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How are active notifications better than a colored LED?

So, I'm just wondering about the advantage of active notifications over a multi-colored LED? I mean, the LED continues to blink without any user intervention, while the active notification requires user intervention to display. Sure, the IR sensors used to wake the device are incredibly useful. It would have been great to have both the IR sensors and a LED. Or, are the active notifications shown for an indefinite time until the user acknowledges them?

floepie said:
So, I'm just wondering about the advantage of active notifications over a multi-colored LED? I mean, the LED continues to blink without any user intervention, while the active notification requires user intervention to display. Sure, the IR sensors used to wake the device are incredibly useful. It would have been great to have both the IR sensors and a LED. Or, are the active notifications shown for an indefinite time until the user acknowledges them?
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My (admittedly non scientific) experience indicates that the active notifications for email or SMS seems to stop after 15 minutes or so. Of course a wave of the hand shows it again. But I too remain unconvinced of the usefulness vs LED.

OK, maybe an Xposed module could keep those notifications blinking until the user shuts them off. I can easily see this happening.

Well i go back and forth with this issue..
I have the Z2 and new moto x, and before i was using nexus 5 and motoX , and cant tell you which one is better for sure.. When i use the muti colored led phone, i miss the active notifications, and the opposite when i use the active notifications . With led setup , you still have to touch to know what is it , even if you know that the color green for eg. is for sms. and yellow for em-mail. Same goes for active notifications, you see the icon on the screen representing the app that has a notification and still have to touch for more details, often for me the details are not helpfull , i still have to unlock and pull down the notification bar to see what is about. And with led , you dont have to look more carefully at the screen to see what app is, you can see the color by far or with your peripheral vision .
Well, i still think that the popup notification with android L and the iphone are better for me, but they end up calling to much attention to the screen when you receive a message , so it's not discreet like a led or active notification and people around will look every time something appear.

It doesn't require user interaction, it shows up when you get a new notification and go away after a while, which then you can still show it again with a wave.
Notification LED doesn't allow you to quickly read part of read the text message or see who it's coming from (unless you use LightFlow and set a specific color and pattern for each person, and I'm not going to go to that length to manually adjust and remember all that), which is the point of Active Display.
It's better in it's own way, RGB LED have it's own advantages, they are different things. If you prefer RGB LED, buy a Nexus.

The answer is rather simple actually. Active Display is not better than a coloured LED notification.
With LEDs you can set different colours for different purposes, which are cool, and the most advantageous thing is you can see it from distance.
With Active Display people generally say that you can see the incoming text or a missed call info just by tapping on the icon, true, but how many times do you not unlock the device actually? I at least do it all time. So if you are actually unlocking the device most times then what's the benefit of having Active Display over LED? None, at least that's what I think.
When I came to Moto X (2013) from S4, I loved the Active Display, I am not saying that I don't now, but as of this moment I don't find this option as useful as LED notifications, not at all.

Led Notification or Moto Screen ?

know that the Nexus 6 will have a Amoled screen, but the notifications be equal Moto X (moto screen pulsating) or notification led like the Nexus 5?

I'm wondering about the notification LED myself. It has always been a staple of nexus devices, but it doesn't seem like this one is going to have it. Motorola is more prone to waking the screen when a notification is received rather than LEDs. I think, with great disappointment, that this iteration of the Nexus won't have an LED notification light.
Although I have no knowledge or proof and hoping someone can confirm or deny.

I was just going to post a thread asking the same question. Does anyone know if the N6 will have the active display like the Moto X? Where you can say commands and have it answer you back etc etc...

I heard that android L introduces "OK google" with the screen off on nexus 6, along with some level of screen notifications

rapha.194 said:
know that the Nexus 6 will have a Amoled screen, but the notifications be equal Moto X (moto screen pulsating) or notification led like the Nexus 5?
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I hope that it will have an notification LED. If not, it will be one more reasen that i (may be) don´t buy it.

What I remember reading about the guy on G+ who was a device tester for the N6 there is no notification LED. Instead we will have a variant of the "Active Notifications" screen.
While this may be disappointing to some out there I am not surprised they went this way not because of the AMOLED display, but because of Android Wear being pushed out to the market to the point where we have headware, watches, hell even jewelry capable of notification alarms making the notification LED almost obsolete these days. Hell the only time I ever see my LED work is when its charging/low batt/full battery. I will not miss it too much.

