather than checking my phone throughout the day on my terms, if you will.

That said, I don't care if Apple puts the feature in. I just turned it off on my old phone, and just wouldn't turn it on on my new one. If enough people want it though, I hope they do it. Like others mentioned, it could be tastefully done around the home button, for example.
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Pretty sure you could have just disabled it or configured more to your liking.
 
Black Magic said:
I'm still not really sold on it and I came from an Android device that had it. The reason being that we always have our phone on us or near us. We are always checking it. Go hop in the shower, soon as you get out and throw some clothes on, you probably checking your phone. An indicator light wouldn't change that. Even while I'm in meetings at work, we all are constantly checking our phones Android or not discreetly. It's a communication device, I expected events to occur and don't need a light to tell me to check my phone.

If you are a socially active person, you are probably getting tons of IMs, FaceBook events, Emails, LinkedIN updates, Calendar, and so on. If you are not socially active and your phone doesn't have that much activity, then maybe a light would be helpful to let you know that one person reached out to you. I mean if you leave your phone around away from you constantly, then you probably aren't a heavy phone user to begin with.

Again, these are just my thoughts and I could really give 2 craps if Apple incorporated the feature or not (I'm almost certain they won't in the iPhone 6). I just don't think this is on any priority list at Apple considering all the other things that can be tweaked or added.
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That's just it -- some of us DON'T keep the phone in our pocket all the time or near us all the time. Some of us also are not all that socially active in this particular way so that we aren't getting a constant stream of IMs, Facebook events, notifications of incoming emails, etc., etc..... We actually experience life without interruption from a device! And, yes, that's exactly right: some of us are not heavy iPhone users in the first place and can actually go to another room without it being glued to us. Gee, imagine that.....
 
pittpanthersfan said:
I've been hoping for this since Day 1. I think though, we're more likely to see something like the Moto X's Active Display, where it only turns on a few pixels to show a notification. Though, you do have to move the phone to get this to display, which kind of defeats the purpose.
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Only reason I don't see this happening is because active display is mostly for super amoled displays because the black pixels are not actually on with those screens but with say the iPhone screen even the black pixels are lit up and it would cause bad battery drain
 
Black Magic said:
I'm still not really sold on it and I came from an Android device that had it. The reason being that we always have our phone on us or near us. We are always checking it. Go hop in the shower, soon as you get out and throw some clothes on, you probably checking your phone. An indicator light wouldn't change that. Even while I'm in meetings at work, we all are constantly checking our phones Android or not discreetly. It's a communication device, I expected events to occur and don't need a light to tell me to check my phone.

If you are a socially active person, you are probably getting tons of IMs, FaceBook events, Emails, LinkedIN updates, Calendar, and so on. If you are not socially active and your phone doesn't have that much activity, then maybe a light would be helpful to let you know that one person reached out to you. I mean if you leave your phone around away from you constantly, then you probably aren't a heavy phone user to begin with.

Again, these are just my thoughts and I could really give 2 craps if Apple incorporated the feature or not (I'm almost certain they won't in the iPhone 6). I just don't think this is on any priority list at Apple considering all the other things that can be tweaked or added.
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I hate being a slave to my phone. Take a shower, check it. In a meeting, check it. Constantly checking it. When I was using phones with a notification light I could at least just glance at it.

To your second paragraph that's the beauty of the notification light. If your social or not you know when you have a notification worth ignoring.

But I'm with you on the next iPhone not having a notification light. There is no way. I do however hope Apple comes up with something a little better then how it's done now.
 
Am I the only one who would prefer a repeating audible notification? Worked for me when I had a flip phone. Beep, pause, beep.
 
cynics said:
I hate being a slave to my phone. Take a shower, check it. In a meeting, check it. Constantly checking it. When I was using phones with a notification light I could at least just glance at it.

To your second paragraph that's the beauty of the notification light. If your social or not you know when you have a notification worth ignoring.

But I'm with you on the next iPhone not having a notification light. There is no way. I do however hope Apple comes up with something a little better then how it's done now.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't say that we as a society have become slaves to our phones. I think technology is now a lot more integrated in our lives. I see the cell phone like a wallet and keys, I'm not leaving home without them. Some of us don't have home phones and our cell phones are our primary lines. Some of us have alarm systems that can interact with your cell phone. Some of us may have geo-fence alerts configured to let you know when your young child is walking home from school. These are just one of many things folks may use their phone for and find value in utilizing technology.

I personally don't see how a notification light would add any additional value. The times when vibrate or just having the volume on are more likely than not. I guess a good example we could use is that you are out swimming at an amusement park. You probably will keep your phone in a locker or something while you are enjoying your day. At some point, you are gonna wrap up and come get your stuff out of the locker. Now, at this point you will look at your phone to see if you missed something. Being that it's so easy to unlock your phone, will a notification light really alter or add value?
 
