[Q] Did notifications actually get worse in Lollipop? - Nexus 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

After what I've read about Lollipop so far I'm getting kind of ambivalent about updating. Here are two of my concerns in regards to notifications:
1) Heads-up notifications. Apparently developers are the ones that are now in control of whether notifications are important enough to completely blot out a piece of the top of the screen, including the ability to access the notification tray, until the notification is handled. So whereas before I could remain completely immersed in whatever app and wait until I decide I'm ready to pull down the shade, now I am forcibly blocked from accessing part of the app and user interface until I first interact with the notification. As far as I can tell users are unable to do anything about this intrusion.
2) Silent mode - it sounds like a lot of users are really upset already about this screw-up. The old silent mode allowed alarms through which was just perfect for the use case of alarms. You go to bed and you want your phone to shut up completely until the alarm that is supposed to wake you up. Now apparently the only real silent mode also silences alarms. "Priority mode", the feature that is used for so-called quiet hours, still lets through all sorts of vibrations from apps that many users cannot sleep through.
Are these accurate descriptions of the current state of affairs in Lollipop? If so I think it'll drive me nuts and I won't be able to switch until I can take control of these flaws. And with Xposed unavailable for the foreseeable future it means having to figure out how else to hammer a broken OS into respecting the functionality that used to "just work". Does this bother anyone enough that they'll just avoid upgrading for now?

I don't think so at all, it takes some getting used to because the system is alot more iphone-Esq in nature but it definitely works well. There is alot of few features that just bring the whole system up to date, feels very very modern now. Like when you plug the phone into the charger it tells you how much time is remaining until the phone is full, for instance my phone says 47 minutes until full right now in the charger. It can predict how much battery life remains based on typical usage. Having notifications on the lock screen so you don't have to go through the lock screen and then the pull down menu to see whats going on is very convenient. As far as silent mode goes, there is plenty of settings that allow alarms and events to still work even though calls and messages are silent, I like how they ditched the stereotypical "vibrate" or "silent" modes and went with "all" priority and "none". There are always going to be people that are very resistant to change and claim that its awful, but I feel this was a much needed update to the android system.

Nonetheless if I'm given only the choice now between either intrusive or useless notifications, it's not very appealing.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

but you are given a choice

Spawne32 said:
but you are given a choice
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The choice I am looking for is:
1) Completely disable heads-up notifications and keep them all in the notification tray, because if I'm doing something on my device I damn well want to stay in what I'm doing instead of other apps getting to choose if they can block part of my screen.
Can I do this on Lollipop?
2) At night, silence everything, *never* vibrate for anything ever, but allow alarms (and possibly voice calls) to ring.
Can priority mode do this?
From what I am reading, people are complaining that vibrate notifications are still leaking through in priority mode.

Can't say I've noticed any vibrations from apps.

cmstlist said:
The choice I am looking for is:
1) Completely disable heads-up notifications and keep them all in the notification tray, because if I'm doing something on my device I damn well want to stay in what I'm doing instead of other apps getting to choose if they can block part of my screen.
Can I do this on Lollipop?
2) At night, silence everything, *never* vibrate for anything ever, but allow alarms (and possibly voice calls) to ring.
Can priority mode do this?
From what I am reading, people are complaining that vibrate notifications are still leaking through in priority mode.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use 'None' at night and it stops everything, as designed, but I've not tried an alarm as I have a clock for that. Turning on 'Priority' alerts, but turning calls/messages/Events off, should only allow alarms through but, again, I've not tried this.
As for notifications, I've been watching videos on YouTube full screen and the notification hasn't popped up unless I drag down to view the bar so doesn't seem to be an issue
Best thing to do? Back up your phone, flash 5.0 and if you don't like it go back to 4.4.4 and restore your backup

