An eagle-eyed developer has noticed that Google has made some changes to the way Android 4.3 deals with notifications, which could be good news for peripheral devices such as Google Glass or other wearable hardware, and third party apps.
Up until now, apps like Light Flow, exploit a hack through the Accessibility API, which in layman’s terms means that it forces its way into your device to allow a third party app to control parts of your phone which are usually only controlled by the operating system; in the case of Light Flow, it’s the colour and frequency of the LEDs which notify you of emails, texts, calls etc.
However, this new code will make it possible for third party apps and peripherals to have much easier access to the Notifications Centre, meaning that you could now use wearable tech alongside your main phone in a beautiful display of symbiosis! Instead of simply receiving a notification telling you that you have a text or email, your watch or glasses may now be able to allow you to read, delete or archive the message, giving you a much better user experience.
This change has been made to accommodate Google Glass, the futuristic-looking specs developed by Google which uses a camera to monitor your surroundings and feed useful information back to you via a heads-up display, as well as Pebble, the watch equivalent. These devices have been autonomous until now, unable to interact with notifications from your phone and also very limited in terms of app support – but this could be set to change.
This update opens up a world of potential for third party notifications panels too, which until now have been Google or….well, nothing, so keep an eye out for apps having their own notification control centres in the future, too.
Other features of Android 4.3 are said to be an overhaul to the font anda new camera interface which is very similar to that running on the stock Samsung Galaxy S Google Edition available in the US.
Although Android 4.3 Jelly Bean hasn't yet been announced, it's already available to download and instll on the Samsung Galaxy S4.
Via Android Police
by tcrammond via Featured Articles
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