This week, Samsung officially kicked off the Oreo Beta Program for the Galaxy S8 and S8+ in North America and several other markets. The full list of changes is quite substantial, so we'll be running through them in a series of posts detailing what's new. First up, the Galaxy phones inherit notification channels from Android 8.0.
With the announcement of Android Oreo, Google detailed a new method for taking granular control of your notifications. Complex messaging and social media apps often have different types of notifications they push to you on a daily basis. One key example is Twitter, where you may receive notifications for direct messages, mentions, quotes, new feed activity, likes, and more. Many people want to receive a notification in the panel for each of these categories, but often want to alter the type of alert they receive. This is where notification channels can help.
My favorite Twitter client on Android is Flamingo, and I get a lot of notifications from the app every day. I am very interested in receiving notifications for mentions and direct messages, but don't care as much about likes or new tweets in my feed. On Oreo, you can adjust the importance (Urgent, High, Medium, Low) of your notifications for each category within Settings. In addition, you can choose the notification sound, turn vibrate on or off, and disable the app icon badge if you like.
Currently, notification channels are only supported by certain apps, but the list of useful ones is substantial. Many Google productivity apps like Gmail and Inbox offer support, as do popular third-party Twitter clients like Flamingo, Talon, and Fenix 2. Of the Android messaging apps, Allo has the most robust set of notification channel categories. On the other hand, Allo isn't really all that popular.
Do you think Notification Channels will make your life easier? Do you plan to use the feature at all? Let us know in the comments! If you haven't grabbed the Oreo Beta yet, check out our full guide below!
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Cover image and screenshots by Jeff Springer/Gadget Hacks
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