cmstlist said:
CUT
2) At night, silence everything, *never* vibrate for anything ever, but allow alarms (and possibly voice calls) to ring.
Can priority mode do this?
From what I am reading, people are complaining that vibrate notifications are still leaking through in priority mode.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
THIS.
Audio management is just a pain in the ass. I got the same need, when I go sleep I don't want ANY sounds from the phone except wake up alarm and calls coming from a whitelist.
Actually this is not possible. If I set interruption mode, it doesn't silence any other sounds (eg: try to put the charger in and you'll hear the sound/vibration), and If I set the completely silent mode it doesn't allow interruptions.
I used to use a third party app named Nights Keeper, it was perfect running on KitKat, but now it is not on Lollipop, as it can't set the phone on totally silent mode except calls from whitelist.
Dunno if it's a bug or a "feature", the fact is that i'm not satisfied with this, and i can't "fix" it with 3rd party apps.

I always recommend that one: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.antonc.phone_schedule
Works like charm for the father of 2 year old - mute from 21 to 6:40 am, all alarms always on proper volume.

unster said:
I always recommend that one: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.antonc.phone_schedule
Works like charm for the father of 2 year old - mute from 21 to 6:40 am, all alarms always on proper volume.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
does it work properly on Lollipop?
'cause this app https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nightskeeper&hl=en is supposed to do the same, but it actually doesn't works with L

I think so. Just tested it briefly and seems to work on me.

just to say that i've created a new Enhancement request here: if this means something for you here having the same needs of me, please partecipate.
https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=79334&colspec=ID Type Status Owner Summary Stars

I've noticed some issues with notifications in lollipop aswell.
Most disturbing is that notifications just pop up as icon in the status bar, except the app is heads up supported (like hangouts) than you get the heads up notification of course.
Before you had at least something like a banner. Even if it was only one line, at least you knew from whom your eg. message or email was and the subject or the first words.
It's seriously just the icon now
That devs have to implement things like buttons or a textbox is obvious, but just the text???
Come on google...

In regards to that app - I have read that when pre Lollipop apps try to put the device into Silent mode, instead it goes into Priority mode. Including Tasker. This may explain observations noted upthread.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

With HeadsOff lollipop heads-up notifications can now be disabled!
No root needed.
You can also restore the ticker text in the statusbar!
Give it a try:
Download from Playstore
XDA thread

Related

tasker app

Just thought i'd share this with the community. You can do LOTS of really cool stuff with this app. If you get if from the website rather the market you get a 7 day trial. Look in the wiki for examples and tutorials of what you can do with it.
I'm face down in this app all day, almost every day.
I've gotten it to do some nice things, such as get the area code of the current caller and display it in the notification area or as a toast notification (the grey popup box, like when you get superuser notifications). I'm currently devising a way for it to do this for country codes, but some of these country codes have some oddly specific rules, and I'd rather it not have 290 profiles for 1 function
It replaces my alarm clock in the morning, and it turns the alarm off if I unlock widgetlocker.
When I flip my phone face down, it goes to vibrate mode.
I found a blog/forum post where someone had made a popup list of launcher icons when you plug in headphones, and I like that.
I use it to pin lock apps, but that's far from perfect. It did replace an app I had for that purpose.
I have it send WOL packets to my computers at work; depending on the time of day and the day of the week, it chooses specific computers.
When I'm at my home screen, I shake the phone up/down and it goes through my menus and applies the rendering effects found in CM7, kind of like the Chainfire shortcut.
If I get a missed call, meaning I didn't answer it or hang it up, it responds to the missed call with a text message. Too bad there's not a way for me to find out if that number is cellular or not, and I can get a phonecall from anywhere in the US throughout the day because of work
I had, for a little while, been trying to replicate JuiceDefender's methods by using a series of variables and controls, with profiles to enable and disable almost all interfaces for comms on the phone. The way tasker works when the screen is off, however, caused issues so I went back to reinstalling Juicedefender. I really only wanted to have a cleaner notification bar
I also got some profiles to make it work like the Screebl app, but it has since quit working with the newest tasker updates.
Very well worth the money however. I'd have easily paid 15 dollars for this application

Phone puts itself in silent mode. Any ideas why?

