Ah, notifications. I do not learn about you, however I’ve received a little bit of a love-hate relationship with the issues.On the one hand, positive, notifications will be helpful. Having an alert about an necessary e-mail, textual content message, or Slack reminder pop up on my Pixel retains me linked to vital communications and (allegedly) necessary updates.On the opposite hand, although, man: Those identical types of notifications make it damn-near not possible to get away from work — and/or household — and give attention to the rest on this large, wild world of ours.That’s why, for me, the Pixel’s always-on show possibility has by no means been particularly optimum. The always-on show, if you happen to aren’t acquainted, is that characteristic the place your Pixel exhibits you a dimmed view of the time, date, climate, and any pending notifications in your display screen all of the freakin’ time — everytime you aren’t actively utilizing your telephone. The display screen simply by no means totally turns off.That characteristic is often enabled by default, and most people appear to just accept it with out a lot as a second thought. Well, my fellow Pixel possessor, I’m right here to inform you there’s a greater manner. It’s a artful hack that’ll provide the identical benefits the Pixel’s always-on show supplies however in a simpler and fewer distracting presentation. It’ll make your telephone meaningfully extra helpful — and extra power-efficient, too.[Bonus tip: Check out my free Pixel Academy e-course to discover all the advanced intelligence lurking within your favorite Pixel phone!] Ready?Part I: Your Pixel notification basisThe secret to this saucy little Pixel enchancment revolves round a intelligent little app referred to as aodNotify. It’s free, with an non-compulsory $5 improve for a few of its extra superior options. What aodNotify does, at its core, is offer you a delicate pulsating gentle in your display screen to let you recognize when any necessary notifications are pending. But it additionally has the simply ignored means to create its personal customized always-on-display different that is much more useful and fewer distracting than what the Pixel provides you by default. JR To begin, set up the app in your Pixel — whichever Pixel mannequin you are utilizing — after which open ‘er up. (And take word, by the best way: If you or somebody you recognize has a non-Pixel Android telephone, aodNotify has separate variations of the app out there for choose Samsung units and OnePlus units in addition to a broader catch-all model that will work on sure different Android telephone fashions.)The app will stroll you thru a collection of steps to grant it the permissions it requires and get issues up and working. Just know that (a) aodNotify would not ask for any commonplace system permissions, together with the flexibility to entry the web, so there is not any real looking manner it may do something together with your information even when it needed to — and (b) the app comes from a identified and respected developer who’s very up entrance in regards to the software program’s privateness practices and its lack of shady habits. This is a trusted instrument, in different phrases, and it is completely protected to make use of.Once you get aodNotify initiated, head into its essential settings display screen — ‘trigger it is time for us make a handful of key modifications. Part II: Your Pixel notification basicsFirst issues first, we’ll want to verify your Pixel notification fundamentals are in place and arrange correctly:
Tap the “Notifications” line (the textual content, not the toggle) in the primary aodNotify settings display screen.
Tap “Apps” and look over the checklist of apps which are licensed to activate your snazzy new notification gentle. This is a straightforward but supremely efficient strategy to decide and select precisely which forms of alerts are allowed to interrupt you and demand your consideration. Personally, as an illustration, I do not want notifications from an app like Google Photos to pop up on my display screen and seize my consideration instantly. With any such non-critical apps, take a number of seconds now to verify they’re unchecked on this space and thus disconnected out of your new notification-placarding setup.
Within that very same “Notifications” part of the aodNotify settings, faucet the “Battery” line and contemplate which battery-related occasions you’d prefer to have linked to your notification gentle. I discover it helpful to have each “Phone is fully charged” and “Battery low (15%)” checked, as these are occasions that’d trigger me to take a particular motion in response (unplugging my telephone from the charger, within the first case, and discovering someplace to cost it and/or screaming loudly within the second).
JR Got it? Good. Now for the enjoyable half — the exact Pixel notification management.Part III: Your Pixel notification nuancesThis subsequent a part of the method is the place we’ll dive in deep to configure precisely how your nifty new Pixel notification system will work. And don’t be concerned: It’s a lot simpler than it sounds!
Head again into the aodNotify app’s essential settings display screen, and this time, choose “Notification light” (once more, the textual content, not the toggle) from the checklist of choices.
Tap “Style” and take into consideration precisely the way you need your new notification gentle to work. By default, aodNotify will create a mild pulsating impact round your Pixel’s front-facing digital camera cutout — y’know, that funky li’l hole-sized form you see on the top-center or top-left of the display screen on more moderen Pixel fashions. If you’ve an older Pixel telephone that does not have a digital camera cutout, you’d most likely be higher off with both the “Screen edges” or the “LED dot” possibility.
Back out to the “Style” display screen and choose “Effects” to seek out the pulsating model that is most pleasing to you.
JR Finally, we have to activate aodNotify’s always-on show alternative on your purty Pixel telephone — the crowning contact of this considerate notification transformation. Take a deep breath. We’re nearly achieved…Part IV: Your Pixel notification stationTo activate your new and improved Pixel always-on show alternative:
Go again to the primary aodNotify settings display screen and faucet the toggle to the appropriate of “Notification preview” to show it into the on place.
Next, faucet the phrases “Notification preview.” For the complete impact, make certain the primary six toggles on the display screen that comes up subsequent — “Show app icon,” “Show notification info,” “Show current time,” “Show icon row,” “Show notification title,” and “Show notification text” — are all on and energetic.
Scroll down and activate “Show contact images,” too, if you’d like. It’s a pleasant further contact!
Last however not least, return to the primary aodNotify settings display screen, faucet “General,” after which choose “Don’t show” on the display screen that comes up. That’ll successfully disable your Pixel’s default always-on show and permit aodNotify’s different to switch it. (If you ever change your thoughts and wish to return, all you have gotta do is modify that setting or uninstall aodNotify solely.)
And that is it! Now, anytime you get a brand new notification and your telephone is not actively in use, your Pixel’s display screen will present the complete notification data entrance and heart for 10 seconds. It’ll then flash a delicate however noticeable pulsating gentle for 2 minutes. And then your display screen will shut itself again off. JR You can modify these instances and make ’em longer or shorter, if you’d like, by trying within the “Notification preview” and “Notification light” sections of the aodNotify settings. So if you would like to have the complete preview present for, say, 5 minutes after which the flashing gentle stay in place indefinitely, till you swipe away the related notification, you possibly can positively try this.Just do not forget that anytime your display screen is in use, your Pixel’s battery is taking successful — a comparatively small one, admittedly, however all these moments add up over the course of a day. The identical is true with the Pixel’s default always-on show setup, too. The solely distinction right here is that you’ve got the facility to customise and management every thing at an extremely nuanced stage.And with that, your Pixel notification transformation is full. All that is left is to take a seat again, calm down, and let the notifications roll in — in a cultured, custom-made, and delightfully unobtrusive manner.Don’t let your self miss an oz of Pixel magic. Sign up for my free Pixel Academy e-course and uncover tons of hidden options and time-saving methods on your favourite Pixel telephone.
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