Make notifications easier to figure out while the phone is in your pocket

[Patrick]

I get all sorts of noises when "things happen" on my phone.
Sometimes the phone is in my hands but often it's out of sight.

All I get is a blip or a ding or a bong or a cling for a noise.
Then I have to open the phone and search all over for why.

Is there a way to get the notifications to speak out what they are?

For example, maybe it would say "you've got mail" or "you've got text", or
even better "you've got text from your mother" or something descriptive?

For apps, it could say "Your maps app has sent you a notification", or
something descriptive that points to something with that specific app.

How many different kinds of notifications are there anyway?

I know there's a history at Settings > Notifications > History but what I'm
looking for is a real time verbal indication of the notification while the
phone is still in your pocket or at your side on the desk or table.

I know there's a Settings > Sounds and vibration > Notification sound
but that happens for all notifications - which is relatively useless.

Especially since there's no way to set it to a personal MP3 saying
"You got a text from your mother" (or something verbal like that).

[Robert Roland]

On Sun, 3 Sep 2023 08:11:26 +0800, Patrick <pat...@oleary.com> wrote:

>For example, maybe it would say "you've got mail" or "you've got text", or
>even better "you've got text from your mother" or something descriptive?

The problem with that, is that if there are people around you, they
will also know what's happening.

If you are in a noisy environment, you will not hear what's being
said.

I have one of those smart watches. It will display notifications on
its screen. All you have to do, is to look at your arm.
--
RoRo

[Bob Henson]

I have my phone set to say "You have email" when one arrives, and it can be
done for any app that allows setting its own notification sound. I recorded
my voice saying the message and set Gmail to use that as the notification.
You can even have different ones for different Gmail accounts. If I'm
anywhere where quiet is essential, I can divert all notifications to a
quiet beep on the watch and see who it is on the watch.


--
Bob
Tetbury, Gloucestershire, England

Insanity is hereditary - you get it off your kids!

[Carlos E. R.]

But fast.

If I'm slow, or wearing a jacket that I have to shift, I don't get to
see the text.

There is another problem: I may have the phone in "do not disturb mode",
but the watch vibrates. It can wake me up sometimes. It is a cheap Mi
Smart Band 6.

--
Cheers,
Carlos E.R.

[Frankie]

On 3/9/2023, Bob Henson wrote:

>> Especially since there's no way to set it to a personal MP3 saying
>> "You got a text from your mother" (or something verbal like that).
>
> I have my phone set to say "You have email" when one arrives, and it can be
> done for any app that allows setting its own notification sound. I recorded
> my voice saying the message and set Gmail to use that as the notification.
> You can even have different ones for different Gmail accounts. If I'm
> anywhere where quiet is essential, I can divert all notifications to a
> quiet beep on the watch and see who it is on the watch.

The trick is, as you said, the app (and not the operating system settings),
has to be able to call its own notification messages of "you have text."

There is a great ad-free free "Tell Me" text-to-WAV app that creates them.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.simplycomplexapps.ASTellme

What I do is save those text-to-speech messages to a notifications folder.
Then each app that can be set to a custom notification uses that WAV file.

If the messages is really short, even if I don't catch the message itself,
if it's a woman's voice I know it's text while if it's a man's voice I know
it's email - but if you make the text-to-speech a bit longer, you catch it.

[Bob Henson]

Frankie wrote:

> On 3/9/2023, Bob Henson wrote:
>
>>> Especially since there's no way to set it to a personal MP3 saying
>>> "You got a text from your mother" (or something verbal like that).
>>
>> I have my phone set to say "You have email" when one arrives, and it can be
>> done for any app that allows setting its own notification sound. I recorded
>> my voice saying the message and set Gmail to use that as the notification.
>> You can even have different ones for different Gmail accounts. If I'm
>> anywhere where quiet is essential, I can divert all notifications to a
>> quiet beep on the watch and see who it is on the watch.
>
> The trick is, as you said, the app (and not the operating system settings),
> has to be able to call its own notification messages of "you have text."
>
> There is a great ad-free free "Tell Me" text-to-WAV app that creates them.
> https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.simplycomplexapps.ASTellme
>
> What I do is save those text-to-speech messages to a notifications folder.
> Then each app that can be set to a custom notification uses that WAV file.
>

That's exactly how I do it - quite handy. Inbound phone calls I do with
music usually - if the phone plays "ride of the Valkyries" I know it's
SWMBO. :-)

--
Bob
Tetbury, Gloucestershire, England

Santa Claus has the right idea. Visit people only once a year. - Victor
Borge

[The Real Bev]

If you need reading glasses, this is probably not an optimal solution.

