Database Develop

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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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

Ambient display and security settings - possible undocumented feature

It appears that ambient display does not work when your screen lock setting is set to None.
I was showing a mate my Nexus 6 yesterday and started playing with a few settings. I noticed that all of a sudden my ambient display stopped working. I did some testing this morning and finally worked it out that when the screen lock setting is set to None, ambient display does not activate. Any notifications that come through stop appearing on the screen. Setting the screen lock setting to anything other than None ensures ambient display works once again.
1. Is this a known feature / situation for the N6 ?
2. Is anyone else experiencing the same behavior or is it just me ?

1. if you dont have a lockscreen then it cant show you notifications on it. duh, lol.
2. we all have known about this since before lollipop came out.

1. I see no reason why a notification could not be shown on the screen using ambient display even if I don't have a lock screen. It is not like I have actually turned the screen on yet.
2. And yet, when I tried searching for an answer to why my ambient display wasn't working, I found no mention of it at all, not in XDA or the web in general.
Thanks for clearing it up for me, it is clearly a feature of the phone.

budorat said:
1. I see no reason why a notification could not be shown on the screen using ambient display even if I don't have a lock screen. It is not like I have actually turned the screen on yet.
2. And yet, when I tried searching for an answer to why my ambient display wasn't working, I found no mention of it at all, not in XDA or the web in general.
Thanks for clearing it up for me, it is clearly a feature of the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if you dont have a lockscreen, then it has nothing to show the incoming message on. if no lockscreen, then it would just show in the status bar.

I understand your point simms22, but I think you may be missing mine. Does it have to be the lock screen that the notification is shown on when it arrives.
For example, msg arrive, screen turns on to show msg. If I do nothing then the screen turns off. If I haven't interacted with the screen, does the notification really need the lock screen to be displayed? I guess that I'm just not convinced that the lock screen is needed to display notifications when I pick my phone up, ie before I touch the screen. If I then interact with a notification then perform the interaction, but if I touch a part of the screen where is no notification, open the device.
The above would be mute if I pick the device up and press the power button to open the home screen.
I guess I look at things a little different, I design systems and interfaces for a living for the Dept of Defence.
I have found that the ambient display does not always activate when I pick the phone up, I'd say its about 90% reliable, have u found the same ?

budorat said:
I understand your point simms22, but I think you may be missing mine. Does it have to be the lock screen that the notification is shown on when it arrives.
For example, msg arrive, screen turns on to show msg. If I do nothing then the screen turns off. If I haven't interacted with the screen, does the notification really need the lock screen to be displayed? I guess that I'm just not convinced that the lock screen is needed to display notifications when I pick my phone up, ie before I touch the screen. If I then interact with a notification then perform the interaction, but if I touch a part of the screen where is no notification, open the device.
The above would be mute if I pick the device up and press the power button to open the home screen.
I guess I look at things a little different, I design systems and interfaces for a living for the Dept of Defence.
I have found that the ambient display does not always activate when I pick the phone up, I'd say its about 90% reliable, have u found the same ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yea, the way the code is written, there needs to be a lock screen to be displayed. i dont really use it anymore, but i found it to be around 90% as well.

Just to re-iterate, Ambient display is displaying the Lockscreen notifications, not SystemUI notifications, so to show the lockscreen notifications, Lockscreen must be on.

budorat said:
It appears that ambient display does not work when your screen lock setting is set to None.
I was showing a mate my Nexus 6 yesterday and started playing with a few settings. I noticed that all of a sudden my ambient display stopped working. I did some testing this morning and finally worked it out that when the screen lock setting is set to None, ambient display does not activate. Any notifications that come through stop appearing on the screen. Setting the screen lock setting to anything other than None ensures ambient display works once again.
1. Is this a known feature / situation for the N6 ?
2. Is anyone else experiencing the same behavior or is it just me ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I totally agree. I upgraded from my 2013 Moto X, with Moto DIsplay, to the N6. I NEVER used a lock screen on the Motox, and enjoyed being able to just glance at the phone to know what was incoming.. its quite annoying that I can no longer get my notifications to show up on my screen without turning the phone on, and pulling the shade down. I'm on the computer all day, and have my phone setup next to me and use it to get a quick view of incoming work emails, with out taking my hands off the keyboard, or even stop typing for that matter.
If I would have known that the N6 was unable to work in this matter I would not have gotten it. I would have gone with the Moto X 2 instead.

