Everyone in tech circles could also be goin’ gaga over synthetic intelligence in the mean time, however right here within the land o’ Android, we have loads of different fascinating stuff on the horizon.Believe it or not, Google’s already onerous at work on the following grand Android model — the awkwardly gawky early-teen Android 14. And whereas it is nonetheless far too quickly to say precisely what the discharge will entail, one nugget from the most recent Android 14 developer preview is fairly darn intriguing.Specifically, the latest Android 14 preview introduces a nifty new set of choices round notifications — an space that is concurrently among the best and the worst components of any fashionable cellular machine.These new choices, although, purpose to make ’em much more helpful by ensuring you by no means miss something vital. With the flick of a pair fast switches, you may inform your telephone to flash a custom-colored LED-like gentle in your display screen anytime a brand new alert arrives — or, if you happen to actually need to get fancy, have it flash your telephone’s back-facing digital camera gentle to catch your consideration (and/or provide you with an impressively inexpensive solution to create an on-demand rave).Either method might definitely be useful in the best kind of state of affairs. And here is the actually excellent news: You do not truly even want Android 14 to make any of it occur.[Psst: Get advanced Android knowledge in your inbox every Friday with my free Android Intelligence newsletter. Three bonus tips as soon as you sign up!] In truth, you may create an much more superior and customizable model of that very same kind of notification magic on any Android machine this minute — if you already know the place to look.Your Android notification improve: The on-screen aspectWe’ll begin with the primary a part of the Android 14 notification improve — that fancy display screen flashing impact. This one’s delightfully simple to attain, and it will carry a zesty new twist of notification, erm, notifying to your telephone. The key to creating it occur is a helpful little app referred to as AodNotify. It’s one in all my favourite Android-enhancing instruments and one thing I depend on always alone private units.The particular model of AodNotify you want is dependent upon what sort of telephone you are utilizing:Once you get the best model to your telephone and get by the preliminary setup, you will be about 90 seconds away from having your display screen gentle up in several methods for various notifications — and with the ability to relaxation simple figuring out you will by no means miss an important incoming information.And you have acquired some fascinating selections right here, too:
You can have incoming notifications from sure apps create a hoop of sunshine across the digital camera cutout on the prime of your display screen so you will all the time see ’em, even if you happen to do not hear the preliminary ding
You can create a small LED-style dot on the prime of your display screen for particular sorts of alerts
And you may arrange an unmissable full-screen define gentle in any coloration and magnificence you wish to affiliate with sure notifications
JRYou can customise all kinds of stuff about how your on-screen notification lights work, too. Three of my favourite choices are:
The potential to specify which particular apps will trigger a notification gentle to look. Unlike Android 14’s under-development equal, this lets you restrict which apps set off that eye-catching impact — so, for example, you may have it occur with one thing vital like Slack or Gmail however not with each different provide you with a warning get
The potential to increase previous apps and in addition give your self an on-screen notification gentle for important system occasions like a dangerously low battery
The potential to pick out what coloration is used to your on-screen notification lights. The most suitable option, if you happen to ask me, is to let AodNotify routinely pull the first coloration related to every app, as that makes it super-easy to know at a look what sort of alert is concerned
JRAodNotify is free with an elective $5 improve for a few of its extra superior options. The app would not require any permissions past what’s wanted for its operation, and its developer (a well known and broadly trusted Android mainstay) says the software program would not gather, retailer, or share any method of consumer knowledge.Cool? Cool. But do not tune out but. We’ve acquired another choice to contemplate, and it is a good’un.The Android 14-esque digital camera flash alertThat first path is an ideal Android notification improve for most individuals — and it truly is an much more versatile and absolutely featured setup than what Google’s acquired cookin’ in Android 14 itself as of this second. If you actually need to make certain vital alerts catch your eye, although, there’s another alternative value chewing over. And it is one thing that additionally ties in carefully to one of many new Android 14 notification options.It’s a Missed Call Reminder app that makes it as simple as could be have your telephone’s digital camera flash gentle up for incoming notifications — and never simply these from missed calls, both, regardless of what its identify implies. Best of all? Just like our first device, this one options a number of choices and customization potential that make it meaningfully higher than Android 14’s present native equal.Once you have acquired the app put in, you will end up dealing with an inventory of default profiles for when the digital camera flash ought to happen. (And a heads-up, by the best way: Depending on the place you look, the app is typically often called Prof Reminder as a substitute of Missed Call Reminders. Hey, all of us have the occasional id disaster.) JRTap any profile to edit it and get all of it arrange to your personal particular functions. And if you happen to aren’t planning to make use of any of these default profiles, make sure you faucet the three-dot menu icon inside it and choose the choice to disable it completely, lest it perform if you least count on it and catch your poor unprepared peepers unexpectedly.You can create your individual new {custom} profile, too, which is the only solution to arrange a digital camera flash alert for notifications from particular high-priority apps.Missed Call Reminder is free to make use of in its base kind, although a number of the extra superior choices — together with the flexibility to create {custom} digital camera flash alerts for notifications from completely different apps — require a one-time $3 improve to unlock.And there ya have it. We should still be months away from Android 14’s official arrival, however now, you may have a style of one in all its most fascinating under-development options this second — and you can also make your telephone infinitely extra helpful consequently.Want much more Googley data? Sign up for my free weekly e-newsletter to get three awe-inspiring new issues to attempt each Friday.
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