Recommend to me a cellphone (running Android I guess, sigh)
-
@sloosecannon said in Recommend to me a cellphone (running Android I guess, sigh):
Yeah, see, there's your issue.
That's what you're supposed to use for content that is some form of... wait for it... notification.I don't want to be "notified" when new emails come in.
I do want to see my number of emails unread at a glance.
I don't give a shit how Google wants me to use my email account.
@sloosecannon said in Recommend to me a cellphone (running Android I guess, sigh):
If you're relying on your unread count to determine if you've got new email, you're using the system in a way it was never intended to be used. Take the 5 seconds it takes to learn how notifications work, and you'll be much better off.
I know how notifications work. I also know that ALL THREE of my email inboxes are glommed together in the notifications, along with a bunch of other shit I don't care about 99% of the time.
Wouldn't it be handy if each email account simply had a number on the icon indicating how many unread messages were in that email account?
Let me guess: you work for Google?
@sloosecannon said in Recommend to me a cellphone (running Android I guess, sigh):
Or just try to force the system to comply with your own made-up requirements. You can do that too, but it won't work very well.
iOS and Windows Phone do it. And I don't have to change any habits to use those.
@sloosecannon said in Recommend to me a cellphone (running Android I guess, sigh):
Also, that's not what a widget is. A widget is an interactive panel you place on the home screen. It can be an icon, but that's not the intended purpose (because that's what icons are for...). It's intended to, for example, be able to show the first couple emails in your inbox on your home screen, and maybe provide some actionable controls (delete, reply, compose, etc). It's not just an "icon that can draw its own content in real-time".
Ok; but a "Widget" can be used to implement an icon that can draw its own content in real-time, so I don't see what argument you're trying to use here.
@sloosecannon said in Recommend to me a cellphone (running Android I guess, sigh):
They didn't. They made a Gmail widget that provides access to your inbox and the first couple emails in it. I see no 1x1 Gmail widget "icon" on my system.
Ok well there's one on my system, and my system's running something pretty damned close to stock Android 7.0, so. I guess you don't work for Google. You just give Android designers sloppy blowjobs regularly.
-
@dreikin said in Recommend to me a cellphone (running Android I guess, sigh):
See here, which is also on my Pixel (so stock Android):
Yeah exactly that. It's implemented as a Widget, but it doesn't draw the unread count.
There's another widget which is larger and show subject lines, but AFAICT you can't sort that one by Unread either, so it's fucking useless to me.
-
@dreikin said in Recommend to me a cellphone (running Android I guess, sigh):
@sloosecannon said in Recommend to me a cellphone (running Android I guess, sigh):
They didn't. They made a Gmail widget that provides access to your inbox and the first couple emails in it. I see no 1x1 Gmail widget "icon" on my system.
See here, which is also on my Pixel (so stock Android):
Oh, huh. So it is. It showed "shortcut" on Nova, so I guess I somehow buttumed it's not 1x1. Oops.
@blakeyrat said in Recommend to me a cellphone (running Android I guess, sigh):
I do want to see my number of emails unread at a glance.
Why?
@blakeyrat said in Recommend to me a cellphone (running Android I guess, sigh):
Wouldn't it be handy if each email account simply had a number on the icon indicating how many unread messages were in that email account?
Nah, not really.
@blakeyrat said in Recommend to me a cellphone (running Android I guess, sigh):
I know how notifications work.
Ok, but then you go and say something like
@blakeyrat said in Recommend to me a cellphone (running Android I guess, sigh):
I also know that ALL THREE of my email inboxes are glommed together in the notifications, along with a bunch of other shit I don't care about 99% of the time.
Which is clearly false, since they're very clearly separated out. Different apps' notifications are seperate, and the Gmail ones are even seperated by account. So clearly, you don't know how notifications work.
@blakeyrat said in Recommend to me a cellphone (running Android I guess, sigh):
Let me guess: you work for Google?
Heh, I wish.
@blakeyrat said in Recommend to me a cellphone (running Android I guess, sigh):
iOS and Windows Phone do it. And I don't have to change any habits to use those.
Oh, so you're bringing expectations from other OSes and expecting a different one to comply with their rules? I think I found the problem here.
