

Nobody Knows That I Use These Apps - alexmr
http://jakelevine.me/blog/2013/04/nobody-knows-that-i-use-these-apps/

======
freehunter
I love this about Windows Phone's Live Tiles. I never open my weather app. I
hardly ever open the Facebook app. I hardly ever open my stock market app. I
just check their Live Tile, and at a glance it tells me exactly what I need to
know. It's the biggest thing I miss, by far, when I'm using my Android phone.
The information density of Android and iOS doesn't even come close, even with
a proper notification center.

I really want Android live tiles. Widgets just aren't comparable.

~~~
mcrittenden
What do live tiles have that android widgets are missing? Honest question.

~~~
freehunter
taude thinks similarly to how I do. Live Tiles feel like a part of the
ecosystem and there's not a widget available for every app I wish there was on
Android. Then you have to factor in that there's just not that much room on
the Android home screen, and widgets come in a variety of odd shapes and
sizes.

Live Tiles are consistent, with only three square (rectangular) sizes to pick
from. The fluid scrolling through them (rather than page by page) makes it
feel more spacious. I have an entire home page dedicated to Facebook, for
example, because the Facebook widget that shows me updates (and only one
update at a time) takes up fully half the screen. The weather widget I use
takes an entire line of icons, and the calendar widget takes up two columns by
three rows. It's like playing a jigsaw puzzle trying to arrange a useful
"live" home screen. Live Tiles are also visually consistent, which Android
widgets are not (my Android home screen looks hideous).

A Live Tile is a app shortcut that also acts as a widget by displaying useful
information. An Android widget is a widget that can also link to the
application. That tiny difference is a huge gap in comparison.

~~~
fyi80
The non-discrete page-flipping (so you can scroll one column at a time,
instead of a whole screen) is nice. I don't know any Android launcher that can
do that.

~~~
crwll
This one can:

[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.pierrox.li...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.pierrox.lightning_launcher&hl=en)

With Lightning Launcher, you can also skip the grid altogether and freely
align, scale and even rotate your widgets and zoom in and out in the launcher,
if you want. It's very customizable.

------
ikhare
Seems like the author has only worked with iOS.

On Android push notifications are done through GCM (Google Cloud Messaging),
when it's sent your application gets a callback (Intent). So it is up to the
application to decide what to do with it, whether it is to show a notification
or do something else entirely. So on Android you have a pretty good idea that
the the user is actually getting a notification. Jelly Bean and up you can
also do very rich notifications with images and actions built right into it.

On iOS when a remote push notification is received there is no indication sent
to the application at all. The only way the application knows something has
happened is if the user actually opens the notification.

I haven't programmed on windows phone, so I am not sure how much an app
developer knows that a user is viewing a live tile or not. Maybe someone who's
built one can chime in.

Overall it seems to me, that what the author is describing is Android, where
the app developer has at least some feedback as to whether a user is seeing
the notification (albeit not an exact: user has seen x notif).

Edit: Wording

~~~
benjamincburns
> On iOS when a remote push notification is received it there is not
> indication sent to the application at all.

I'm not well versed in push notifications, but I thought this was part of the
value that a company like Urban Airship would provide?

~~~
Groxx
Only if you use their inbox-like thing, which will still not tell you
deliverable rate, it just ensures the recipient can see a list of all
_attempts_.

The actual push notification itself is entirely untrackable unless the
recipient actually taps on it, or it is received while your app is running.
IIRC you can read out the application's badge number, but that only shows you
what the most-recently-received notification was (if it set a badge value), it
implies nothing about any intermediate ones. There is no way to list the
notifications, nor count them. You can do this with _local_ ones you generated
yourself, but not ones pushed to the device.

While someone is actively in your app, you do get a method called that gives
you the notification as it arrives - which is handy, because the system
entirely mutes it (doesn't go into the notification center, doesn't appear at
the top of the screen). You can do that to do a _negative_ tracking system
("they didn't receive this, don't count it in the stats"), or to show it
yourself.

~~~
rkoz
The usual approach is to track acks or callbacks driven via user actions on
the server-side. Adding a "guaranteed delivery" QoS will involve queuing,
waiting and retrying on non-ack timers - and do so without abusing users'
trust in your app.

------
hkmurakami
I know this is completely off topic, but is there any reason a website should
have a rapidly changing gif animation as their tab icon?

I tend to open a ton of tabs and leave them open ( _particularly_ if they're
interesting and I want to re-read it or refer to it in a blog post), but the
constant oscillation of that tab icon is so distracting that I feel compelled
to close that tab as soon as possible since it's going to get in my peripheral
vision as I do other work (it's even distracting me as I type this very post!)

I thought the blog post was really interesting but now the only thing I
remember about the site is the obnoxious icon, and it compels me not to look
at the archives for other potentially intriguing posts :(.

Dear OP, _please_ change that icon. I think it will increase readership and
good will of your otherwise interesting blog.

