Improved notification options for messenging services (eg whatsapp)
Several key features could be added:
- Expandable/collapsible notifications
- Accounting for old messages
- Accounting for repeat messages within x minutes.
1 and 2 kind of go together, and would emulate current android notification systems. On android, using WhatsApp as an example: WhatsApp can show, "You have x messages from y conversations" and under that, lists the first line of each conversation, up to 4 conversations.
On Join currently, all messages are notified when the notification is 'refreshed'. Eg. Imagine I have A and B with unread messages. When C messages me with their first message, A and B both pop up on my Chrome notifier (still on windows 7), together with C's single message. When C sends a second message, A, B, and C's messages get a notification. This results in lots of notifications popping up and moving around.
This could be ideally improved as such:
- Implement a collapsible notification system for old messages. (It is still useful to be notified of old messages).
- Allow old messages to be grouped in collapsed notification, but allow the new notification to show as it currently does. (that is, you will receive a collapsed notification, and above it, the new message box, which refreshes as the new messages come in.
This could be improved again by implementing 3. In fact, implementing 3 would probably solve a lot of the current issues, so it may actually be the solution.
If Join can recognise notification contents and if it can recognise notifications that have not changed, then there can be an option not to show those notifications if repeated within x minutes. This means:
- Old notifications will not be shown, removing clutter.
- New notifications will still be refreshed properly.
- Depending on the user allotted time for x, they can choose to be reminded of old unseen messages frequently or never.
Huge quality of life improvements if this could be done!