@blakeyrat said in Recommend to me a cellphone (running Android I guess, sigh):
I guess you don't work for Google. You just give Android designers sloppy blowjobs regularly.
Oh good. Insult the guy who actually gave you a solution to your own stupid self-imposed problem. Congratulations, asshole. At least I don't have to rely on unread counts to get my sense of self-worth.
-
@sloosecannon said in Recommend to me a cellphone (running Android I guess, sigh):
Why?
Because I'm an alien invader from Mars and if I don't I'll enslave all humanity. Look, you don't want the feature. FINE! You don't have to.
I do. Cope.
The best way to convince people to use software you love is to tell them they don't actually need to do the things they need to do. And you're right, I'm not going to die because I can't see the unread count on the icon. But I'd still like Android to have feature-parity with an OS from 7 years ago.
@sloosecannon said in Recommend to me a cellphone (running Android I guess, sigh):
Which is clearly false, since they're very clearly separated out. Different apps' notifications are seperate, and the Gmail ones are even seperated by account. So clearly, you don't know how notifications work.
I guess I'm just super stupid retard man, because on my phone there's all glommed together in one long list along with software updates and a bunch of other shit.
@sloosecannon said in Recommend to me a cellphone (running Android I guess, sigh):
Oh, so you're bringing expectations from other OSes and expecting a different one to comply with their rules? I think I found the problem here.
Yeah, it's: Android sucks.
@sloosecannon said in Recommend to me a cellphone (running Android I guess, sigh):
Oh good. Insult the guy who actually gave you a solution to your own stupid self-imposed problem.
You told me to use a different launcher. I already tried that. It didn't work. I said so in this thread.
-
@blakeyrat said in Recommend to me a cellphone (running Android I guess, sigh):
You told me to use a different launcher. I already tried that. It didn't work. I said so in this thread.
You used a different launcher than the one I mentioned too. So...
@blakeyrat said in Recommend to me a cellphone (running Android I guess, sigh):
But I'd still like Android to have feature-parity with an OS from 7 years ago.
That's never going to happen. Because "feature parity" means "has the exact same features", and what distinguishes different OSes is partly the different features that they offer.
@blakeyrat said in Recommend to me a cellphone (running Android I guess, sigh):
Yeah, it's: Android sucks.
That's... one way to look at it.
I mean, it's wrong. But it's a way to look at it.
@blakeyrat said in Recommend to me a cellphone (running Android I guess, sigh):
I guess I'm just super stupid retard man, because on my phone there's all glommed together in one long list along with software updates and a bunch of other shit.
And this prevents you from noticing the "new message" notification and using it how, exactly? Are you one of those people who never clears their notifications too?
-
@sloosecannon said in Recommend to me a cellphone (running Android I guess, sigh):
You used a different launcher than the one I mentioned too. So...
And would you look at that? Ho-lee-shit, it works!
-
@sloosecannon said in Recommend to me a cellphone (running Android I guess, sigh):
And this prevents you from noticing the "new message" notification and using it how, exactly? Are you one of those people who never clears their notifications too?
You still don't get it even though I phrased it as clearly as possible. Let's try again:
I do not want to be notified when I get new email. I do want to be able to see how many unread emails I have in each mailbox at a glance.
Get it? It's pretty simple. Try using all three of your brain cells on this one, you'll have it in no time.
What I was hoping for is someone would come in here and say "oh hey, here's a 1x1 widget that does exactly what you wait, and gee isn't it shitty that the one Google provides does not, what were they thinking?" I don't want to install an entirely new homescreen UI to fix this tiny minor issue. Which is, I remind you, something I've had on every OS I've run since goddamned 1997.
-
@blakeyrat said in Recommend to me a cellphone (running Android I guess, sigh):
You still don't get it even though I phrased it as clearly as possible. Let's try again:
I gave you a working solution to your problem, which you were too stupid to even try. And I'm the one who doesn't get it?
@blakeyrat said in Recommend to me a cellphone (running Android I guess, sigh):
I do not want to be notified when I get new email. I do want to be able to see how many unread emails I have in each mailbox at a glance.