~~~
jrajav
I had to test in most of my installed browsers before I found one that
actually animated the icon - Firefox. Chrome, Safari, and Opera have all
decided (rightly, you'll probably agree) that allowing animated favicons is
not a good idea.

~~~
fyi80
Chrome has a hideously awful alternative though: The tab icon throbs when AJAX
updates a page (Gmail, etc), regardless of the web developer or user's
preferences.

------
Spooky23
I'm the exact opposite -- using Facebook for many years and experimenting with
many apps has trained me to avoid allowing applications to interact with me
out of band.

Back in the day, I was getting harassed about my friend's achievements in
Farmville or Mafia Wars on Facebook. More recently, some app my wife installed
lets me know every time I'm within a quarter mile of a Target store. The
beauty of iOS is that I don't need to deal with a dozen little icons demanding
attention like in Windows.

The Windows 8 approach is refreshing, I'm curious to see how it develops.

~~~
resu_nimda
I mean, the responsibility is sort of on you to manage what notifications you
receive. This seems a bit like installing a bunch of toolbars and Bonzi Buddy
and then claiming that your browser sucks. (for the record, I had numerous
Farmville-playing friends and never received push notifications about that).

> The beauty of iOS is that I don't need to deal with a dozen little icons
> demanding attention like in Windows.

This is confusing to me. Aside from Java updates and similar things that are
largely hidden, what icons in Windows demand your attention? One thing I don't
like about iOS is all the badges on icons, which, to my psyche, are much more
demanding.

~~~
Spooky23
I agree that it is my responsibility, I've choosen to handle it by saying "No"
in most cases. But I'm a bit of an appaholic -- I download new apps all of the
time, and don't have the time to figure out what chatter a particular app is
going to bother me with.

I'm on my work Windows 7 laptop right now, and I've been bothered by the
following since 7:30 when I came in:

\- SCCM has some updates for me that must be installed in 7 days

\- AV is slowing down my computer, for my safety.

\- Some printer is unavailable

People at home get bombarded with Java, Adobe, and other apps whining about
updates or whatever. Microsoft recognized this as a serious enough problem
that it basically hides most toolbar icons automatically. (I have 19 on the
work laptop, with 4 visible)

------
bluetidepro
I don't know too much about how push notifications work, but don't they have
some kind of tracking on them? If not, why not? That would seem like a perfect
(obvious) solution for what the article describes. If you could somehow track
when people take actions on your push notifications, or discard them. Or heck,
even if someone decided to receive them, that should indicate that they are
looking at them. Mainly because if someone isn't looking at them, they would
probably get very annoyed by push notifications from apps they do not care
about and thus, turn those notifications off.

Again, maybe I'm just naive about how it all works, but it seems like it could
be a pretty measurable metric already?

~~~
dilap
On iOS, it's pretty much just fire-and-forget. You do get notified when a
device isn't reachable anymore, which usually means the app has been
uninstalled (so that's sort of feedback). (I think this also might trigger if
the phone is offline for a long time, but I'm not sure.)

------
codeka
> Imagine if app developers could send more data (images, videos) through push
> notifications, or even receive simple responses (“Yes” / “No”) from users
> without requiring users to launch the application itself.

You can do this today on Android.

------
cryptoz
Dark Sky definitely knows you're getting value on those notifications. Popular
apps get positive ratings from happy users. Dark sky doesn't need a specific
metric to tell them the notifications are working; having a bunch of people
5-star your app saying "I love the notifications!" is sufficient.

