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I’m probably not the only one who has been annoyed by the lack of flexibility when it comes to today’s notification lights inside smartphones. Back when I had a G1, I could access a vast array of colors. Apps could tap into the LED light with ease and allow you to choose exactly which color you wanted LED notifications for that app to be. Now, you’ll get one or two colors, depending on if your phone has a low battery or not – green or blue for a notification, or red for a low battery.
Light Flow looks to change that, allowing you to take control of notifications for tons of different applications. Now, you can set that bright blue blinker exclusively Twitter, green for Facebook or whatever configuration you want that the application supports. It won’t let you apply custom configurations for any old application from the market, but the paid version unlocks a nice palette of apps, some of which you most likely use.
The downside is that you may need root to get things going on certain devices. In particular, HTC has locked down the permissions for LED control in their Gingerbread builds so you’ll need to be rooted in order to allow the application to change those permissions.
I’ve tried it on my EVO 3D – it did require root – and it worked great for the couple of applications I tried it with (SMS and Google Voice). It can be daunting at first but you’ll come to appreciate the amount of flexibility you’ll get with the sheer amount of options afforded to you.
Unfortunately, HTC, Sony Ericsson and Motorola phones are probably the only ones worth trying here. LG and Samsung phones absolutely do not work, and other OEMs may need special support. Contact the developers and they’ll see if they can add support for your particular device in future updates. Give the free application a shot (limited amount of applications) and see if it works out well for you. If it does, grab the full version for $1.23 in the Android market.
I remember the function on my Dream and really missed it as well. Luckily my girlfriend found this for our phones when she converted to Android at the first of the year. She came from a Blackberry so she missed her multi color notifications of BBuzz(BB App). I never thought to look for something like this but we both use it on our Atrixs and love it. Works great, but it does have glitches at times. Overall, great app though. I really enjoy the flexibility it gives with not only light notification changes, but being able to set custom vibrations as well. Paid version is worth the money spent.
the led is nice, but when my N1 is in my sleeve, I don’t see it anyway….and the sound usually slips what kind of notification I got….got different sounds for different kinds of messages (as fas as the apps let me customize it)
The later CM7 builds let you have the LED flash when its on charge (as it usually is) AND a notification comes in so it’ll be orange on change but then flash green for a notification. Very useful as these phones are often on charge therefore stopping LED notifications. Can this provide that for non-CM7 roms?
Should mention that on the EVO 3D, you get a whopping selection of available colors, such as Orange, Green, and Deep Orange.
Wow.
..not.
Don’t complain, the G2 has two options, Orange or green. And before I switched to Androids I had sidekicks, king of the LED.
Aw!! I read your post before I got to try it. -_-
2 colors? At least green is one. Are they talking about the little blinking light at the top of the phone, or the touch pad light? I’m assuming it’s the little green light at the top of the phone.
I tested it out, anyway. You can make the trackpad light blink for missed messages and such and control the speed, but that’s really about it.
Oh ok. Its not really worth the time then. The little green blinking led is enough. I notice that faster anyways.
It’s not a bad app, and mostly does what it claims, though I find the notification control to be a little inconsistent at times. A lot of that could be setup, though. Each app can be configured independently so you could have a lot of setup to do.
One really nice feature is to disable notifications at night. No need to hear pings or see blinkenlights when trying to get to sleep.
I need to try this on my DX1. Saw someone post about this app in the forums and forgot about it. Thanks for the article.
Only problem will be remembering what color is for what…lol. Like can I ignore this color or not…hmmm.
I had this in a test Cliq XT and it was awesome. The developer was very good at responding to issues I had. I wish I could get this for an locked MT4G.
I prefer Heavy Flow, myself… obviously no women were involved in the naming of this app.
What i can’t understand is why HTC makes these high dollar phones, an then nickel an dimes on LED’s Come on HTC, spend some of that cash you got stockpiled. Even the Droid 1 had like 6 or 7 colors if i remember correctly