Yeah. So use the solution I posted.
@blakeyrat said in Recommend to me a cellphone (running Android I guess, sigh):
Get it? It's pretty simple. Try using all three of your brain cells on this one, you'll have it in no time.
Yeah, so... wait, I feel like me and my three brain cells are repeating themselves.
@blakeyrat said in Recommend to me a cellphone (running Android I guess, sigh):
oh hey, here's a 1x1 widget that does exactly what you wait
I'm sorry, my three brain cells can't figure out what you're trying to say here. Maybe @blakeyrat the super genius can tell me what he meant.
@blakeyrat said in Recommend to me a cellphone (running Android I guess, sigh):
and gee isn't it shitty that the one Google provides does not, what were they thinking?
Nah. I don't actually know why you need an unread count, and every time I've asked you just ignore it, so....
@blakeyrat said in Recommend to me a cellphone (running Android I guess, sigh):
I don't want to install an entirely new homescreen UI to fix this tiny minor issue.
Well sorry my perfectly valid solution isn't good enough for you. Maybe there's another solution out there. I doubt there is, but you never know.
@blakeyrat said in Recommend to me a cellphone (running Android I guess, sigh):
Which is, I remind you, something I've had on every OS I've run since goddamned 1997.
Oh, right, I forgot about the unread count Outlook gave me on the desktop on Windows XP. That was so useful!
-
@blakeyrat said in Recommend to me a cellphone (running Android I guess, sigh):
It also apparently doesn't have visual voicemail. (EDIT: oh it's an app. Every goddamned thing, including "a home screen with working icons" is a fucking app. I hate Android.)
Toby Faire, that's because the mechanism of "visual voicemail" is exceedingly carrier-specific. And of course it's an app; it'd be an app on Windows Phone too, but perhaps it'd be less obvious about the fact.
-
@blakeyrat said in Recommend to me a cellphone (running Android I guess, sigh):
I do want to be able to see how many unread emails I have in each mailbox at a glance.
If you're willing to use something other than the native Gmail app, Microsoft Outlook provides a 3x2 widget that shows unread count along with the two newest emails, and for each instance of the widget you can set what accounts that instance is displaying. Unfortunately no option to sort by unread, though you might be able to manipulate the Focused Inbox feature to do that (I don't know as I don't really use that particular feature).
I'd post a screenshot except after redaction it'd just be a black box with a number in the top right... but may be worth trying, doesn't require a custom launcher, and it's a quick uninstall if you don't like it.
-
@heterodox said in Recommend to me a cellphone (running Android I guess, sigh):
@blakeyrat said in Recommend to me a cellphone (running Android I guess, sigh):
It also apparently doesn't have visual voicemail. (EDIT: oh it's an app. Every goddamned thing, including "a home screen with working icons" is a fucking app. I hate Android.)
Toby Faire, that's because the mechanism of "visual voicemail" is exceedingly carrier-specific. And of course it's an app; it'd be an app on Windows Phone too, but perhaps it'd be less obvious about the fact.
Well that's also cause the carrier is retarded - VZN, for example, integrates visual voicemail into the existing phone app. So does Google Fi, Google Voice, etc.
-
@sloosecannon said in Recommend to me a cellphone (running Android I guess, sigh):
Nah. I don't actually know why you need an unread count, and every time I've asked you just ignore it, so....
Because if you're using folders then you want some way to tell if there are new emails in that folder? Notifications don't cut it since there's one stream for all folders, and they're transient anyway.
Gmail lets you have a global shortcut icon with the unread count (on some launchers), and it lets you have shortcuts to particular folders with the label widget - but those don't provide an unread count, and Blakey wants them to. How's that so hard to grasp?
-
I hate the default Gmail app. Google Inbox is the best.
-
@maciejasjmj said in Recommend to me a cellphone (running Android I guess, sigh):
How's that so hard to grasp?
I denigrated his favorite OS, so he had to put on his white-knight armor, grab his lance, and ride to its rescue.
"Tally-ho! I must defend that giant corporation that has more money than I'll ever see! Surely there has never been such an act of injustice before. He's not using his email account in the way prescribed by Google, that cur! (Unless you count Gmail.com, which has both "sort by unread" and an unread counter in the browser's tab bar. But he's still a cur!)"
