New message lane notification

[fschaap]

See the screenshot. I would really like to see someting like a "new message lane notification" or "new message lane indicator" that shows you if a lane has new messages.

Right now you only see if there are new messages in a lane when you are actually in the lane: the blue pop-up bar at the top.

When you have a lot of lanes (e.g. when you have a lot of lists), then it would be useful to only scroll the 'lane tabs' and enter those lanes that have new messages.

This is the thing I really like about Tweetdeck: it's got the bullets at the top of the screen, indicating your columns and if a column has new messages, the bullet is highlighted. You immediately see how many and which columns there are with new messages.

Never mind my professional image editing skills, you get the point: on the left an indicator showing the number of messages, on the right just a simple visual indicator that the lane has new messages.

[Fammy]

This is a great idea.

[garrett]

Badge numbers add visual clutter to the interface and are quite distracting. Also, when the state changes, it causes a jarring shift in size.

It would be nice to step back a little and rethink the UI of TweetLanes to consider how best to convey information, including new information updates.

For the time being, doesn't Android itself provide a way to notify you (if you want to be notified)? :wink:

[fschaap]

Well, this idea of a visual indicator for a lane that has new messages was derived from the way Tweetdeck very succinctly shows which columns have new messages.

Android has default notifications, but as far as I have been able to ascertain, Tweetlanes does not use the default Android notifications functionality. Or does it?

I figured that Tweet lanes does not yet use the default notification system was because it simply had not been implemented. Should I add a ticket for implementing default Android notification?

With or without UI rethink, I think it would be nice to have some indicator to show which lanes have new activity.

[ghost]

Well, it doesn't have to be a number indicator, it could just highlight/underline the tab in a different color.

[BlythMeister]

This is a great idea. One thing (even with just 3 lanes) i find annoying is that i keep missing stuff. not sure the best way to implement without it being too much.

[jamesduffy]

I think for this to be easier it might benefit looking into different layouts. Maybe adding a drawer like the new Gmail? Then we can even show multiple accounts at once.