Short version: my default setting is vibrate. But recently my phone has been setting to silent without my doing anything. I'll leave me phone alone for an hour or so and when I unlock it I'll have missed calls and texts because it didn't vibrate, and my sound setting will have been changed to "silent" . This doesn't happen all the time, probably about half the time.
Some notes:
- the physical vibration works, I don't believe it's a hardware issue.
- persistent apps I am using: 1 tap quick bar, covinent eyes, onavo extend.
- no custom roms, not rooted.
- I always set my phone back to vibrate. I did to one experiment where I set my ring tone volume at max to see if it would still set itself to silent. Which it did.
- I also did a test where I left my phone out of my pocket to see if maybe I was accidentally hitting the screen and volume rocker. Still changed on its own without me touching it.
- there are no crash reports or force closes as far as I know, and I don't use app killers.
Rant: I'm very disappointed in HTC. The software on this phone is buggy and jittery. And where the heck is my jelly bean?
I uploaded screens of my software information incase anyone's interested.
Please help me with my mystery. I searched the forums for people with similar problems and haven't really found anything.
Thanks!
Sent from my HTC One X using xda app-developers app
its because you have installed onavo extend for sure. same problem here

I've had it with Lollipop

Lollipop seems to be the worst update I've had in years. I was in the UK and suing the Vodafone network (a mistake in itself), and it kept hassling me to update. In the end I did, and the patch that followed. I am not at all happy. I am on 5.0, and not 5.1, but I have read that 5.1 does not fix much.
My main grips are:
No actual benefits?
Alerts are silly, especially with the lock screen. They have mad a mess of this.
Removal of the privacy mode, which is vital to me as I use the phone as an alarm (even in 5.1 you can't allow the alarm and stop calls etc AFAIK)
Email alerts all show blank and are not removed when viewing the mail unless you click on the (useless) notification itself.
Connections with my Gear 2 are lost, and it does not connect again. The Gear thinks it is, so refuses connections
Task list is awful. I struggle to pick out which app is which. The old was was far simpler.
No longer a media controller on the lock screen unless you have notifications set on.
Automatic brightness stuff up, and makes the screen flicker.
? Can't think of more now (but there are), these are the most annoying to me.
This weekend I'll be doing a factory reset and re-installing the available Kit-Kat here in Oz. I'll refuse Lollipop until all these issues are fixed, which probably means never.
• Yes. The actual benefit is that since the launch of Android it is the first iteration which changed the way Android works, by moving to ART from Dalvik. Now I don't know how much better is ART than Dalvik, so don't ask.
• Yes. I hate that too. You mean the persistent notifications on lock screen right? Well you gotta deal with that it seems. I have tried to find an app or an Xposed module, but I haven't found any. If you do find something then please let me know. And I am sure you know how to disable that bloody irritating Headsup notifications.
• I have never used Privacy mode of Samsung, but my phone is almost always on Silent. But I have noticed that the Do Not Disturb mode is reintroduced in last update, OF3. In any case we should be thankful to Samsung that they have brought back the actual Silent mode of KitKat. Shame Google.
• I use AquaMail, and I don't notice any problem at all.
• No idea, no wear units.
• Disagree with you. I really like the new task switcher. Yes, you need to be a bit picky, but not to any extent of causing any annoyance. Personal preference though.
• No idea! God work life is killing me, haven't listened to music in months!
• Yes, this is a really irritating issue, however for me the auto brightness doesn't increase, but decrease actually. And no the screen doesn't flicker, at least haven't noticed that so far on OF3.
• .............
If you were happy with KK, then simply switch back. At initial stage I was anger with Lollipop too, but mainly because of disappearance of Silent mode and then those damn notifications on lock screen, but as the former is solved now, and I simple love Light backgrounds than darkish ones, I can't think about moving back to KK. And now when Xposed is all but working I can't even think it
Best of luck.
you should have posted this on samsungs forum, not on a hacking forum that has no affiliation with samsung

Gear S2 Vibrating & Notification Issues.

