And I see what you’re saying here, and if you’re already looking at the front, you have the screen to notify you.
Exactly! In orientation-specific use cases, such as being in a pocket, the back being the notification works fine. In orientation-nonspecific cases, such as being in a purse, it’s fine, too; the light will reflect and show up regardless of if the back is facing you. Even on your desk in a dock (or laying down), you’ll see the light from the back.
If the phone is hidden in your pocket or purse... you won't see the screen or the light. But that's not where the light comes in handy.
The light is for the times when you're away from your phone and you return to it. You can see if you have any missed notifications without waking the phone.
And 9 times out of 10... the front of the phone is most visible... not the back. That's why manufacturers have historically put the notification light on the front of the phone.
All Apple did was repurpose the camera flash into a makeshift notification light... which happens to be on the back of the phone. That doesn't mean notification lights belong on the back. What Apple did was an anomaly.
Almost every other smartphone that has a notification light has it on the front.
I'd like to see a multi-colored LED in the home button, with each color designating what and how many notifications you have, by the number of times the LED flashes. Say, for instance, if you have 5 missed calls, a green home button LED would flash five times; 4 emails, a red LED would flash 4 times. All of this should be able to be modified by the user in the control center.
I owned an Android back in 2009 and loved the red light that flashed when I had a missed call. I've gotten used to grabbing my phone to check for missed calls over the years but I'm still baffled why Apple hasn't incorporated this light notification feature into the iPhone. It would be so simple, and you could turn it off if you had no use for it.
I'd like to see a multi-colored LED in the home button, with each color designating what and how many notifications you have, by the number of times the LED flashes. Say, for instance, if you have 5 missed calls, a green home button LED would flash five times; 4 emails, a red LED would flash 4 times. All of this should be able to be modified by the user in the control center.
That’s Android nonsense. No one is going to remember that. There’s a reason the 3rd gen iPod shuffle flopped.
I'm still baffled why Apple hasn't incorporated this light notification feature into the iPhone. Any thoughts on why they haven't?
Comments
If the phone is hidden in your pocket or purse... you won't see the screen or the light. But that's not where the light comes in handy.
The light is for the times when you're away from your phone and you return to it. You can see if you have any missed notifications without waking the phone.
And 9 times out of 10... the front of the phone is most visible... not the back. That's why manufacturers have historically put the notification light on the front of the phone.
All Apple did was repurpose the camera flash into a makeshift notification light... which happens to be on the back of the phone. That doesn't mean notification lights belong on the back. What Apple did was an anomaly.
Almost every other smartphone that has a notification light has it on the front.
I owned an Android back in 2009 and loved the red light that flashed when I had a missed call. I've gotten used to grabbing my phone to check for missed calls over the years but I'm still baffled why Apple hasn't incorporated this light notification feature into the iPhone. It would be so simple, and you could turn it off if you had no use for it.
Any thoughts on why they haven't?
That’s Android nonsense. No one is going to remember that. There’s a reason the 3rd gen iPod shuffle flopped.