------
fierarul
Never heard about Moves but it seems to record everything, send it to their
server, analyze it there, then send you that notification. So, they know it's
being used.

~~~
yoda_sl
Yes you are correct. Reading the built-in help of the Moves app show the data
collection end up on their server... So they clearly know which user is still
running the app. If users were to disable pushes and no more daily data
collection was happening then Moves will know they lost one user, but stating
they don't know as the article show is a wrong conclusion.

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piyush_soni
The author says the app developers have no way of knowing if he's using their
app. Now having never developed an iPhone/Android app, just want to confirm if
it is true. Isn't it that their servers would know that they are sending push
notification to a phone after all?

------
hadem
"Imagine an entire suite of apps with which you interact without ever opening.
Imagine if app developers could send more data (images, videos) through push
notifications, or even receive simple responses (“Yes” / “No”) from users
without requiring users to launch the application itself."

Then what is the point of having apps? Isn't this just cramming a lot of extra
bits into the notifications? I think if all apps did more and more in the
notifications, people would start to say it was cluttered or difficult to
use/read.

The great thing about notifications for me is they are quick and simple. If I
want to do more, the application is a click away. I don't need a faux app
inside the notifications panel.

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zbruhnke
I totally disagree here. I think most people know how to turn off their push
notifications and its way easier than unsubscribing from an email newsletter,
how many notifications pushed out and how many active users in my opinion
would be a direct correlation.

------
dzink
This triggered a Deja-vu moment for me from pre-tablet times when there were
entire web-sites sprouting up around the no-click movement. You could do
everything without clicking, until touch-screen devices came out and roll-
overs stopped being an option.

I think real-time updates can work really well in a google glass world,
especially with smart watches. Although they can cause trouble if you're
trying to focus on something. I foresee a hide-notifications button next to
the mute button one day.

Just like the no-click movement, a notification-heavy world will probably piss
off analytics people, until metrics on data displayed/consumed notifications
come out.

------
habosa
This is why Google Now is so awesome. It's a whole suite of basic apps that
most people use, pushed to you only when they're relevant. It's the most
impressive software on my phone by far (and I have 200+ apps).

------
windsurfer
Unrelated, but you have an error on your page:

    
    
        Warning: sprintf(): Too few arguments in /home/jakelevine/webapps/blog3/wp-content/themes/codium-extend/functions.php on line 190

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ggchappell
I find it curious that the idea being touted is essentially the same as the
the way iGoogle works. And of course iGoogle is being shut down.

So why is one on the rise and the other falling? Is this yet another example
of the apps-win-over-the-web trend? Is the problem with iGoogle that it was
trapped in the browser? Is it that iGoogle was one company's little piece of
the web versus an idea that is being pushed as the front-and-center UI for an
OS?

------
andygcook
One way to know if a user is getting utility out of your product is to charge
a monthly subscription. If a user is paying you, you know they are using the
app and gaining utility from it, even if it's just a daily push notification.
If they stop paying you, you know they are not getting utility from the app.

------
rwhitman
Hmm so you can't track how many people turn off the notifications? I would
assume the metric would be based on how many people leave them on without
getting annoyed and switch them off. The lower your notification disable rate
is, the more successful you are right?

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taude
Isn't the value from the number of installs of a app or the number of times
someone paid for the app? Unless they started using notifications to send me
ads....which with 100% certainty cause me to uninstall the app (if such a
practice is even allowed).

~~~
fyi80
Spamming ads to the notification bar is a popular technique on Android. Zynga
loves to do it, as do others.

~~~
yareally
Short of blocking them with a host file addition after finding the adhost, one
can block notifications for individual apps via the app info (hold press on
notification and select app info).

Must be on Android 4.1+ I believe though. I dont think ICS had it. There's
also a bug in blocking notifications for 4.1 that inadvertently blocked Toast
messages within apps as well, but it was fixed on 4.2. Just something to be
aware of if you go blocking them and a developer was not aware enough to avoid
putting important info in Toasts.

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zobzu
"how many steps i took yesterday "valuable information"

ah. :P

I think this will just end up in a popup nightmare anyway. "you have 50
notifications - 45 requires a reply" inline or not: yay.

------
jnuss
I think it would also be interesting if one could simply subscribe to push
notifications without even having to download an app.

------
mtinkerhess
This light interaction is exactly the sort of thing that products like Glass
are going to excel at.

------
mikeprasad
On Apple, isn't a major limitation of iOS? OR is there a mechanism to utilize
push better?

------
bryanl
Isn't this what analytic packages are for? The app receiving the push message
on your phone could anonymously provide analytics back to the server and with
that knowledge alone, they know you are using it. Also additional analytics
can be provided to see if you actually open the app.

~~~
yoda_sl
On iOS unless the receiving app is either an official background app (aka
GPS/VOIP/Music) or if the app is in the foreground then you are out of luck
the app will not know a push was received. The only time the app knows a push
was received is when the user act on the notification or if the push did
contain a badge then the app can access the badge value... Otherwise nope!

Basically the summary for iOS is really the push is received by the
notification center -own by Apple, and your app has no access to it when it
run. Technically too if you go in the iOS settings and decide to remove the
app from the Notification Center screen, then the pushes start to be 'lost'.

The concept of push is good and iOS now are better than in the past but they
are far from being perfect and the iOS settings screen is a mess/confusion
when you start playing with it.

------
fyi80
> The business impact is that companies are evaluated and funded on the basis
> of metrics like Daily Active Use, Monthly Active Use, Impressions, Visits.
> Notifications happen prior to all of these metrics.

These are all vanity metrics, not revenue metrics. There is no problem in
adding a new one to the list: "Notifications served" and assuming they are
received by engaged users. Just like page views and visits, as good and as
bad.