Anyone else not getting the vibration when a notification comes in on the gear S2? Mine won't vibrate all the time. At first I had always on screen set to on and I never got a notification. I shut it off and started getting them. Now I'm not getting just the vibration. But if I swipe to the side the notifications are there. Non Samsung phone. 
It seems like the watch when the screen is off goes into a sleep mode and doesnt wake up for the notification. What gives?
See my google+ post https://plus.google.com/communities/111224177903657805607
Had two random reboots today and the screen froze up as well. This POS is going back to best buy. Samsung cant get there **** together.
Always on mode doesnt work at all. Watch goes to sleep it seems and doesnt wake up with notifications. This is overall junk.
I had the exact same issue. The vibration issue coupled with a battery that went from 100% to 0% in less than 5 hours, normal use.
I have 12 days to return. I hope Samsung pushes an update within 12 days. I really like the hardware and UI, but it's just so damn buggy.
I have no such issues you guys are describing. I have a black S2. It's paired to a Galaxy S6 Edge.
Sent from my SM-N910C using Tapatalk
If I don't have the always on clock showing on the watch I will not get any notification. Using it with a One Plus 2. If the screen is on I will get nothing. The screen has to be off and in the always on mode or else it doesnt work. I just got a email and my watch did ****. I hate this ****ing ****.
maybe a little of topic but cause its about vibration i thought i could post here
i have no issue with my watch not vibrating at least not as far as i know.
i was just wondering if i can change vibration patterns. i know i can change the strength but the quick 3 times vibration is a bit annoying. i would like to change it so something else.
also the vibration on AW was better in my opinion because it resembled the pattern that was set on the phone for that specific notification
The only thing you can change about vibration, in addition to off/weak/strong, is long buzz or not.
Wait .. is the gear s2 screen supposed to turn on and show a preview of the notification when you get one?
My s2 has simply been vibrating when a notification comes in and there is no change on the screen. I thought that was normal and also thought it was a silly way to design it
If i get a notification right now, I need to wake up the watch, swipe to the left screen and then click it to show details - a lot of moves
You have to set that in the settings.
FitzAusTex said:
The only thing you can change about vibration, in addition to off/weak/strong, is long buzz or not.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah that's right isn't it. i got the same settings. hopefully there will be more options in a future update
My S2 will vibrate and light up (turned that on in settings) for incoming Texts and Phone Calls every time.
BUT for all other notifications it will not. When I get Google Now alerts or score updates from the ESPN app nothing happens. I am using the Modern face with one of the complications set to Notifications, and that will show me that I do have notifications but what use is that? Unless I look at the watch face to see the time I will never know I received these notifications. If I get a notifications I would like for it to alert me with a vibration. Every time, of all apps I choose.
Does this with a Sony Z3 Compact as well as a Xiaomi Mi4c both running 5.1.1.
This watch is a bust because I tested mine with my moto 360 2nd gen. The Gear S2 didnt get all notification if the screen was off. If it was showing the always on clock it would vib and show. Samsung needs to fix this ASAP. This is a watch that needs to tell me every notification I want.
Have you tried a Light or Factory reset of your S2? That fixed it for me, that or reinstalling the Gear app. I did both so, can't actually confirm which did it. Not having any problems getting all notifications.
I think you need and easy button, or try setting,if you can't find it , I can't help you
I have two of these and both do the same. Won't get notifications if the screen is off and not showing the always on clock. Using it with a note 5.
i have another issue. dont know it its the watch or the gear manager app. i wont get notifications for specific apps. the checkmark in the gear app wont stick. e.g. the greader app. also there are not all apps found in the gear manager app. does anyone know why thats so. for example the chrome app does not show in in notifications in the gear app.
FitzAusTex said:
Have you tried a Light or Factory reset of your S2? That fixed it for me, that or reinstalling the Gear app. I did both so, can't actually confirm which did it. Not having any problems getting all notifications.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes,
I have done both as well as switched phones and started from scratch. No notification vibration for anything but Text's and Phone Calls.
Is there a solution for this, or does my watch have to go back to the store. I'm "upgrading" from a pebble, but if I can't get a vibration to notify me of a new email, then it's a non-starter. It seems to me that I get vibrations for notifications on apps that were set up by default. But I'm not getting vibrations on any additional (third party) apps. I use e-notify and aquamail, none of these vibrate on notification. I saw on another forum that the phone must be set to vibrate for it to work, but I've tried this, and still nothing.
Is there a program that will allow me to get reminders? I use Touchdown as my regular calendar and I think I can use my Samsung calendar just for reminders but can't get S Voice to work from the GS2. Google Reminders is the best thing going. Of course, I can't feel the viberation but...

