Custom Notifications Idea for Hub

I literally had this thought in the shower, so call it an actual showerthought lol.

Anyway, we all pine for all-encompassing notifications to show up in the Hub like it was in BB10. So I wondered, just as how the system receives notifications and displays them in the notification tray, can they tweak Hub so that it can capture that notification?

In the Hub, we can have an icon (like a bell ;) ) and assign it to an app that receives notifications and has them appear in the tray. So whenever that alert comes, instead of showing in the tray it will be "captured" by the bell icon and show up in the Hub instead!

This would be great if you have any icon packs, and you can set the bell to look like any app you want so it actually looks like a real notification came from the app and is integrated into Hub just like email, Facebook, Whatsapp, etc.

So isn't this kind of idea very possible to implement? Any people with BB Android OS expertise care to chime in if this is achievable, or is it a kind of "if it was that doable it would have existed already"?

Originally Posted by skinnymike1

I literally had this thought in the shower, so call it an actual showerthought lol.

Anyway, we all pine for all-encompassing notifications to show up in the Hub like it was in BB10. So I wondered, just as how the system receives notifications and displays them in the notification tray, can they tweak Hub so that it can capture that notification?

In the Hub, we can have an icon (like a bell ;) ) and assign it to an app that receives notifications and has them appear in the tray. So whenever that alert comes, instead of showing in the tray it will be "captured" by the bell icon and show up in the Hub instead!

This would be great if you have any icon packs, and you can set the bell to look like any app you want so it actually looks like a real notification came from the app and is integrated into Hub just like email, Facebook, Whatsapp, etc.

So isn't this kind of idea very possible to implement? Any people with BB Android OS expertise care to chime in if this is achievable, or is it a kind of "if it was that doable it would have existed already"?

I don't understand. Any message you see in Hub originate from the OS Notification Tray to begin with.

Are you saying recall the tray from Hub? If so, that's impossible to do after a message was cleared.

Originally Posted by RK_BB

I don't understand. Any message you see in Hub originate from the OS Notification Tray to begin with.

Are you saying recall the tray from Hub? If so, that's impossible to do after a message was cleared.

That's my point entirely. There are still tons of apps that don't appear as a notification in the Hub unlike in BB10 where every Android app had a "bell" notification in the Hub. I know because there is still no notification representation for YouTube, Waze, Spotify, SoundCloud, my art apps (like PicsArt), and a whole host of other apps in the Hub.

This way, the Hub can capture all other notification tray alerts and display them in the Hub (as a bell or any sort icon the user wishes to choose).

Originally Posted by skinnymike1

That's my point entirely. There are still tons of apps that don't appear as a notification in the Hub unlike in BB10 where every Android app had a "bell" notification in the Hub. I know because there are still no notification representation for Waze, Spotify, SoundCloud, my art apps (like PicsArt), and a whole host of other apps in the Hub.

This way, the Hub can capture all other notification tray alerts and display them in the Hub (as a bell or any sort icon the user wishes to choose).

And what purpose would the Hub entry serve after the notification was dismissed?

Every entry in Hub is a gateway to the message. What purpose would the "Bell" serve if said notification cannot be recalled into the Notification Shade by tapping "Bell"?

Originally Posted by RK_BB

And what purpose would the Hub entry serve after the notification was dismissed?

Every entry in Hub is a gateway to the message. What purpose would the "Bell" serve if said notification cannot be recalled into the Notification Shade by tapping "Bell"?

The purpose of the "bell" icon is just a stand-in icon to represent any notification received by an app, just like it was in BB10. Tapping on the notification would take you to the app to read it just like for any other notification from Whatsapp, Facebook, Messenger, Twitter, etc.

This is basically a way to funnel all notification tray alerts into the Hub and have everything consolidated into one location. Swiping on a notification in the Hub would have the same effect as doing it for any other notification already integrated in it.

Originally Posted by skinnymike1

The purpose of the "bell" icon is just a stand-in icon to represent any notification received by an app, just like it was in BB10. Tapping on the notification would take you to the app to read it just like for any other notification from Whatsapp, Facebook, Messenger, Twitter, etc.

This is basically a way to funnel all notification tray alerts into the Hub and have everything consolidated into one location. Swiping on a notification in the Hub would have the same effect as doing it for any other notification already integrated in it.

So the "bell" will simply take you to the app, not the the message within the app.

Yes?

Originally Posted by RK_BB

So the "bell" will simply take you to the app, not the the message within the app.

Yes?

It would perform the same function as whatever tapping on the notification in the tray for that particular app would do. If its function is to take you to the message within the app, like Messenger, sure. If it takes you to the notification or the app itself, like Facebook, then fine. It all depends on the notification itself.

And it's an option for you to integrate an app in the Hub. If you still want to have it appear from the shade, then that's fine. Just a customization option suggestion.