-
@heterodox said in Recommend to me a cellphone (running Android I guess, sigh):
If you're willing to use something other than the native Gmail app, Microsoft Outlook provides a 3x2 widget that shows unread count along with the two newest emails,
Too big. I don't have big fat giant fingers, I only need a 1x1 icon, which is exactly the size those icons are in iOS and Windows Phone. (Except in iOS and Windows Phone, they have an unread counter. Because those OSes weren't written by dumbshits.)
And seriously, who doesn't sort email accounts by "unread first"? Am I some kind of freak? How is it possible nothing on Android, not even Outlook, has this feature?
-
@blakeyrat said in Recommend to me a cellphone (running Android I guess, sigh):
I only need a 1x1 icon, which is exactly the size those icons are in iOS and Windows Phone.
The majority of space is used by the e-mail preview, but acknowledged that you don't need the preview; it just happens to come with in their implementation.
And seriously, who doesn't sort email accounts by "unread first"? Am I some kind of freak?
It's possible. I've never heard of anyone doing that before. Outlook has the ability to filter by unread but unfortunately it's an ephemeral thing and thus doesn't affect the widget.
-
So someone told me that if you install the Microsoft home screen whatever-its-called, you'd get unread badges. I tried it and didn't. But then I saw in a webpage that the Nova one also doesn't do it by default, you had to add some other shit. So I'm wondering if I have to add the other shit to the home screen?
I have no clue what's going on here.
If anybody actually knows how I can get what I want (aka. the default out-of-the-box behavior of all other mobile phone OSes) and can communicate it clearly to someone who doesn't know jack shit about Android, please plop the instructions in here.
If you're going to be like sluice cannon and tell me I'm a stupid idiot that's wrong and dumb about everything and uses email wrong, then just get the fuck out of here. Meet up with Boomzilla, you could create a "Blakeyrat is a stupid idiot that's wrong and dumb about everything" clubhouse.
-
@blakeyrat The "extra shit" is just the TeslaUnread plugin, which is developed by the same developer as Nova itself. Install it, then you can configure which apps can display notifications by running the TeslaUnread app.
-
@sirtwist Yeah well I was hoping for a solution that didn't require me to shit out $5 also. It would also be nice if I didn't have to run 432,473 apps all the time and make my battery life go to shit, but I guess that's unavoidable on this crappy OS.
If I used Microsoft Home Screen (whatever it's called) and installed TeslaUnread would that work?
Either that or I want for Android 8 which is supposed to FINALLY have this simple feature, according to two articles I found.
-
This might work for you, but it says it has ads in it, and I haven't played with it, so I can't make any claims as to how reliable or ad-choked it might be.
-
@blakeyrat said in Recommend to me a cellphone (running Android I guess, sigh):
I don't want to be "notified" when new emails come in.
I do want to see my number of emails unread at a glance.So block notifications from the Gmail app but add the unread count to the icon?
-
@jazzyjosh said in Recommend to me a cellphone (running Android I guess, sigh):
So block notifications from the Gmail app but add the unread count to the icon?
Basically, yeah. And keep the icon 1x1 sized. I like all my stuff on one screen.
-
@e4tmyl33t Yeah I saw that but then I read some reviews and it has ads, and also apparently occasionally pops-up annoying reminders to rate it in the store.
-
@blakeyrat said in Recommend to me a cellphone (running Android I guess, sigh):
apparently occasionally pops-up annoying reminders to rate it in the store.
I hate this as well, but it's sadly common. I get it from the apps for Paypal, various games, things like Netflix and Hulu I'm pretty sure I've seen them before...
-
@e4tmyl33t Yet another thing making the notifications area useless. This morning I had a "notification" from a video game saying "did you get your free log in bonus today?"
God I miss my Windows Phone 8.
-
@blakeyrat said in Recommend to me a cellphone (running Android I guess, sigh):
@e4tmyl33t Yet another thing making the notifications area useless. This morning I had a "notification" from a video game saying "did you get your free log in bonus today?"
