Inside iOS 5: Notification Center, banner alerts
Apple has revamped notifications in iOS 5, adding a pull-down Notification Center, banner alerts at the top of the screen and more detailed lock screen notifications.
Apple Vice President of iOS Software Scott Forstall acknowledged on Monday at the Worldwide Developers Conference that notifications in iOS 4 had several problems. In response to customer and developer requests for an improved notification UI, Apple has developed the Notification Center solution for iOS 5.
Forstall touted the new solution as going "far beyond" simply resolving customer complaints about notifications in iOS. Apple has also tied in its new Reminders app to work smoothly with the Notification Center, allowing for due dates and location-aware alerts.
As before, notifications can be managed within the Settings pane of iOS. Users can choose whether applications can send notifications to the Notification Center and the lock screen. Apple also continues to offer the older alert notifications as a choice alongside the new banner notifications.
Banner notifications are fairly straight forward. Tapping the banner will open the corresponding app directly to the related message or alert.
The lock screen on iOS 5 now displays a list of recent notifications. Users can swipe a notification to be taken straight to the app from the lock screen.
Swiping down from the top of the screen opens the Notification Center, which sorts notifications by app. Apple has built a location-aware weather display and a stock ticker into Notification Center. The new iMessage feature, which allows unlimited messaging between iOS 5 devices, also makes ample use of notifications, though the feature appears to still be in development.
iOS 5 sports 200 new user features and 1500 new developer APIs. In addition to Notification Center, notable features include PC Free setup; updated mobile Safari with private browsing and tabs on the iPad and integration with iCloud for wireless syncing. The update wil be compatible with the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPad 2, iPad, iPod touch (fourth generation) and iPod touch (third generation) this fall, though some features may not be available on all products.
Apple Vice President of iOS Software Scott Forstall acknowledged on Monday at the Worldwide Developers Conference that notifications in iOS 4 had several problems. In response to customer and developer requests for an improved notification UI, Apple has developed the Notification Center solution for iOS 5.
Forstall touted the new solution as going "far beyond" simply resolving customer complaints about notifications in iOS. Apple has also tied in its new Reminders app to work smoothly with the Notification Center, allowing for due dates and location-aware alerts.
As before, notifications can be managed within the Settings pane of iOS. Users can choose whether applications can send notifications to the Notification Center and the lock screen. Apple also continues to offer the older alert notifications as a choice alongside the new banner notifications.
Banner notifications are fairly straight forward. Tapping the banner will open the corresponding app directly to the related message or alert.
The lock screen on iOS 5 now displays a list of recent notifications. Users can swipe a notification to be taken straight to the app from the lock screen.
Swiping down from the top of the screen opens the Notification Center, which sorts notifications by app. Apple has built a location-aware weather display and a stock ticker into Notification Center. The new iMessage feature, which allows unlimited messaging between iOS 5 devices, also makes ample use of notifications, though the feature appears to still be in development.
iOS 5 sports 200 new user features and 1500 new developer APIs. In addition to Notification Center, notable features include PC Free setup; updated mobile Safari with private browsing and tabs on the iPad and integration with iCloud for wireless syncing. The update wil be compatible with the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPad 2, iPad, iPod touch (fourth generation) and iPod touch (third generation) this fall, though some features may not be available on all products.
Comments
The bar at the top would look a lot cleaner if it just covered the status bar as well as the top UI navigation bar.
I've been using iOS 5 since this morning and I must say that I do love the new notifications, however, that notification bar is slightly annoying because it does cover your content (while leaving the uinavbar half there but still touchable) but it's awkward to attempt not to press it when you don't wanna jump to the notifying app but need to go back in a menu nest. I wish it operated like the extended status bar and pushed content down instead of just laying over it.
The bar at the top would look a lot cleaner if it just covered the status bar as well as the top UI navigation bar.
I thought the same too. It also need to cover the whole width and not just 2/3 of it. Make it customisable with the colour much like Growl bubble.
On another note, judging from the third screenshot, we now know Kasper's doctor is Bob. A dodgy one from the look of it if you asked me.
Anyone using iOS5 found out if you can ditch the weather and stock ticker. If you aren't into stocks it is a waste of space and there are better weather apps (for Australia anyway)
You can ditch them, but you can't add others notification center. Maybe next year they'll offer a proper SDK for lock screen, home screen, and/or notification center widgets.
I've been using iOS 5 since this morning and I must say that I do love the new notifications, however, that notification bar is slightly annoying because it does cover your content (while leaving the uinavbar half there but still touchable) but it's awkward to attempt not to press it when you don't wanna jump to the notifying app but need to go back in a menu nest. I wish it operated like the extended status bar and pushed content down instead of just laying over it.
Think about it, what will happen if the notification pushes the content down while you are playing a game. Everything changed position that may bother your operation very much. Not talking the notifications may come continuously. Even worse than the old notification that suspend the app.
