provide an API to specify multiple types of notifications

[elementaryBot]

Something I've noticed lately is that some apps still have notifications settings because they offer multiple types of notifications.

We need to provide an API and come up with a design for developers to expose multiple types of notifications and still have them configured in the system notification settings area.

Launchpad Details: #LP1473609 Daniel Fore - 2015-07-11 02:48:02 +0000

[elementaryBot]

What exactly do you mean...? What kind of setting?

Launchpad Details: #LPC Marcus Wichelmann - 2015-07-11 09:33:13 +0000

[elementaryBot]

Okay, I just saw it on slack.
I think that could be done using plugins too. So we add a plugin api to the notifications-plug and apps can insert their switches using very simple plugins into the settings pages in the plug. How the settings are handled is than completely up to the plugin.

Launchpad Details: #LPC Marcus Wichelmann - 2015-07-11 11:07:33 +0000

[cassidyjames]

An example of this is Android's "notification channels" as of Android 8.0. Each app can define its own arbitrary "channels," and then users can toggle each channel off if they choose. This works well since it's hard to predict which sorts of notifications apps will use, and types that are super relevant to one app might not be relevant to another.

As an example, Lyft might have "Ride" notifications about your trips, "Account" notifications, and "Promo" notifications. If I get any account-related stuff via email and just never want promos, I could toggle those two channels off while still getting urgent ride-related notifications.

I've also seen this used for apps that support multiple accounts. For example, a social media app could create a channel for "@cassidyjames mentions," and one for "@elementary mentions". Then I can choose which notifications to get from the system settings instead of diving into the app settings.

This is helped by being able to long-press a notification in Android and quickly toggle that notification channel off, or dive into the system notification settings for that app all from right there.