Swipe the notification to the right, tap the gear icon, toggle off all notifications allowed for that app. (Depending on your version of Android or manufacturer customizations there might even be a "Mute" icon from the get go.) Done.
-
Other "fun" Android stuff:
If you turn off "show sensitive data on lock screen" (well DUH of course you turn it off), they didn't bother writing a new lock screen UI for that, it just shows the normal UI with space for the "sensitive data" but all that space is filled with the phrase "contents hidden". WHY!?
The answer to that "why" is: this is the laziest way they could have implemented it. This is the laziest fucking OS I've ever used. Those super-mega-geniuses at Google do the goddamned bare minimum to solve every problem, don't they? They're really earning that $300k/year.
-
@blakeyrat said in Recommend to me a cellphone (running Android I guess, sigh):
If you turn off "show sensitive data on lock screen" (well DUH of course you turn it off), they didn't bother writing a new lock screen UI for that, it just shows the normal UI with space for the "sensitive data" but all that space is filled with the phrase "contents hidden". WHY!?
I'm not actually sure what behavior you're expecting here, as I haven't used Windows Mobile phones since Windows Mobile 6. If I get an SMS, I want to know that I got an SMS, not have to unlock to find out about the existence of the notification.
-
@heterodox said in Recommend to me a cellphone (running Android I guess, sigh):
I'm not actually sure what behavior you're expecting here, as I haven't used Windows Mobile phones since Windows Mobile 6. If I get an SMS, I want to know that I got an SMS, not have to unlock to find out about the existence of the notification.
I'm saying it's dumb to have a part of the UI dedicated to showing the contents of the SMS if the contents invariably read "contents hidden". (It's also misleading because at a casual glance it looks like someone sent you an SMS that actually reads "contents hidden", which is a perfectly allowable thing to put in a SMS.)
They were too lazy to engage a UI designer to design a version of those notifications with no contents field.
-
@blakeyrat said in Recommend to me a cellphone (running Android I guess, sigh):
I'm saying it's dumb to have a part of the UI dedicated to showing the contents of the SMS if the contents invariably read "contents hidden". They were too lazy to engage a UI designer to design a version of those notifications with no contents field.
It doesn't invariably read "Contents hidden". An app has the choice to provide alternative text (set a "public version" of the notification).
(It's also misleading because at a casual glance it looks like someone sent you an SMS that actually reads "contents hidden", which is a perfectly allowable thing to put in a SMS.)
As above. Android's documentation even suggests: "For example, an SMS app might display a notification that shows You have 3 new text messages, but hides the message contents and senders." Your SMS app is not doing that.
-
@heterodox said in Recommend to me a cellphone (running Android I guess, sigh):
As above. Android's documentation even suggests: "For example, an SMS app might display a notification that shows You have 3 new text messages, but hides the message contents and senders." Your SMS app is not doing that.
Ok well the Gmail app that does do that is the stock one that shipped with the phone, so maybe Google should follow their own goddamned advice.
I'd still rather see nothing (and no content area) if the content area is going to contain the "content hidden" default. They were still to lazy to engage a UI designer to properly implement that. The ability for an app to override that default changes nothing about my complaint.
Lazy.
-
@blakeyrat said in Recommend to me a cellphone (running Android I guess, sigh):
Ok well the Gmail app that does do that is the stock one that shipped with the phone, so maybe Google should follow their own goddamned advice.
Agreed.
I'd still rather see nothing (and no content area) if the content area is going to contain the "content hidden" default. They were still to lazy to engage a UI designer to properly implement that. The ability for an app to override that default changes nothing about my complaint.
I think the HCI problem there is you'd just see the app name (unless you have some other clever idea). So the end user experience there is "... Gmail. Okay? What about Gmail? What is your problem, Gmail? Did Gmail get updated? Did Gmail crash?" If there's no content area, the end user doesn't know that the app has something to tell them that they'll see when they unlock.
-
@heterodox said in Recommend to me a cellphone (running Android I guess, sigh):
I think the HCI problem there is you'd just see the app name (unless you have some other clever idea).
I'm not a UI designer.
