Shawn Blanc on Notifications →
As we get more and more devices in our lives, we need more and more syncing going on between them. Shawn illustrates an very common issue when apps want to notify us:
iCal alarms that go off on my iPad, iPhone, and Mac at the same time. I can think of two ways to fix this: (a) the devices know when they are on the same Wi-Fi network and then just one device displays the alarm; or (b) give me the option to set a default device that is the only one that ever displays the alarm.
Some of Google’s apps on Android are smart enough to do this. If I get email, I can see the notification on both my phone and in my web browser. If I deal with the email in my browser, the Gmail on Android is smart enough to remove the notification from my phone a few seconds later. Gtalk also will alert both places of incoming chats, but once you start using one, it stops pestering the other device.
This is what I think all apps should start doing. They should keep track of what device I’m currently using, and make smart decisions about that. Take Twitter: when I’m looking at the website, I’ve obviously seen a bunch of tweets recently. Currently when I pick up my phone, it still thinks I haven’t seen a bunch of @replies.