Notification on phone reminding me to charge my watch when not wearing it

Anyone else get this since the end of January 2018? I now get a notification after I have removed my watch saying "Remember to charge your Gear if you're not wearing it" every time I have removed my watch (shows up maybe an hour after I take off my Gear S3. It's getting extremely annoying, especially since I can't find any way to disable this! F***ING Samsung! Only 2 options are "Silent notifications" which still shows the icon in the status bar and then the notification in the drop down notifications. The other option is "Don't silence or block" which means it will also make a notification sound. Inside the notification settings I can't silence the Gear S Plugin as the only option is for how the notifications are handled on the Lock Screen.
I hated the damn notifications when the bluetooth connection dropped and/or connected but finally just figured F*** IT and just lived with it but this reminder to charge my watch is seriously F***ING annoying as hell! My watch can have 90% battery life and I still get this notification a little while after I removed it from my wrist. Why the hell does Samsung do this kind of stupid BS? Give me the damn option to completely block/disable these annoying notifications! I am using the Canadian Note 8 (N950W) and literally went through every option on my phone settings and Gear Manager and on my watch even and can't find a way to disable this new ridiculous notification!
Does anyone know how to disable this somehow?
T-mobile note8 and yes i get it too, not annoying to me but yes it started appearing after the latest version of samsung gear
Absolutely agree.
It's F***ing annoying and I can't find any way of stopping it either.
The watch doesn't need charging every night and I'm fed up with being woken up by this annoying message.
I've ended up silencing ALL notifications until somebody (hopefully Samsung) finds a solution.............
Never see this notification ?
I've been seeing this notification now for about a week... I don't understand what the point of it is? This needs to be disabled, like wtf lol.
Same problem here, I've been taking my watch off after a late night walk and after going to bed, I get this annoying as buggery notification on my phone, which wakes me up.
Not happy Samsung, remove the thumb from the ass and get it sorted (fire your software team while you're at it)
I got this notification as well, annoying...
I get the message when it's on my wrist at 100% and 90% charged. This notification is not needed. Samsung we know to charge our watches when we aren't wearing them its common sense. You should set this warning when battery reaches 15% or 10% charge. This what the phones usually do anyway.
Same annoying nonsense here. When I work away I take one charger and alternate charging my phone and watch. Overnight I charge the phone so I get this notification an hour after I go to sleep. Crazy that you can't disable it without turning off other notifications too.
Go into your settings on your gear s3 and click on watch faces scroll down where it says status indicator and turn that off. That should prevent your watch from sending any status notifications to your phone. Hope this helps you I kept getting the same notification
Bkr2016 said:
Go into your settings on your gear s3 and click on watch faces scroll down where it says status indicator and turn that off. That should prevent your watch from sending any status notifications to your phone. Hope this helps you I kept getting the same notification
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But turning that off means I won't have the little orange notification dot on the watch face when I have something waiting cuz at work my phone stays silent and I check my watch for notifications.
I shouldn't have to disable that feature to get rid of the other stupid one cuz Samsung are incompetent. I don't know why Samsung does stupid **** like this, is it so hard to make it an option that can be turned on/off by each person's preference?
Anyway, glad I'm not the only one annoyed to hell by this. I emailed Samsung using the link in the play store app page as well as left bad reviews on the play store and galaxy store in hopes they'll change this stupidity. I won't hold my breath since it is Samsung but you never know, lol.
This is happening on my Gear S2 as well and it's very annoying. In between this and the s-health weekly nag I can't turn off I think this is my last Samsung watch. I skip all Samsung software updates that I can because it seems like every other week they break something or make an app worse. I just don't understand this design decision, I mean do people really want their electronics nagging them this much?
Agree
nighthawk29 said:
Anyone else get this since the end of January 2018? I now get a notification after I have removed my watch saying "Remember to charge your Gear if you're not wearing it" every time I have removed my watch (shows up maybe an hour after I take off my Gear S3. It's getting extremely annoying, especially since I can't find any way to disable this! F***ING Samsung! Only 2 options are "Silent notifications" which still shows the icon in the status bar and then the notification in the drop down notifications. The other option is "Don't silence or block" which means it will also make a notification sound. Inside the notification settings I can't silence the Gear S Plugin as the only option is for how the notifications are handled on the Lock Screen.
I hated the damn notifications when the bluetooth connection dropped and/or connected but finally just figured F*** IT and just lived with it but this reminder to charge my watch is seriously F***ING annoying as hell! My watch can have 90% battery life and I still get this notification a little while after I removed it from my wrist. Why the hell does Samsung do this kind of stupid BS? Give me the damn option to completely block/disable these annoying notifications! I am using the Canadian Note 8 (N950W) and literally went through every option on my phone settings and Gear Manager and on my watch even and can't find a way to disable this new ridiculous notification!
Does anyone know how to disable this somehow?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's driving me crazy too. I have filled in contact form on Samsung site. Suggest you all do the same. Just let them know.
This is crazy, how could Samsung developers think its acceptable to make an audible noise reminding me to charge my watch anytime of the day?
I spent half an hour trying to figure out how to disable this only to find out it is not possible.
It's been waking me up at night!
You can turn off the weekly updates now. I just figured it out. On your watch go into apps, then pick s health. Scroll over to settings. Then click health nudges and you should see the option to disable weekly summary. Hope that helps with that issue.
Now someone just has to fix this stupid notification to charge the Gear. I tried tweeting with Samsung Support and they just don't understand that it's not a bug but something that they made in the new update. Sigh.
The real question here is what quality control / review went into this being added to the watch?
I was again woken up by a Gear notification from my phone today, I have no option but to put the phone on silent or turn it off.
The only solution I've found so far......
Having emailed Samsung support who were no help whatsoever I've resorted to a kind of fix - although it's far from ideal.
On the phone -
1 - Goto "Settings/Sounds and Notifications/Do not disturb"
2 - Tick "enable now" and then go to "exceptions"
3 - Select "Custom" and then select "Alarms", Calls from "All", Messages from "All", "Event/task alerts", and any priority apps required (but definitely NOT "Samsung Gear"!)
This doesn't stop the notification but does silence it!
It also brings up a permanent notification saying that "Do not disturb is enabled" - but that's silent too.
Calls and SMS texts etc. still get through with their usual sounds.
Optionally you could enable "Do not disturb" to follow a schedule - e.g at night only.
Until Samsung listen to their customers and pull their finger out with a solution that's the best I've come up with so far. Not ideal - but better than being woken up at 1am every night!
Same here since January. Damn update. I hate this notification. I always have the phone on silent at night so it does not bother me so much. But I hate notifications that I haven't asked for
Maybe this will work
When the notification shows on your phone, just press and hold down till you get to a notification menu and disable it.
I just did it, so let's see if that works
I'm getting all other notifications from others apps
Hope this helps
I got a S8 plus
tamfatula said:
You can turn off the weekly updates now. I just figured it out. On your watch go into apps, then pick s health. Scroll over to settings. Then click health nudges and you should see the option to disable weekly summary. Hope that helps with that issue.......
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That option has been around for a little while, never has worked for my S2 though. Its turned off and I still get weekly notifications.
Pacmanmode said:
When the notification shows on your phone, just press and hold down till you get to a notification menu and disable it......
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That doesn't work on my Note 8. Any option I pick is ignored and I still get the notification.

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