-
@heterodox said in Recommend to me a cellphone (running Android I guess, sigh):
@blakeyrat said in Recommend to me a cellphone (running Android I guess, sigh):
Ok well the Gmail app that does do that is the stock one that shipped with the phone, so maybe Google should follow their own goddamned advice.
Agreed.
I'd still rather see nothing (and no content area) if the content area is going to contain the "content hidden" default. They were still to lazy to engage a UI designer to properly implement that. The ability for an app to override that default changes nothing about my complaint.
I think the HCI problem there is you'd just see the app name (unless you have some other clever idea). So the end user experience there is "... Gmail. Okay? What about Gmail? What is your problem, Gmail? Did Gmail get updated? Did Gmail crash?" If there's no content area, the end user doesn't know that the app has something to tell them that they'll see when they unlock.
Presumably it wouldn't need to be that barren, it could just say "New messages. Unlock to view." or something like that that wouldn't reveal the contents of the messages but still alert you that there ARE new messages.
-
@blakeyrat said in Recommend to me a cellphone (running Android I guess, sigh):
@maciejasjmj said in Recommend to me a cellphone (running Android I guess, sigh):
How's that so hard to grasp?
I denigrated his favorite OS, so he had to put on his white-knight armor, grab his lance, and ride to its rescue.
"Tally-ho! I must defend that giant corporation that has more money than I'll ever see! Surely there has never been such an act of injustice before. He's not using his email account in the way prescribed by Google, that cur! (Unless you count Gmail.com, which has both "sort by unread" and an unread counter in the browser's tab bar. But he's still a cur!)"
Those big words are too hard for my 3 brain cells to understand. Can you please put them in simpler terms?
@maciejasjmj said in Recommend to me a cellphone (running Android I guess, sigh):
How's that so hard to grasp?
I'm genuinely curious what he needs an unread count for, because I see no use for one. However, I also tried to provide a working solution to him, and got blown off. So there's that.
@blakeyrat said in Recommend to me a cellphone (running Android I guess, sigh):
So I'm wondering if I have to add the other shit to the home screen?
No, you need to install Nova, use it as your home screen, then install the TeslaUnread plugin to access the unread counts.
@blakeyrat said in Recommend to me a cellphone (running Android I guess, sigh):
If I used Microsoft Home Screen (whatever it's called) and installed TeslaUnread would that work?
It would probably not.
@blakeyrat said in Recommend to me a cellphone (running Android I guess, sigh):
Either that or I want for Android 8 which is supposed to FINALLY have this simple feature, according to two articles I found.
8.0 has blips to indicate unread messages, but IIRC does not have counts.
@blakeyrat said in Recommend to me a cellphone (running Android I guess, sigh):
I'm not a UI designer.
You just play one on TDWTF
-
@sloosecannon said in Recommend to me a cellphone (running Android I guess, sigh):
You just play one on TDWTF
You don't have to be a good actor to spot a bad one.
-
@sloosecannon said in Recommend to me a cellphone (running Android I guess, sigh):
I'm genuinely curious what he needs an unread count for, because I see no use for one. However, I also tried to provide a working solution to him, and got blown off. So there's that.
You don't need to know what he needs an unread count for. He just does. That's one of those personal preference things that doesn't really run on logic. I get it and presume it's not that uncommon of a preference and I'm surprised Android doesn't have it built into the OS by now when iOS has had it for ages. Or maybe that's exactly why they don't; wouldn't surprise me if Apple tried to patent the concept. Sigh.
Other preferences like sorting on unread similarly don't need anyone else's approval but they may be more uncommon; it seems to me that you tend to "sort" by something on a continuum like date or name. "Unread" is binary and thus something that seems more like a use case for "filter". That doesn't make wanting to sort by unread wrong but may mean it starts out at -100 points or -1000 points or whatever.
@sloosecannon said in Recommend to me a cellphone (running Android I guess, sigh):
It would probably not.
It absolutely would not.
@sloosecannon said in Recommend to me a cellphone (running Android I guess, sigh):
8.0 has blips to indicate unread messages, but IIRC does not have counts.
That seems to be the case; I have blips but not counts on Oreo and I assume if the SDK supported counts Outlook would be using them.