Hi guys. Do you know any, preferably minimalistic, screen lock app that is compatible with ambient display? Have tried my fav Zui Locker with no luck.

tr3mm0r said:
Hi guys. Do you know any, preferably minimalistic, screen lock app that is compatible with ambient display? Have tried my fav Zui Locker with no luck.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I dont think it works with any.

That's what I was afraid of. Sticking with stock locker then since I love the new feature.
Sent from my Nexus 6 using XDA Free mobile app

[Q] Adaptive display doesn't work

Is anyone having trouble getting adaptive display to work consistently? It kind of just does it when it wants. Cannot get notifications to display constantly and when picking up phone almost never works.

joshtb86 said:
Is anyone having trouble getting adaptive display to work consistently? It kind of just does it when it wants. Cannot get notifications to display constantly and when picking up phone almost never works.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes. I turned that crap off a long time ago. It improved my batterly life a lot. I'd rather have knock to wake enabled than stupid adaptive display. Or an LED. And to think, Motorola disabled the LED and knock to wake because of Adaptive display and it doesn't even work right!!!!!!!!!!!

blazinazn said:
Yes. I turned that crap off a long time ago. It improved my batterly life a lot. I'd rather have knock to wake enabled than stupid adaptive display. Or an LED. And to think, Motorola disabled the LED and knock to wake because of Adaptive display and it doesn't even work right!!!!!!!!!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i wonder if thats whats causing my battery problems. i turned it off also. does anyone have any ideas for a solution??

joshtb86 said:
i wonder if thats whats causing my battery problems. i turned it off also. does anyone have any ideas for a solution??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm hoping they fix it in the next update? The workaround to get the LED working doesn't seem to be fruitful at this point. Just gotta make due I suppose?

Adaptive display?
Is that some weird hybrid between Adaptive brightness and Active display?
:cyclops:

joshtb86 said:
Is anyone having trouble getting adaptive display to work consistently? It kind of just does it when it wants. Cannot get notifications to display constantly and when picking up phone almost never works.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i have been able to duplicate this behavior by selecting no lock screen. then ambient display seems not to work even if selected to. but when i enable any lock screen it works "almost all" of the time.
do you have a lock screen set? do you use trusted devices etc?

blazinazn said:
I'm hoping they fix it in the next update? The workaround to get the LED working doesn't seem to be fruitful at this point. Just gotta make due I suppose?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am rooted, using light flow and my LEDs work just fine. Albeit, but colors do not seem to mix well. More like three separate LEDs plus a charging led as I understand it.
This is what I followed... Works the bahlzzzz
Can't seem to paste the link. Notification light confirmed byJMUT. In the general section.

lock screen is set on mine.
also use trusted devices.

I use a pattern unlock and my bluetooth headphones are a trusted device. I have no issues with the notification

[Q] Inconsistent Ambient Light (no notification received)

Hi. I was wondering why my ambient display is inconsistently pulsing after i turn off the screen, without having any notifications waiting for me?
Sometimes it pulses more than 10 times when it's laying on the table, but i haven't gotten any new notifications...

Popps said:
Hi. I was wondering why my ambient display is inconsistently pulsing after i turn off the screen, without having any notifications waiting for me?
Sometimes it pulses more than 10 times when it's laying on the table, but i haven't gotten any new notifications...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if you have it enabled, it also turns on when you pick up the device, or move it around. not just when you get notifications.

simms22 said:
if you have it enabled, it also turns on when you pick up the device, or move it around. not just when you get notifications.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I know that, but the ambient display pulses when I'm not touching the phone at all, It's laying completely still.

Popps said:
Yeah, I know that, but the ambient display pulses when I'm not touching the phone at all, It's laying completely still.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
its haunted

Ohnoes!
It's annoying because every time it pulses, I think that i've received a message, or a snap... but nope, nothing :/ just the screen pulsing for no reason

Always On display?

The lack of a front notification light is super inconvenient.. does anyone know of a way to have an always-on display with notifications etc?
Also, I read somewhere that they're working on pie for us, does anyone know details/timeframe?
Thx

Settings->Display->Advanced->Ambient Display.
Not always on but is pretty good. Can be configured to turn on briefly to show notifications

Always on display on an LCD display would be pretty pointless. The battery would drain pretty fast.
For what it's worth the Chroma Logo is what replaced a notification LED just means you have to leave your phone screen down.