I think the LED is more anonymous, so i like this much more.
The other question is, which one takes more accumulator? The LED or the active display (AMOLED)

this is such a disappointment, i rely heavily on the LED, it's much less time consuming, just look at the light, no need to push the power button.

Koolieman20 said:
this is such a disappointment, i rely heavily on the LED, it's much less time consuming, just look at the light, no need to push the power button.
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If its some sort of active display notification there won't be a need to press a button either. It'll just flash a few pixels on your screen with better information as to what type of notification.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

biggiestuff said:
If its some sort of active display notification there won't be a need to press a button either. It'll just flash a few pixels on your screen with better information as to what type of notification.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk
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Constantly like LED or when you wave?

borchgrevink said:
Constantly like LED or when you wave?
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They call it "breathing". It's not as rapid as a led light but it's still low power consumption because it only uses a few pixels to light up the notification and it uses the lower power core on the processor so it's not waking the phone. Not sure if it's going to be the same like on the motos but if it is, I'd prefer it over led notification light.
Sent from my XT1053 using Tapatalk

http://www.androidpolice.com/2014/1...bient-display-personalized-take-moto-display/

I have a Moto 360 so neither really concerns me, but if I didn't I'd rather have use of the Moto Active screen than a notification LED.

Hmm, seems like a step back to me. LED keeps battery usage to a minimum, and is always visible. This only lights up when lifted or new notification. I like coming into the room and seeing the LED blink different colours for different notifications.

borchgrevink said:
Hmm, seems like a step back to me. LED keeps battery usage to a minimum, and is always visible. This only lights up when lifted or new notification. I like coming into the room and seeing the LED blink different colours for different notifications.
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This. Exactly! And from my understanding (at least on the Moto x) you can't change colors of the notifications. So you won't be able to tell from a distance.

Pretty sure that there's tons of AMOLED apps that let you choose custom notifications on the screen, at least from what I remember when I had a GNex. The other benefit of that method is you can display multiple notifications at once.
I still prefer the dedicated LED though, seems to be brighter and visible from further away. Also power use is lower, and the general consensus is AMOLED notifications should be 'bounced' around to various spots to avoid burn-in, which makes it a bit annoying.

SenK9 said:
Pretty sure that there's tons of AMOLED apps that let you choose custom notifications on the screen, at least from what I remember when I had a GNex..
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Yeah, the LED on Nexus 5, with "Lightflow", saved my mental sanity a thousand time.
Someone knows a good app like that for Amoled screen?
I want to be prepared...

Gil. said:
Yeah, the LED on Nexus 5, with "Lightflow", saved my mental sanity a thousand time.
Someone knows a good app like that for Amoled screen?
I want to be prepared...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lightflow was a nightmare half the time with the LED, sometimes it works when it wants to work and other times it just does what it wants.
I had to eventually disable the notification LED's all except for low battery, charging and Full battery. Those were the only ones that were not problematic (most of the time).

Dr Faustus said:
Lightflow was a nightmare half the time with the LED, sometimes it works when it wants to work and other times it just does what it wants.
I had to eventually disable the notification LED's all except for low battery, charging and Full battery. Those were the only ones that were not problematic (most of the time).
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Strange, never happened to me.
For me that app was a savior!
I hope I'll find a good competitor for AMOled.

I am sure given time developers will be able to find and mod the "Ambient Display" System to do anything you want it to. Hell if we are lucky and get an Xposed for ART support we will certainly see an xposed module to take full advantage of it.

Notifications related questions from a new buyer perspective

Hi folks!
I am considering to buy Moto X (1st gen, smaller is better for me) but have couple of questions regarding how notifications are handled on the custom ROMs.
I am so used to seeing my notifications on LED panels on both Xperia SP and Xperia Ray. I can not live without them. LED notifications help me to see what kind of notifications are pending and accordingly I decide whether to pick up the phone or not.
Regarding Moto X with custom ROMs:
1. Can I see notifications without speaking and without touching the phone? I see it has Active Display feature, how long it lits the display after notification is received?
2. Can the LED on Moto X be used for notifications and configured different colors for each notification?
Little offtopic: How is the camera? You like it?
Thanks.

