They were a good indicator for notifications that are missed when you were away from phone.
The nothing phone has led glyph indicators on the back.
I forgot all about notification LEDs when I got a smartwatch
This. I was surprised when I moved to using a fitbit (got one for super cheap) and even that was able to show me my notifications from my phone. I also recently changed my phone to a z flip 4 which has a screen when its closed that shows me my notifs.
Gotta admit, I spend a lot less time on my phone when I can tell what notifications are important without opening or looking at my phone.
My guess it is cheaper to do software features rather than a physical led … cutting costs at every corner
Every phone has an LED for the camera flash.
How is that relevant to the OP’s question?
They could make it blink with software to notify you.
My phone (galaxy z fold 4) has this feature built in, it’s under accessibility. I believe iphones can do it too.
For the fold 4, do you know if there is there a way to customize a color for each specific app?
Color? Like of the LED? There isn’t it’s just the camera flash
One of my old LGs would flash an LED based on conditions and I could include the camera flash as an option. I assume he is implying that since every phone with a camera has a flash, that it could be strobed.
On the front though?
*Huh mine does, I never use the selfie camera. Anyone else seeing spots?
I’m guessing that with everything they cram into those things nowadays, every last nook and cranny is valuable space to be used.
A little blinken light is probably not high on the list of features competing for that space.iPhones use the camera flash LED for this exact function, no reason Android phones can’t do the same.
No it does not. The led flash occurs when the message is sent. It doesn’t persist. The entire point the notification led on Samsung phones is to tell you repetitively that you have an unread message.
That means if you look at your phone an hour after you received the message you’ll know you have an unread message without having to interact with the phone. It’s a nice feature for someone that doesn’t like constantly checking their phone.
Besides the flash led is super obnoxious. I can’t imagine why you’d want this flashing every time you get a message. I can’t imagine it being great for battery life either.
Their absence encourages you to check your phone more often, which means you’ll unlock it and look at some content more often, which means as revenue for someone.
It’s a nice conspiracy theory. But unlikely. Who gets the additional review?
Being honest I think the opposite of this is more likely true. Seeing a flashing indicator for all the notifications my phone “thinks” are important is going to make me more likely to constantly check my phone. Barring that I check when I want to. And with the new passive display modes I can glance and decide whether to even unlock or not.
passive display
This is the real answer for OP. Those lights were replaced. Maybe OP (and maybe me as well, I haven’t really thought about it) would prefer to still have the notification LED, but to the hardware manufacturers they replaced those with something “cooler”.
I hate how correct you are about this.
Genuinely wouldn’t be surprised if this was the truth. The tactics these companies employ are both putridly-covert, yet brilliantly executed - especially so if it also saves a few cents.
For some random hardware producer I don’t see how that would be favourable.
You just wrinkled my brain right now.
In Apple’s case it’s a subtle encouragement to buy their watch.
I don’t believe the iPhone ever had an LED notification light. The iPhone existed well before the watch did, as well.
I shouldn’t have doubted Apple’s campaign for minimalism > functionality
It never did, indeed. However, there’s an accessibility function to use the flashlight like an old school LED.
Higher end Smartphones have anyway always on displays. And the led needs screenspace - which should be maximized. That’s why the notch on phones etc. was introduced.
I have one of the Galaxy Notes that has both LED light and Always On, and you just made me realize I pay attention to the Always On display more than even noticing the LED light.
Yeah, it’s basically just this. AODs took over for notification lights.
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https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.xander.android.notifybuddy&hl=en_US&gl=US
Also Some samsung phones have a “edge notification” netting … it’s a bit larger but it works when the screen is upside down which is nice.
The led can just be put in the speaker grill though, I think my old HTC did this.
Yes, but this has issues, too. Because dust clogs up the grills and suddenly the led is badly visible.
This is true, and my last phone with a notification LED was like this, but I found that having the light recessed made it a lot harder to see from across the room since you’re dependending quite a bit on viewing angle.
I still think it’s a terrible compromise. I actually looke specifically for a phone without one and ended up with a Sony Xperia. Sure, the front isn’t 100% screen and I have tiny bars above and below the screen, but who cares?
I’m pretty sure it’s just to cut costs / complexity / part counts in lower end phones, and higher end phones will use an always on display.
Though worth noting that the Nothing Phone 1 & 2 include pretty snazzy LEDs on the back that are used for notifications amongst other things.
Modern smartphones hardly have any edges and therefore hardly any space for an LED at the notch. In addition, the pixels of AMOLED displays can be controlled individually, which allows displaying notifications well and consumes little power at the same time.
Well, with oled and always on displays you can achieve the same thing now, and not just an led flash but having the entire notification display whilst the rest of the screen is off.