@blakeyrat said in Recommend to me a cellphone (running Android I guess, sigh):
You don't have to be a good actor to spot a bad one.
Sure, but if you extend that analogy a bit, you should have a little bit of acting knowledge if you're going to accuse a well-respected actor of never having gone to acting school based on their performance. Otherwise you won't be able to come up with anything concrete on which to base that accusation because all of your assumptions are wrong.
-
@heterodox said in Recommend to me a cellphone (running Android I guess, sigh):
Other preferences like sorting on unread similarly don't need anyone else's approval but they may be more uncommon; it seems to me that you tend to "sort" by something on a continuum like date or name. "Unread" is binary and thus something that seems more like a use case for "filter". That doesn't make wanting to sort by unread wrong but may mean it starts out at -100 points or -1000 points or whatever.
If you really need to spell it out for you, you show unread mails sorted by date descending, then read mails sorted by date descending.
And again: while a lot of people may not use this feature, it was in my fucking email client 20 years ago. I really do not like our industry moving backwards, and producing products in 2017 that are worse than the equivalent products in 1997, it's fucking ridiculous, and it makes me angry and it should make you angry too.
@heterodox said in Recommend to me a cellphone (running Android I guess, sigh):
It absolutely would not.
The issue I'm having is all I want is a 1x1 widget that I can plop on my home screen and it'll draw an unread counter in it. That's it. Someone who was an expert in Android could probably write it in 20 minutes.
Does that really require replacing the entire homescreen with this massive new piece of software? No it does not.
-
BTW if you people really care, I use the unread status as the "I haven't dealt with this yet" flag. If an email is marked as unread, I know it's something I need to deal with. Right now my inbox has an unread email titled "Your ATT Bill Is Ready To View", because I haven't paid my bill yet. It's three days old. So if the mailbox isn't sorted by unread, I'd never fucking find it in a million years.
Go ahead, jeer at me for using email so "wrong". Throw rotten fruit. I'm a retard idiot moron, I know. There's some more evidence for you.
-
@blakeyrat said in Recommend to me a cellphone (running Android I guess, sigh):
it makes me angry and it should make you angry too
That's one of many things on which I suspect we differ. I can't get angry about things like that.
@blakeyrat said in Recommend to me a cellphone (running Android I guess, sigh):
Someone who was an expert in Android could probably write it in 20 minutes.
I actually would be happy to do that, but I'm going to have to figure out how to test (and whether it's even possible without rooting, since it seems to me that there'd be an information disclosure issue if a third-party application could do that). It's impossible for me to use Gmail on my phone due to architectural problems with how it decides to tie into the accounts API. I'd go into details but I'd hate to trigger you. :P
@blakeyrat said in Recommend to me a cellphone (running Android I guess, sigh):
Go ahead, jeer at me for using email so "wrong".
I don't think anyone's doing that. I have coworkers who do the same thing. Personally I use "in my Inbox" as the "I haven't dealt with this yet" flag on my personal account (with everything else in an archive folder) and "follow-up flag" on my work account (with everything in my Inbox) and have no explanation for the discrepancy between the two. As I just posted in another thread, I can't have an unread count that's greater than zero because the unread blip/count drives me crazy.
E-mail is an integral part of many people's workflow and as such is very, very personalized. I get it.
-
A quick search of the play store shows a few things that might work.
Notifyer unread count has a free add supported version and a paid one and seems to add unread counts for any launcher
Widgets for Gmail looks like it has a 1x1 option with an unread count. Seems to work on labels so it might let you set one up with the unread pseudo label
-
@jaloopa said in Recommend to me a cellphone (running Android I guess, sigh):
Notifyer unread count has a free add supported version and a paid one and seems to add unread counts for any launcher
Yah but it also has that stupid happy face emoticon icon which really makes me want to punch someone in the face. Still, for $2 not much to lose...
I love how their sales pitch is "just like on iPhone!" HEY ANDROID! WHEN PEOPLE ARE PUTTING THAT IN APP PITCHES MAYBE IMPLEMENT THE FEATURE!