1. Search for Moto X active display on YouTube. Best to see it in action for yourself. I don't miss having a notification LED at all because I don't have to power the screen on to see what my notifications are.
2. No, there's a thread regarding the LED.
3. I'm fine with it, but I don't expect iPhone quality pictures.

nhizzat said:
1. Search for Moto X active display on YouTube. Best to see it in action for yourself. I don't miss having a notification LED at all because I don't have to power the screen on to see what my notifications are.
2. No, there's a thread regarding the LED.
3. I'm fine with it, but I don't expect iPhone quality pictures.
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1. I have seen the video but I could not figure out how long the notification would be displayed on the screen. When I work, I put the phone at the side on my desk and check it only when there is any notification. Suppose that a SMS arrived and screen lit up with the notification but due to work, I did not notice that I have a new SMS. After some time say, 10 minutes, I glance at the screen (without touching). Will I see the notification on the screen in this case? Currently I glance at the blinking LED and then I know there is something and only after that I pick up the phone to check notification. I hope that I was clear. Could you please clarify this?
2. I will check the LED thread.
3. Yes, I am not expecting much

Waving your hand over the screen or gently rocking the phone will activate active/Moto display. I've never timed the frequency of the notifications but I'd say it's about as often as a notification LED. With this, you won't have to pick up your phone to check because you'll know exactly what's waiting.

nhizzat said:
Waving your hand over the screen or gently rocking the phone will activate active/Moto display. I've never timed the frequency of the notifications but I'd say it's about as often as a notification LED. With this, you won't have to pick up your phone to check because you'll know exactly what's waiting.
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Thanks for the reply. What I am looking for is, with the glance only I should be able to tell that the notification is waiting. So, waving or picking up the phone to see notifications is not what I expect to do. Looks like active display is not what I thought it would be

If there is a new notification and you were not there to notice it, the screen will light up enough pixels periodically to inform you of the new notification(s). It will pulse on periodically and is noticeable in your peripheral vision. These active notifications are controlled by a low energy processor core and take less energy than a constantly blinking notification led. You can get very valuable info from the active notifications without turning on the screen, the notifications only use a few hundred pixels, whereas you have to turn on the whole screen to see what's up with a notification led. I was leery of the lack of a notification led, but now I greatly prefer the active notifications and will look for that feature on my next phone.

Groid said:
If there is a new notification and you were not there to notice it, the screen will light up enough pixels periodically to inform you of the new notification(s). It will pulse on periodically and is noticeable in your peripheral vision. These active notifications are controlled by a low energy processor core and take less energy than a constantly blinking notification led. You can get very valuable info from the active notifications without turning on the screen, the notifications only use a few hundred pixels, whereas you have to turn on the whole screen to see what's up with a notification led. I was leery of the lack of a notification led, but now I greatly prefer the active notifications and will look for that feature on my next phone.
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This is perfectly explained, kudos to you! Thank you very much.

enli said:
Thanks for the reply. What I am looking for is, with the glance only I should be able to tell that the notification is waiting. So, waving or picking up the phone to see notifications is not what I expect to do. Looks like active display is not what I thought it would be
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Also, the notification will flash about every 5 seconds and will be illuminated for about 2 seconds. I think it slows down after a while

[Q] Which is preferred for missed notifications- LED or Active Display?

Thinking about getting a Droid Turbo but not sure about the notifications....I currently have a Note 2 and I really like having a front LED for missed notifications. I am not sure if I would notice active display as quickly or not. I thought I would ask and get some opinions on which is preferred(if had the choice of both).

I do miss my led but I've had one since the Droid X. So far Its something to get used to for me. If you aren't sure you can just wave your hand over it. I wasn't sure about it but I'll give the blinkey light up for the performance I have now over my old S4

Honestly the active display is awesome but to disable it when driving because it tends to keep turning on without any notification when on my gps mount but for me it's no big deal. The active display won't affect battery much since this is a amoled display and only the needed pixels (white ones) light off and the rest are completely off.
---------- Post added at 10:20 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:17 PM ----------
http://m.androidcentral.com/inside-moto-x-active-display