And the camera flash still exists if you need an led flash.
Why did LED notification lights silently got removed from phone?
What’s the normal sound of removing feature from the phone?
On more serious note, this is why I have smart watch.
What’s the normal sound of removing feature from the phone?
People bitching and complaining about it being removed.
And there it is, not only is it cheaper to produce a phone with less features, you’ve been given a reason to make another purchase to replace the now missing feature
(Not saying you don’t need a smart watch, I have one too and it’s much better than an led! Just the removal of a feature to make something else paid seem more attractive is a common one now)
This doesn’t really make much sense in this context though.
All iPhones have the feature built-in by using the camera’s flash LED. Androids have the same camera flash LEDs, but the software side simply doesn’t use them for this purpose. There’s no “cheaper production” here since the components are already there. Dedicated notification lights are gone, but the flash LED is efficient enough to serve the same purpose these days
Pretty sure you can still enable the flash LED on Galaxy phones under accessibility but I don’t have one to check - not sure about other android phones but I’m sure there’s a third party app that does it anyway.
You’ve misunderstood the original post, many android phones had an RGB LED on the device just for notifications as well as the flash. That RGB LED is now gone, so it’s hardware that’s been removed which makes the device cost less to produce, at least in theory.
iPhone = Settings / Accessibility / Audio Visual “LED Flash for Alerts” (at the bottom)
On Samsung phones your whole screen flashes in a custom color and and animation, and after that you have your always on display. So they are no longer needed with OLED screens that can display it themselves
That seems to me a waaay too inefficient indicator of “you have unread notifications”
Idk why? I like it to see the clock on the always on display, but you can also change it so you just have a small red pixels lit up, to mirror the “notification led style”. You can style the aod like you want on Android
I gotta say, sometimes I miss my fully customized LED on my blackberry back in the day. It could be in the bottom of a gym bag and I’d still know if I missed a Google Talk message (green) or a Facebook alert (dark blue) or an email (light blue), etc etc etc.
I don’t understand how Blackberry managed to drive itself into the ground like it did. I need a modern BB 9900 ASAP.
Shit management + greed
Still have one on my sony xperia 5 iii (and no notch, micro sd, headphone jack, zoom camera)
I had a Galaxy Nexus with a custom ROM and was able to set the led to any color I wanted per app. It was awesome.
Did it go through multiple colors when you had notifications from different apps at the same time?
My Nexus one did
Yes, being able to set different colors to show up depending on the app is so cool. Still an option in LineageOS with a section for Notification LED.
I had a cool LED on my old Sony which pulsed to the beat of music playing. It also covered the whole of the bottom of the phone and also showed when the phone was upside down. It was well cool.
I also love notification LEDs.
I’m pretty sure the main reason for them disappearing is the displays extending all the way to to edge. There isn’t any room left where to place it.
Also, on phones with always-on display, you can use the display to show notifications, the led is redundant.
But still, I find them really useful and am sad to see them being phased out.
There’s a few apps you could use if you have an android phone with an OLED screen!
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.xander.android.notifybuddy
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.anker.ledmeknow
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.jamworks.alwaysondisplay&hl=en_US&gl=US
My phone does not have a LED notification light. It does however have a little green LED hidden near the front facing camera which is within the screen area. This light comes on only when using the front facing camera and I assume is some kind of indicator light. Why this can’t be dual purpose or why another LED or even small sections of screen can’t be used for notifications is beyond me.
I think the real reason they removed the notification light is to make people use their phones more. Now instead of a glance to see a light I actually have to touch my screen which could allow additional scans of my figerprints or face and could contribute to data tracking when I am most active on my phone.
Personally, I want that light to have one purpose and one purpose only, which is to tell me when the camera is on. It should be hardwired into the circuit powering that front facing camera and not touched by software at all, otherwise you open up the risk of someone recording you with the indicator disabled.
I didn’t think of this use case of the light. I honestly just assumed that most cameras would be able to bypass the light and record you anyway because I have very little trust left in big tech companies. Either way with our screen advancements it should be possible to embed a small LED or use a small section of screen for notification lights.
I believe that’s actually a legal requirement in some jurisdictions.
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Off topic a little but I stop most of my messaging app to notify me. And my life is so much more peaceful. I told everyone when they connect with me on any messaging app that it’ll take time for me to answer. I’ll read it when I remember to read it, which I do like once or twice a day. They adapt to that and if it’s really important they’ll call.
While we’re off topic, you should also consider grey-scaling your phone most of the time, only turning it back to color when needed. A lot of psychological trickery goes into icon and notification color to catch you eye, and it’s much less interesting in drab grey
This is the way.
Its not natural to feel “connected” all the time
This is the way
smh this mf isn’t bathing in the source
