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MobileNotifier dramatically improves iOS push notifications, requires jailbroken device
One of the things that, while not broken, but surely ripe for some improvements in future iOS versions, is the notification system. Not the idea itself, which is great, but the way that notifications interrupt anything you're doing and demand your immediate attention -- unless you dismiss them, which means you may never remember that you've received a particular message.
MobileNotifier aims to fix that, being an open-source rewrite of the iOS notification system. And yes, it only works on jailbroken devices. Don't blame its developer for that though, blame Apple's tight control of its mobile platform.
If you do have a jailbroken iDevice then, MobileNotifier adds rather unobtrusive alerts that show up at the top of whatever it is you're doing (not in the middle of the screen, stealing focus, like the default behavior). However, while MobileNotifier alerts do allow you to simply ignore them and continue with what you were doing, the top part of the app you're in will become slightly unusable -- such as that top row of app icons in the example shown above.
Pending alerts are always found in the AlertDashboard, which shows up in the previously unused space above the app switcher that you can access with a double-tap on the Home button (see above right). Pending alert counts also show up as a one-line item on the lockscreen.
MobileNotifier is by no means perfect, and it's still in beta, but it's still miles ahead of the default notification implementation in iOS 4, at least in terms of features. Of course, every iOS device user out there is hoping that iOS 5 will have a revamped notification system. But in the mean time, if you've jailbroken your iPhone, give MobileNotifier a try. You can get it by adding this repo to Cydia. A demo video of MobileNotifier beta 3 is after the break.
Comments
4
Subscribe to commentsxxdesmusFeb 28th 2011 2:48PM
Or get a notification system that isn't horribly intrusive like Mobile Notifier (or Apple's default system).
Lockinfo (and the Infoshade that works in just about ever app) works for all my notifications. BiteSMS works work all texting -- I can write or reply to a text for any app. The beauty of this combination is that it stays out of the way until you want to deal with the notifications. They stay there until you deal with them or dismiss them -- it is the best of both worlds.
Mobile Notifier is intrusive and ugly. It's in the way when you're trying to use other apps, and the double tap home history area is ugly and doesn't actually solve the problem.
Sgt ZeppelinFeb 28th 2011 4:39PM
I like the creative use of the empty space in the app switcher, but wish it looked more like Notified: http://notifiedapp.com/ and gave the option for status bar notifications.
MxxConFeb 28th 2011 10:44PM
it looks like a great app.
lockinfo and infoshade mentioned seem to be designed for handling notification when looking at a lock screen. however this app handles them when you are actively using the phone...
if i'm in the middle of writing an email and i get a notification, currently i can either close that notification and potentially forget what it was about or i can switch to the affected app and handle it, risking losing my email's train of thought..
with this app i can send notification to the background and deal with it/them once i'm ready.
my question is how compatible is this app with the rest of iOS ecosystem and if something goes wrong, how cleanly does it to uninstall/remove? i hope i won't have to do full wipe/restore just to remove this app..
MalteMar 3rd 2011 4:00AM
I think since I installed mobilenotifier my iphone does not ring or vibrate on incoming calls. It shows the call on the screen but no sound or vibration (on both activated and non-activated mute-switch).
I deinstalled mobilenotifier by now but the problem did not change.
Did you hear anything about similar issues?