I watched a video of it for Moto X and the strobe rate does not seem to be often enough for me. Is it adjustable to where the notification can just stay on the screen instead of strobe? I check my current phone with only a brief glance for LED notifications, and I would surely mess the notification on active display if it's in between strobes.

dman777 said:
I watched a video of it for Moto X and the strobe rate does not seem to be often enough for me. Is it adjustable to where the notification can just stay on the screen instead of strobe? I check my current phone with only a brief glance for LED notifications, and I would surely mess the notification on active display if it's in between strobes.
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Is this why my screen seems to blink intermittently? It doesn't even seem to have a pattern... It's not like "regular"... omg, I want to disable this so bad!!! Definitely horrible when driving and mounting the phone in a mount. It's irritating and distracting.
I guess that I never noticed that there was no more LED to blink!

I missed having an LED at first, but the active display functionality has grown on my like a tumor! LOL!

PerCompLLC said:
I missed having an LED at first, but the active display functionality has grown on my like a tumor! LOL!
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Same here! It's just so awesome! For me it's better because it's as if the led were on because of the amoled display.

wadamean said:
Same here! It's just so awesome! For me it's better because it's as if the led were on because of the amoled display.
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What do you do when you have it laying on a desk/table and you glance over and miss the notification because it was at the moment that it was faded out?

dman777 said:
What do you do when you have it laying on a desk/table and you glance over and miss the notification because it was at the moment that it was faded out?
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Jiggle,move it, flip it, etc. It senses movement as well.
Sent from my XT1254 using XDA Free mobile app

dman777 said:
What do you do when you have it laying on a desk/table and you glance over and miss the notification because it was at the moment that it was faded out?
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That's true and simple just wave you hand close to the screen or any movement really turns on active display. The notification doesn't go away until you have gone to the specified app to see what it was

dman777 said:
What do you do when you have it laying on a desk/table and you glance over and miss the notification because it was at the moment that it was faded out?
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just put your hand near it, you don't even have to touch it. The notifications will light up. Unless I am doing it wrong, it would be nice if I could touch that notification icon and swipe and it took me to it.

Here's how I usually operate...my phone is always on my desk or on my couch face up....without me touching it. How can I make it to where if I glance over at it without touching the phone or waving my hand over it where I can see the notification without staring at it? Is there a way to make the notifications on the screen stay on without fading in/out? With the speed it fades in/out, I know I will miss a notification while it's faded out.

just put your hand near it, you don't even have to touch it. The notifications will light up. Unless I am doing it wrong, it would be nice if I could touch that notification icon and swipe and it took me to it.
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You have to touch and hold the notification icon and slide up. That will open whatever application the notification is for.

I just went from note 2 to droid turbo 2. I miss the led light. I am a mom and sometimes I let my 3 years old play game on my phone while I shop. The led light let me know someone is trying to reach me. I can not tell anymore with droid turbo 2 because of no LED light. And, I still haven't found moto display useful. My husband noticed I don't response fast enough since the new phone. The note 2 and turbo 2 are are almost same size so I do not carry my phone in my pocket often because it is uncomfortable and sometimes even fall out of my pocket when I am cleaning, carrying dealing with my kids, so I like to lay it down and look across the room for the LED light. I am severe to profound hearing loss in both ears and wear cochlear implant so when i am not wearing it, i like to see the notifcation across the room.
I am giving my husband the turbo 2 (I could return it but he wants it). I going to get a phone with a led light.

we actually do have an led light near the front facing camera, but i have no idea how to activate it and it doesnt seem to be used by any app. ive seen it come on twice but idk why it came on. it happened while on the charger and it turned green.

Active Display all the way, hate LED lights.

I think you can get the led to work with some combo of light flow and xposed. It also is used by default with RR. I'm torn on which I like. I liked active display on stock, but it doesn't seem to work as well on non stock based ROMs. I've been using the LED, but it doesn't really blink, it just stays on solid when I have a notification.

[Q] Turning on that notification light.