The bar at the top would look a lot cleaner if it just covered the status bar as well as the top UI navigation bar.
I agree, but still, I think it looks just fine the way it is.
I like the ability to deal with notifications from the lock screen.
I think it would be even nicer if they add in some kind of "mini app" in there as well.
So if you swipe to the right you open the app that the notification is for, and if you swipe down the notification list opens accordion style with a couple of options defined by the app that received the notification.
For example if you receive a meeting request or a Facebook friend request you might just have Confirm/Decline buttons. For a message you could have a simple one line response and Send button and for email you could have flag and mark as read/unread buttons.
This would allow me to deal with a lot of phone use without even unlocking the phone!
I agree, but [...]
This would allow me to deal with a lot of phone use without even unlocking the phone!
Re: Facebook -- What happen if your phone is stolen and request like that appear before you manage to lock it out?
Re: Facebook -- What happen if your phone is stolen and request like that appear before you manage to lock it out?
Well, looks very similar to the notification system in android -- but that's a good thing; android does handle notifications the best out of all the smartphone OSes IMO.
The weather and stock ticker 'widgets' are a nice touch, though I wish there were more options. I think a quick settings widget that lets to toggle things like bluetooth would be a better use of the space.
Also, if you have an unlock PIN set-up on your iOS device, do you have to still enter that to jump into the notification from the lock screen? I would assume yes. If not, does this not leave a "door" open for hacking iOS? I recall something like this had to be patched before - you could gain access to some iOS features through the lock screen.
Well, looks very similar to the notification system in android -- but that's a good thing; android does handle notifications the best out of all the smartphone OSes IMO.
The weather and stock ticker 'widgets' are a nice touch, though I wish there were more options. I think a quick settings widget that lets to toggle things like bluetooth would be a better use of the space.
I assume Apple has done these as a demo of the functionality. Are the new API's there to enable app Dev's to have their apps work with NC? All guess work on my part as I'm not a dev with access to iOS 5. What I see, I like though.
Users can swipe a notification to be taken straight to the app from the lock screen.
Does it require you to enter your password after the swipe, before going to the app?
Think about it, what will happen if the notification pushes the content down while you are playing a game. *Everything changed position that may bother your operation very much. *Not talking the notifications may come continuously. *Even worse than the old notification that suspend the app.
You're misinterpreting what I said. I'm talking about what iOS does already, resizing the windows's view on the fly to increase the size of the status bar 10px and decreasing the view 10px to fit a substatus bar below the status main bar (e.g., whenever you are on a phone call and you are also browsing through your phone). Doing things this way allows you to keep everything in the view without covering it and also stripping the awkwardness of interacting with a navigation bar whole a notification is present. It's also convenient because the "extended status bar" is the exact same size as a single notifications bubble.
As for apps that require full screen (e.g., games), there are two options you could do to fix it (since resizing of the windows's view can cause weird things to happen in OpenGL or is ignored).*
1. On Apple's end, they could see if the app takes over full screen with OpenGL*
2. They could add a new option to the info.plist of an app's settings to change the display of the notifications
In these cases, the notification could show up and overlay your content without resizing the view (thr current method). Easy as pie since most developers will need to update their apps for iOS5, anyway.*
This allows for notifications to be less intrusive than they are now in most situations. While Apple is taking the right step, notifications still need a little (or a lot of) help, as they aren't really "non-intrusive" when they overlay content and there is no way to flick them off the screen when they initially show.*
Does it require you to enter your password after the swipe, before going to the app?
Interested to know how notifications appear for SMS messages if you have the preview option switched off. Could one of you Dev's using iOS 5 let me know please?
Also, if you have an unlock PIN set-up on your iOS device, do you have to still enter that to jump into the notification from the lock screen? I would assume yes. If not, does this not leave a "door" open for hacking iOS? I recall something like this had to be patched before - you could gain access to some iOS features through the lock screen.
If preview is hidden it just says the texter's name and "Text Message", just like the current in a different representation.
You're second question is yes, if you swipe and icon to jump into a notification from the lock screen, your pin is required first then you can proceed. I personally have it set to require the pin after 5 minutes, tho. I unlock my phone too many times to deal with it lol
I agree, but still, I think it looks just fine the way it is.
I like the ability to deal with notifications from the lock screen.
I think it would be even nicer if they add in some kind of "mini app" in there as well.
So if you swipe to the right you open the app that the notification is for, and if you swipe down the notification list opens accordion style with a couple of options defined by the app that received the notification.
For example if you receive a meeting request or a Facebook friend request you might just have Confirm/Decline buttons. For a message you could have a simple one line response and Send button and for email you could have flag and mark as read/unread buttons.
This would allow me to deal with a lot of phone use without even unlocking the phone!
Those are some great ideas!
Excellent civility in the thread btw!
And no real estate would be taken up.
I don't need an icon next to an alert. The bar could flash momentarily letting me know there's a notification.