--
Cheers, Bev
When your only tool is a hammer, everything looks like a thumb.

[The Real Bev]

A friend had "Ding dong the witch is dead" for his mother-in-law.

[Frank Slootweg]

Patrick <pat...@oleary.com> wrote:
> I get all sorts of noises when "things happen" on my phone.
> Sometimes the phone is in my hands but often it's out of sight.
>
> All I get is a blip or a ding or a bong or a cling for a noise.
> Then I have to open the phone and search all over for why.

Why do you "have to ... search all over for why"?

Of course you have to 'open' it, assuming that means opening the cover
- if any - or/and switch it 'on' (so the display lights up) and hence it
obviously doesn't work "while the phone is in your pocket", but once
switched 'on', all notifications should be on the Notification Panel,
i.e. the panel you see by sliding down from the top of the screen and
there is no need to search all over for why".

If you get a (audible/vibrating) notification, but the notification is
not listed on the Notification Panel, you need to change the
notification settings for that app to *do* show the notification.

[...]

[Carlos E. R.]

And how do you find that app, if you only heard the notification?


--
Cheers,
Carlos E.R.

[Frank Slootweg]

For many (most? all?) apps there will be an indication on/in the icon
of the app on the Home screen or Apps screen/pages.

But, probably/perhaps depending on your phone, there is/might_be a
notification history.

For example on my Samsung Galaxy A51 (at the moment Android 13, but
probably also on 10/11/12):

Settings -> Notifications -> Advanced settings -> Notification history.

This shows the notification history in date/time order, most recent
first. For example it says that my phone charged at 06:35! :-) It also
shows recent clock, Play Store update, WhatsApp :-), etc., etc.
notifications. And it shows details of the notifications, for example
the text of the WhatsApp message.

Ain't Android (or Samsung?) great! :-)

[Carlos E. R.]

The history is sometimes cryptic to figure out, it may have only the
internal name of the notification.

>
> Ain't Android (or Samsung?) great! :-)

--
Cheers,
Carlos E.R.

[Frank Slootweg]

Well, on my phone it has - *without exception* - the icon or/and the
name of the app which gave the notification. What more could/would one
want?

For example for a no-app-icon case: It says "Google Play Store", gives
a download icon (not the Play Store App icon) and says which (update for
which) app was downloaded.

And for a case of "only the internal name of the notification": The
'internal name' is "System UI", i.e. somewhat unspecific, but the
notification history says "Charging (20 m until full)" and the icon is a
lightning symbol, so it's blatantly clear that this notification is
related to charging and hence to the charging settings.

Doesn't your phone give that kind of information? If not, please give
an example of an unclear/ambiguous entry (in the notification history).

[Wolf Greenblatt]

On 4 Sep 2023 10:35:02 GMT, Frank Slootweg wrote:

> Settings -> Notifications -> Advanced settings -> Notification history.

You can get there with a single tap on an icon put onto your homescreen.

Android 12 Galaxy has this also where a direct shortcut to that page is
com.android.settings/com.android.settings.notification.history.NotificationHistoryActivity

Put that settings shortcut on your homescreen (or in your settings
shortcuts folder) and then it's only a single tap to open it up!

[Bob Henson]

You can say a lot with music - my Dad wanted the organist to play "Rescue
the Perishing" at his wedding but they refused, so he changed religion from
Church of England to golf.

--
Bob
Tetbury, Gloucestershire, England

Barbecue - Food prepared alfresco on a grill in the belief that
salmonella-infected meat cooked in sweat and dead flies is appetising.

[The Real Bev]

Surprised the bride didn't complain.

--
Cheers, Bev
"Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Tell him that the
government will give him lots of fish and he will vote for you
forever.
When he doesn't get any fish, blame the other guys." -A Taxpayer

[Wally J]

Frank Slootweg <th...@ddress.is.invalid> wrote

>> The history is sometimes cryptic to figure out, it may have only the
>> internal name of the notification.
>
> Well, on my phone it has - *without exception* - the icon or/and the
> name of the app which gave the notification. What more could/would one
> want?

See also...

*How to make a one-tap shortcut to your notification history*
<https://groups.google.com/g/comp.mobile.android/c/AkTqfiBUr1I>