Tork said:
I always found the notification light on my Android phone (before I switched to an iPhone) to be annoying. It made me check my phone far more often than I would otherwise. Every time I saw the silly thing was blinking, I'd check it, rather than checking my phone throughout the day on my terms, if you will.



That said, I don't care if Apple puts the feature in. I just turned it off on my old phone, and just wouldn't turn it on on my new one. If enough people want it though, I hope they do it. Like others mentioned, it could be tastefully done around the home button, for example.
Click to expand...


A friend of mine said the same thing about the light on her work BackBerry and derided it as "obnoxious".

I've never felt the need for a notification light, but is also don't have emails or Facebook messages that are do critical that they have to be answered. If someone really needs to get in touch with me right away, they will call.
 
C DM said:
And if you are in public and use your phone and get a notification that comes in people will be thinking you are taking a bunch of photos all over the place...might not be a thing you want people thinking in a lot of places, especially if you are getting a lot of notifications too.
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Funny you should mention that. Soon after I enabled that "feature" (it's really a feature for the hearing impaired more than anything else) I was in a casino. After sending a text I was still holding my phone, now off. In comes a reply, flashing the screen. Within seconds security was on me about how they don't like photos being taken. Peachy.



Michael
 
Tork said:
I always found the notification light on my Android phone (before I switched to an iPhone) to be annoying. It made me check my phone far more often than I would otherwise. Every time I saw the silly thing was blinking, I'd check it, rather than checking my phone throughout the day on my terms, if you will.
Click to expand...
Many years ago when I was young and stupid and email was just becoming popular I used to get a "You've got mail!" notification on my trusty PC. But I always found that annoying. Every time I heard that silly announcement I'd check my email, rather checking it throughout the day on my terms.

Then I realized I could turn it off. Problem solved, if you will.



Michael

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Pakaku said:
It's not difficult to press the home button and look at your lockscreen. I seriously doubt you are so pressed for time that you can't spare five seconds to press a button. If you are, perhaps you should simply keep your phone on your person at all times, so that you are notified at the point of notification.
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More proof that apologizing for the lack of a useful feature is awkward, at best.



Michael
 
Retired Cat said:
A friend of mine said the same thing about the light on her work BackBerry and derided it as "obnoxious".

I've never felt the need for a notification light, but is also don't have emails or Facebook messages that are do critical that they have to be answered. If someone really needs to get in touch with me right away, they will call.
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To each their own. I found the tri-color notification light on my old Blackberry extremely useful. It's the one lacking feature that really kills the user experience on the iphone for me.

That your friend "derided" the light and called it "obnoxious" is all well and good. I call it the most useful feature the blackberry had, as the light could be customized with extremely fine detail. I could be in a meeting, the light could blink in one of three colors. I didn't have to login in to check the notifications.

It's not about calling to get in touch, it's about knowing you got a specific communication on the phone without disturbing those around you.

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Tinmania said:
Many years ago when I was young and stupid and email was just becoming popular I used to get a "You've got mail!" notification on my trusty PC. But I always found that annoying. Every time I heard that silly announcement I'd check my email, rather checking it throughout the day on my terms.

Then I realized I could turn it off. Problem solved, if you will.



Michael

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More proof that apologizing for the lack of a useful feature is awkward, at best.



Michael
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Absolutely. Couldn't agree more.

Apple may never implement a notification light, but the thought is in my head there is decent competition out there, that will get you the features you want in a phone.
 
rablat said:
I truly hope this never comes to an iPhone not that I think it would. Never was there a more dumb thing on a phone.
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You realize nothing would change for you about your iPhone with it being there, right?
 
Black Magic said:
I wouldn't say that we as a society have become slaves to our phones. I think technology is now a lot more integrated in our lives. I see the cell phone like a wallet and keys, I'm not leaving home without them. Some of us don't have home phones and our cell phones are our primary lines. Some of us have alarm systems that can interact with your cell phone. Some of us may have geo-fence alerts configured to let you know when your young child is walking home from school. These are just one of many things folks may use their phone for and find value in utilizing technology.

I personally don't see how a notification light would add any additional value. The times when vibrate or just having the volume on are more likely than not. I guess a good example we could use is that you are out swimming at an amusement park. You probably will keep your phone in a locker or something while you are enjoying your day. At some point, you are gonna wrap up and come get your stuff out of the locker. Now, at this point you will look at your phone to see if you missed something. Being that it's so easy to unlock your phone, will a notification light really alter or add value?
Click to expand...
It seems that your argument against a notification light is because you are a constant checker of your phone. You always have it with you. That's fine, I do too. I am also socially connected and receive a constant stream of notifcations. But that's the whole point.

