Icon badge

[DagAgren]

trafficstars

Figure out how to sensibly badge the icon with number of notifications.

[Gargron]

Is that difficult? I thought it was something very common for iOS apps

[DagAgren]

It is not difficult, but I need the logic to keep track of which notifications have been seen and which haven't.

[rstockm]

Hm - I came here to report that the icon badge counter doesn't work anymore - now I realize that my memory is deceiving me and it has never worked in the first place? Would be a very welcome feature.

[piperhaywood]

Agreed, I would love this!

[vk0xOrg]

@DagAgren any progress here? It is very annoying not to have notifications’ icon badges. You could see how the feature works on Roma for Pleroma app

Edit: I don’t see any “numbered” icon badge of new notifications on “notifications bell” icon (see screenshot) inside app.

[DagAgren]

My current thinking is that notification badges are a bit of a dark pattern, and are somewhat harmful to users, helping encourage obsessive behaviours and addictions, and I'm not sure I want to encourage that.

I would like to come up with a more low-key and less distracting way to display this, but there is currently not much that can be done for the app icon. In-app there might be other options but I have not thought it through fully yet.

[piperhaywood]

@DagAgren That is a very worthwhile point!

I guess the best part about notification badges though (at least on iOS) is that they user has control over whether or not they see them. For example I turn off notification badges on almost all of my apps, which is good for my mental health! Toot on the other hand is one that I would love to be able to turn them on, since Mastodon feels like one of the more uplifting networks I’m a part of and I enjoy interacting with it. I feel bad when I miss certain notifications from others, particularly in an active conversation. A badge would mean that I don’t miss as much.

I’m not sure if it would be possible for the app to have notification badges turned off by default, but with the ability to turn them on?

[vk0xOrg]

My current thinking is that notification badges are a bit of a dark pattern, and are somewhat harmful to users, helping encourage obsessive behaviours and addictions, and I'm not sure I want to encourage that.

I would like to come up with a more low-key and less distracting way to display this, but there is currently not much that can be done for the app icon. In-app there might be other options but I have not thought it through fully yet.

@DagAgren shouldn’t users decide whether it is harmful?

[aurynn]

I'd like to +1 in here. While I get that this can be a dark pattern that gets misused to drive "engagement", I find that it makes me considerably more anxious to not have any sense of how much I've missed or have to look at. Opening Toot! and I could find ... nothing. Or heaps! It's a surprise every time!

and I really don't like that kind of surprise/anxiety 😞

Being able to turn on both system-level badges and an in-app notification count would be really nice for this.

[RobATX]

I’d be cool with just a red dot indicating notifications waiting. 🙏🖖

[msochan]

I’d be cool with just a red dot indicating notifications waiting. 🙏🖖

Exactly - that would be sufficient enough!