Originally Posted by skinnymike1

It would perform the same function as whatever tapping on the notification in the tray for that particular app would do. If its function is to take you to the message within the app, like Messenger, sure. If it takes you to the notification or the app itself, like Facebook, then fine. It all depends on the notification itself.

And it's an option for you to integrate an app in the Hub. If you still want to have it appear from the shade, then that's fine. Just a customization option suggestion.

That's impossible to do. Hub on Android only integrate messaging apps for which BlackBerry designed the integration specifically.

In other words, in order for it to fully integrate with any app the integration needs to be built by BlackBerry and we cannot expect them to build integration for any app in Play Store.

Unlike BB10 where BlackBerry mandated app developers to integrate with their OS of which Hub was an integral part of, Android app developers does not have that requirement and therefore BlackBerry has to find ways to 'call them' into Hub.

The dream would be that BlackBerry Hub+ Suite will grow big enough that app developers will open an API to allow in-line integration but that is so far fetched and entirely against Android / Play Store economics.

Originally Posted by RK_BB

That's impossible to do. Hub on Android only integrate messaging apps for which BlackBerry designed the integration specifically.

In other words, in order for it to fully integrate with any app the integration needs to be built by BlackBerry and we cannot expect them to build integration for any app in Play Store.

Unlike BB10 where BlackBerry mandated app developers to integrate with their OS of which Hub was an integral part of, Android app developers does not have that requirement and therefore BlackBerry has to find ways to 'call them' into Hub.

The dream would be that BlackBerry Hub+ Suite will grow big enough that app developers will open an API to allow in-line integration but that is so far fetched and entirely against Android / Play Store economics.

Well I find that strange. Why was this not the case for BB10 with the Android runtime, where any Android apps that were sideloaded would have its notifications appear in the Hub? With this being basically as Android as you can be for BB Android, I thought it would be easier to integrate this option.
There should be a way for the Hub to capture those tray notifications and just have them appear without needing developer support.

Originally Posted by skinnymike1

Well I find that strange. Why was this not the case for BB10 with the Android runtime, where any Android apps that were sideloaded would have its notifications appear in the Hub? With this being basically as Android as you can be for BB Android, I thought it would be easier to integrate this option.
There should be a way for the Hub to capture those tray notifications and just have them appear without needing developer support.

They could appear in Hub, yes but they won't be functional once dismissed. It will simply become a useless Hub entry.

Originally Posted by RK_BB

They could appear in Hub, yes but they won't be functional once dismissed. It will simply become a useless Hub entry.

Hmmm. So basically if I tapped on them in the Hub, they would be functionless?

Originally Posted by skinnymike1

Hmmm. So basically if I tapped on them in the Hub, they would be functionless?

Unless there was a fully featured integration developed by BlackBerry, once the notification is dismissed they would become exactly that, functionless.

Originally Posted by RK_BB

They could appear in Hub, yes but they won't be functional once dismissed. It will simply become a useless Hub entry.

Must confess that I too struggle to understand that - while my K1 was in works (again!) for repairs, I was using the old Classic with apps sideloaded directly from Google Play, and the alerts generated by those Android apps did indeed appear in the Hub with full functionality, in what I think is exactly the was the OP describes. So for example, if I was following a navigation track in OsmAnd, the notification to that effect would be in the Hub, and if I selected that notification it would take me into OsmAnd just as an tapping an Android notification would do. Similarly, I'd get a Hub notification to tell me when my Czech Railways journey planner was downloading new timetables - and so on. No idea if that necessarily does mean that what the OP suggests would be possible in Android, but I'm mindful that the Google Play apps I'm describing were written without, of course, any reference to Blackberry and no intention that they should work on BB OS10.

Just a thought - I'm not for a moment suggesting you're wrong: I'm not knowledgeable enough to say!

Originally Posted by RK_BB

Unless there was a fully featured integration developed by BlackBerry, once the notification is dismissed they would become exactly that, functionless.

Well it sounds like they would be functional for at least one press, which is all that's needed.

Originally Posted by 37201xoIM

Must confess that I too struggle to understand that - while my K1 was in works (again!) for repairs, I was using the old Classic with apps sideloaded directly from Google Play, and the alerts generated by those Android apps did indeed appear in the Hub with full functionality, in what I think is exactly the was the OP describes. So for example, if I was following a navigation track in OsmAnd, the notification to that effect would be in the Hub, and if I selected that notification it would take me into OsmAnd just as an tapping an Android notification would do. Similarly, I'd get a Hub notification to tell me when my Czech Railways journey planner was downloading new timetables - and so on. No idea if that necessarily does mean that what the OP suggests would be possible in Android, but I'm mindful that the Google Play apps I'm describing were written without, of course, any reference to Blackberry and no intention that they should work on BB OS10.

Just a thought - I'm not for a moment suggesting you're wrong: I'm not knowledgeable enough to say!

That's exactly what I'm saying, you're right.