You know you are going to get a notification. You just check the screen to see what it is. No big deal to you. But this is where you and I diverge.

I know I am going to get a notification. But what kind? Is it important? Do I CARE that I got another FB notification about some stupid calendar event for friends I barely know and will never attend? For me, checking the damn screen to find out that the notification I got was not worth the small jot of time I took to check is irritating. I don't know how many times I've picked up my phone to check email that just came in to find out I've got five pieces of crapmail I don't want.

If I had a notification light I COULD PICK AND CHOOSE WHEN I wanted to check my screen, because I would know what kind of notification (in general) and how important or NOT important. Versus always having to check the damn phone to find out if the notification is worthless to me or not.

That's the problem with the LED flash and this current workaround for a notification light. There is no distinction about what's important enough to cause you to check your phone or not.

And if you walk away for a moment there is no notification, audible or otherwise. So now you HAVE to check it. Again, a notification light here would be good because you could determine if it's something you WANT to check after having left the room and come back.

Personally, I could do away with a whole bunch of constant checking of my phone for crap or uninteresting or irrelevant notifications.
 
eyoungren said:
It seems that your argument against a notification light is because you are a constant checker of your phone. You always have it with you. That's fine, I do too. I am also socially connected and receive a constant stream of notifcations. But that's the whole point.

You know you are going to get a notification. You just check the screen to see what it is. No big deal to you. But this is where you and I diverge.

I know I am going to get a notification. But what kind? Is it important? Do I CARE that I got another FB notification about some stupid calendar event for friends I barely know and will never attend? For me, checking the damn screen to find out that the notification I got was not worth the small jot of time I took to check is irritating. I don't know how many times I've picked up my phone to check email that just came in to find out I've got five pieces of crapmail I don't want.

If I had a notification light I COULD PICK AND CHOOSE WHEN I wanted to check my screen, because I would know what kind of notification (in general) and how important or NOT important. Versus always having to check the damn phone to find out if the notification is worthless to me or not.

That's the problem with the LED flash and this current workaround for a notification light. There is no distinction about what's important enough to cause you to check your phone or not.

And if you walk away for a moment there is no notification, audible or otherwise. So now you HAVE to check it. Again, a notification light here would be good because you could determine if it's something you WANT to check after having left the room and come back.

Personally, I could do away with a whole bunch of constant checking of my phone for crap or uninteresting or irrelevant notifications.
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I hear you. I think the point I'm really trying to make is that I rarely have my phone set to silent so I will 90% of the time be notified audible or via vibration. I'm guessing the folks that would like the notification keep their phone in silent mode or far away from them most of the time?

I think in my case, I have streamlined the notifications to where if it's something I'm interested in, I get notified. I don't get notified on junk email. I have it set to notify for VIP or specific mail accounts. If it's not important like FaceBook or something to that effect, it won't pop a notification because I have modified the settings so that I'm not bothered. In this case, I would set FaceBook to badge icon only and check it whenever. In short, I tweak the notification settings to ensure I get notified on things that are important to me. I don't want a constant barrage of information and alerts, I want valuable information alerting me instantly. An LED notification probably wouldn't help me much at all.

Again, I don't roll with my phone being silent all day and it is very rare that I put my phone on silent. I check my phone when my phone alerts me too which is a big difference from constantly checking that you an others have alluded too. If you keep your phone in silent mode most of the day, then I guess with Apple's current implementation you would need a notification light to see if you got an event. Even in meetings when our phones are on silent, most of us aren't checking because we are worried we missed something. We are checking because we are bored and have lost interest.

If Apple did decide to implement one, I probably wouldn't use it. Knowing Apple though, they would implement it in a manner where it made sense to utilize it. I see it where if you set your phone on silent, then the LED notifications would kick in automatically.
 
Black Magic said:
I hear you. I think the point I'm really trying to make is that I rarely have my phone set to silent so I will 90% of the time be notified audible or via vibration. I'm guessing the folks that would like the notification keep their phone in silent mode or far away from them most of the time?

I think in my case, I have streamlined the notifications to where if it's something I'm interested in, I get notified. I don't get notified on junk email. I have it set to notify for VIP or specific mail accounts. If it's not important like FaceBook or something to that effect, it won't pop a notification because I have modified the settings so that I'm not bothered. In this case, I would set FaceBook to badge icon only and check it whenever. In short, I tweak the notification settings to ensure I get notified on things that are important to me. I don't want a constant barrage of information and alerts, I want valuable information alerting me instantly. An LED notification probably wouldn't help me much at all.