-
@jaloopa said in Recommend to me a cellphone (running Android I guess, sigh):
Widgets for Gmail looks like it has a 1x1 option with an unread count. Seems to work on labels so it might let you set one up with the unread pseudo label
A link for the linkless: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.katzoft.gmailwidget&hl=en
And yes, it looks like you can do that, which would seem to make it exactly what @blakeyrat wants. From one of the screenshots:
-
@heterodox said in Recommend to me a cellphone (running Android I guess, sigh):
A link for the linkless: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.katzoft.gmailwidget&hl=en
And yes, it looks like you can do that, which would seem to make it exactly what @blakeyrat wants. From one of the screenshots:It's 2x2, it's fucking huge. I can't even fit 3 email accounts on a single page at that size.
EDIT: and Notifyer doesn't let me select WHICH Gmail mailbox to notify. Jesus. They've both fucked it up.
-
@blakeyrat said in Recommend to me a cellphone (running Android I guess, sigh):
It's 2x2, it's fucking huge. I can't even fit 3 email accounts on a single page at that size.
This screenshot led me to believe it's 1x1:
Or is there a 5x1 and that's what that is? That'd be pretty stupid.
-
@heterodox Ok well I don't know how to take screenshots on this thing, so you'll just have to trust me: the only icon size it has is 2x2.
-
What's super-frustrating is the notifyer one 95% works, it just doesn't support having more than one email address. Which is fucking ridiculous.
EDIT: you also can't change the name of the icon, and even fucking the default one which does NOTHING allows that.
EDIT: eh I'll try the free version for a few days, see if it doesn't piss me off any more. I'll just use the normal gmail tag for my second and third email accounts.
-
@blakeyrat said in Recommend to me a cellphone (running Android I guess, sigh):
Does that really require replacing the entire homescreen with this massive new piece of software?
Not necessarily, but that's one of the big benefits of Android: If Google's stupid launcher doesn't let you resize widgets or increase the grid size or snap to half-gridlines or have a number on your Gmail icon, you can replace it with something good like NovaLauncher that has those features.
Edit: Or renaming app icons, NovaLauncher can do that too.
-
@hungrier But I don't want those features. Have I asked for ANY of them? I just want an unread mark.
Again, and I cannot emphasize this enough, a feature that ships BY DEFAULT on all Android's competitors.
-
@heterodox said in Recommend to me a cellphone (running Android I guess, sigh):
@sloosecannon said in Recommend to me a cellphone (running Android I guess, sigh):
I'm genuinely curious what he needs an unread count for, because I see no use for one. However, I also tried to provide a working solution to him, and got blown off. So there's that.
You don't need to know what he needs an unread count for. He just does. That's one of those personal preference things that doesn't really run on logic. I get it and presume it's not that uncommon of a preference and I'm surprised Android doesn't have it built into the OS by now when iOS has had it for ages. Or maybe that's exactly why they don't; wouldn't surprise me if Apple tried to patent the concept. Sigh.
LE sigh.
Seriously though, I do prefer unread count, too. This way I’m not notificabout every new email I get and it’s extremely important in the age of promotional emails and spam. On the other hand, I can easily determine if I got new messages by looking at the count.
Other preferences like sorting on unread similarly don't need anyone else's approval but they may be more uncommon; it seems to me that you tend to "sort" by something on a continuum like date or name. "Unread" is binary and thus something that seems more like a use case for "filter". That doesn't make wanting to sort by unread wrong but may mean it starts out at -100 points or -1000 points or whatever.
What? How? This is something that bugged me when I had a closer encounter with the gmail app: I can make unread display first and sort by date in the web app, but I can’t in the app. Why? I’ve been doing that since 2011!
@blakeyrat said in Recommend to me a cellphone (running Android I guess, sigh):
You don't have to be a good actor to spot a bad one.
Sure, but if you extend that analogy a bit, you should have a little bit of acting knowledge if you're going to accuse a well-respected actor of never having gone to acting school based on their performance. Otherwise you won't be able to come up with anything concrete on which to base that accusation because all of your assumptions are wrong.
Blakey is right here. The UI design is bad in this case. You don’t have to be a designer to spot bad or lazy design. This is both.