Notif – control your Notifications with text reminders, pictures & to-do lists
by Paul Wilks
Jan 17, 2013 10:47 AM –
Install
Notif is a functional and slickly designed little app that allows you to play customized notifications in your status bar. It takes the Jellybean ‘rich’ notification functionality and lets you create your own content, including text, photos and lists. As with any notifications, these can be swiped away or fixed. It’s a handy app that’s great for productivity and simple to use. Be warned though, you need to have Android 4.1 Jellybean or higher for it to work.
Price: Free or $0.99 for the Pro version
Tested on: Nexus 4
Content Rating: Everyone
Pros & Cons:
Pros
- Fits in perfectly with the Jelly Bean design!
- Easy to use and aids productivity!
- Lots of icons and customizability!
- Smooth and responsive!
Features:
Much has been made of Android 4.2 Jelly Bean’s new notification system. You’re now able to see more information on your notifications; from SMS messages, recently taken pictures, updates, Google Now messages and more. It’s rich, functional and gives your status bar far more potential. However, these are mostly based on incoming messages which you don’t have much control over. It would seem that the developers behind Notif has spotted the potential in Jelly Bean’s notification ability and created an app to make more of it. You can now add text reminders, photographs and even lists. The app lets you choose an icon, set a priority and make the notification ongoing (essentially meaning sticky and unable to swipe away.
The notifications you create fit in perfectly with others you receive and it’s cool to be able to add your own icons from a wide range available. It’s incredibly handy too. If you have shopping list or to do list you can add this in full to your notification bar. While apps like Any.Do can now be integrated into your status bar, it’s still only shows one task at a time, with Notif you can view everything by expanding the list. Same with pictures; when these normally appear in your notification panel, they’re a little bleached- really just to remind you what they look like. With Notif you get a far crisper image and all these can be easily swiped away- like normal notifications.
The app comes in two themes, light and dark. The UI is very sharp and designed with the Jelly Bean OS in mind. Therefore it’s also very smooth, simple to use and intuitive. In a nutshell, it integrates with the way you use your device in a very useful way. If I needed to do something specific on a given day, I could created a Notif and be reminded of it whenever I checked my phone. For example, I created Notifs to remind me when a TV program I wanted to watch was on, one to remind me to call someone, a game I needed to test and so forth.
For those that already use Jelly Bean, you’ll appreciate the good feeling you get being able to swipe notifications away and this applies to those you create in Notif too. That said, the app isn’t completely without its limitations. If you create a list it’s not like you can remove or tick certain items on the list so it might not completely replace your To Do app of choice. You can edit Notifs- which might see you removing completed list items altogether, but it’s not as intuitive as ticking a box or crossing out (I say this within the context of using Any.Do).
That aside, I recognize that Notif isn’t actually a To Do app but instead something which in many ways compliments more dedicated apps. Additionally, the various icons look great! You get a few icons to choose from in the free version of the app but hundreds in the paid-for version. My recommendation would be to definitely try the free app first and, if you can see the benefit of the extra icons, etc. $0.99 is pretty inexpensive for the Pro app.
Watch on Mobile
*Note* Since taking screenshots the UI has changed a little whereby you have three headers now: text, picture and list. Otherwise the app looks and behaves the same.
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Notif – Creating notification
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Notif – Icons
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Notif – Light theme
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Notif – Notifications, collapsed
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Notif – Pro version icons
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Notif – Revised UI with three headers
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Notif – Settings
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Notif – Swipe away
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Notif – Text notification, List and Picture
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Notif – Various icons to use, far more in Pro version
Usefulness:
The app is hugely useful and lets you create lists and handy reminders. The notifications can easily be swiped away when complete (or remain fixed if you wish too). By using the app for a few days now I find it compliments my normal To Do app really well. Plus, with the great level of customizability with Notif, I’ve found it to aid productivity.
Ease of Use:
It’s simple to use and highly intuitive. It gives you a little more control over your status bar and lets you place your own customized notifications where you can see them.
Frequently Used:
If you’re anything like me, there’s every chance you might find more and more ways of using an app like Notif. I use it for must-remember items. I check my phone regularly throughout the day, so the app offers non-intrusive reminders all day until certain tasks get done.
Interface:
The interface is based purely with Google’s Holo design in mind, making it completely at home on Jelly Bean.
Tags:
Android 4.1,
Android 4.2,
Android App,
Android Apps,
AndroidTapp.com App Review,
Jelly Bean,
Notif,
Notifications,
Status Bar,
To-do,
To-Do Lists,
Todo List
Categorised in: Productivity
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