Again, I don't roll with my phone being silent all day and it is very rare that I put my phone on silent. I check my phone when my phone alerts me too which is a big difference from constantly checking that you an others have alluded too. If you keep your phone in silent mode most of the day, then I guess with Apple's current implementation you would need a notification light to see if you got an event. Even in meetings when our phones are on silent, most of us aren't checking because we are worried we missed something. We are checking because we are bored and have lost interest.

If Apple did decide to implement one, I probably wouldn't use it. Knowing Apple though, they would implement it in a manner where it made sense to utilize it. I see it where if you set your phone on silent, then the LED notifications would kick in automatically.
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OK, from that perspective I can see your point. My notifications are not that streamlined, even despite the fact that my iPhone is jailbroken.

But my iPhone is rarely on silent. Which has caused tension between my wife and I at times. So, I took to using Activator to enable Do Not Disturb between 10pm and 6am. So, between those hours every notification is silent. However, I also have RingerX VIP which allows me to set certain contacts to ignore DND. My family and close friends are those who I've assigned this. So, if there's an emergency call or text at 2am I'm going to get it. My iPhone is my bedside clock so it's there all the time while sleeping. This actually worked for me this week when my kids's school called at 5:30am to let us know the bus was not running on their route.

Anyway, I probably could customize to the level you have, but I hate assigning separate ringers and tones to people because I like keeping just a general ringer and text tone. With a light I'd be fine with customizing that though. Maybe it's because I'm more visual than audible, IDK.
 
eyoungren said:
OK, from that perspective I can see your point. My notifications are not that streamlined, even despite the fact that my iPhone is jailbroken.

But my iPhone is rarely on silent. Which has caused tension between my wife and I at times. So, I took to using Activator to enable Do Not Disturb between 10pm and 6am. So, between those hours every notification is silent. However, I also have RingerX VIP which allows me to set certain contacts to ignore DND. My family and close friends are those who I've assigned this. So, if there's an emergency call or text at 2am I'm going to get it. My iPhone is my bedside clock so it's there all the time while sleeping. This actually worked for me this week when my kids's school called at 5:30am to let us know the bus was not running on their route.

Anyway, I probably could customize to the level you have, but I hate assigning separate ringers and tones to people because I like keeping just a general ringer and text tone. With a light I'd be fine with customizing that though. Maybe it's because I'm more visual than audible, IDK.
Click to expand...

Yea, I went through notifications thoroughly one app at a time to get it the way I want. I do it each time I install a new application as well, but it's hard to argue with the results.

Ringtone wise, I'm kinda relaxed on it but still have some customization there. My wife and kids have 1 ringtone that allows me to know a family member is calling. All others use a default ringtone. Work wise, I don't give out my personal number, I use Google Voice which adds a second number to my phone. In the web site settings for that Google Voice number, I set it up so that if someone calls me, it shows my Google Voice number. This allows me to set up a specific ringtone for someone calling my work number and allows me to put it in favorites for "do not disturb".
 
ruler22 said:
Unfortunately at the moment I'm on a Galaxy SIII because my iphone 5 got stolen NYE in 2012, and this is what ATT gave me for free when I threatened to leave (was trying to get a reduced price on the iPhone).

One of the very few things that I absolutely love about this phone is the front notification light, and how it has different colors that can be assigned to different things (different colors for emails vs texts, and customizable colors for texts from certain people, etc.).

This is something that I really, really wish Apple would add to their phones. I feel like it's such a basic feature now on current smartphones and it's a shame they don't have it yet.

Also, please don't say that the iPhone already has one...the camera flash as a notification light is such a caveman-like way to provide a notification
Click to expand...

Very unlikely.
And a colored led is something I definitely don't want on my iPhone.
There are things that are just out of Apple's style ....
 
Max(IT) said:
Very unlikely.
And a colored led is something I definitely don't want on my iPhone.
There are things that are just out of Apple's style ....
Click to expand...
It would likely be a little thing under the glass no different than let's say the proximity sensor which is "Apple style" given that it's there. There are other possibilities for it too, like just the home button having a glow around it or something like that, which would also not be noticeable for those who won't use an optional option like that or will be fairly fitting with the phone design and completely unobtrusive for those that would elect to use it.
 
The iPhone works fine for me as it is, but I wouldn't hate it if Apple added a notification light.
 
It would be useful. As for battery life, turning on the screen for each notification probably consumes much more power. I'd be very happy with a subtle glow around the home button combined with an option to not turn on the screen for each incoming notification (like "Do Not Disturb").
 
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