Has anyone managed to get this working with root? Lightflow does not appear to be doing anything for me.

aka848 said:
Has anyone managed to get this working with root? Lightflow does not appear to be doing anything for me.
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The Droid Turbo does not have a notification light thats what moto display is for. the Green LED is a low power indicator to show the device battery is so low that it cant do anything but power an led to let people know 1) its not broken and 2) to charge the phone. (I work at bbym and our live demos are never charged when people are done demoing them)
I dont think the LED is gonna be useful anyways because its only one color...... and with moto display showing notification symbols and the time I don't know why you would want to use the led
Sorry to be a negative nancy but I wouldn't be surprised if that led isnt even controlled by the system. but plenty of smarter people have figured out things that others said impossible :good:

Diego1751 said:
The Droid Turbo does not have a notification light thats what moto display is for. the Green LED is a low power indicator to show the device battery is so low that it cant do anything but power an led to let people know 1) its not broken and 2) to charge the phone. (I work at bbym and our live demos are never charged when people are done demoing them)
I dont think the LED is gonna be useful anyways because its only one color...... and with moto display showing notification symbols and the time I don't know why you would want to use the led
Sorry to be a negative nancy but I wouldn't be surprised if that led isnt even controlled by the system. but plenty of smarter people have figured out things that others said impossible :good:
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The Nexus 6 has the same functionality on an RGB LED, there is no way of knowing that the turbo is green only. As much as I appreciate Moto display sometimes an led is just better, for instance when wirelessly charging having the led turn on when the battery is full, or just in general blinking the led when the battery drops below 20%. If I could program the Moto display to my liking I would do that instead but as far as I can tell there is no way to modify that at this time.

aka848 said:
Has anyone managed to get this working with root? Lightflow does not appear to be doing anything for me.
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aka848 said:
The Nexus 6 has the same functionality on an RGB LED, there is no way of knowing that the turbo is green only. As much as I appreciate Moto display sometimes an led is just better, for instance when wirelessly charging having the led turn on when the battery is full, or just in general blinking the led when the battery drops below 20%. If I could program the Moto display to my liking I would do that instead but as far as I can tell there is no way to modify that at this time.
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fair enough I knew you probably had a valid reason hence the negative nancy thing. Idk im pretty sure this one is only green I think I remember from a tear down of the turbo but I dont remember. I feel like being able to customize moto display would be wayyyyy cooler right? haha hopefully that comes around soon. doesnt acDisplay or dynamicnotifictions or something have an xposed module that makes it like just as good? nvm probably cant use the corner sensors to turn on the screen

Diego1751 said:
doesnt acDisplay or dynamicnotifictions or something have an xposed module that makes it like just as good?
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I literally just got root working, so I have no idea what is even out there to modify Moto display. But the xposed modules I have come across are made to emulate Moto display on other devices, not modify it on Motorola phones.

aka848 said:
I literally just got root working, so I have no idea what is even out there to modify Moto display. But the xposed modules I have come across are made to emulate Moto display on other devices, not modify it on Motorola phones.
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read my edit unless they work with the sensors its not even worth it moto display on the turbo and Moto x 2014 is a BILLION times better than on the first moto x and boy I thought it was great when it first came out lol now i reach for my google play edition tablet all the time and expect it to turn on lol

I use the green led on my Moto Maxx to indicate when it is charging. When I place it on a wireless charger it lights up, when the charging is done it turns off. I set it to be quite dim so it isn't annoying in the dark.

Steve-x said:
I use the green led on my Moto Maxx to indicate when it is charging. When I place it on a wireless charger it lights up, when the charging is done it turns off. I set it to be quite dim so it isn't annoying in the dark.
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How did you get it working?

I got it working. In light flow turn on all of the root related settings and go into an any notification and turn on the charging led.. But it happens to make the screen a top turning on.

aka848 said:
How did you get it working?
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I use an app created for the Moto X 2013. I was not able to get the LED to flash with the Moto Maxx or 2014 Moto X but it turns on/off just fine. It needs root of course.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/moto-x/themes-apps/app-moto-x-charging-led-control-tasker-t2602689

Steve-x said:
I use an app created for the Moto X 2013. I was not able to get the LED to flash with the Moto Maxx or 2014 Moto X but it turns on/off just fine. It needs root of course.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/moto-x/themes-apps/app-moto-x-charging-led-control-tasker-t2602689
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Thanks! That works perfectly.

aka848 said:
I got it working. In light flow turn on all of the root related settings and go into an any notification and turn on the charging led.. But it happens to make the screen a top turning on.
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makes the screen stop turning on?