Physical notification light - Moto X4 Questions & Answers

I had seen that in earlier lists of features, the RGB notification light was listed, but then removed. Is there any confirmation on if there is such a light that could be enabled later, much like was on the Nexus 6? If so, does anybody know why Google keeps disabling such lights when they exist?

If there is, I haven't found a way to turn it on yet.

oh dang really?
I was looking forward to this feature.
Hopefully someone figures out how to enable multi-color notifications.

someone just confirmed it working on reddit. need the bootloader unlocked, rooted, and a dev to tweak it still. it's not rgb, but i'll take it.
https://www.reddit.com/r/MotoX4/comments/79hf7z/led_control_for_x4_working/

Low battery?
I saw somewhere in Motorola's support forum that this little LED in the speaker grill is illuminated when charging a battery which is so low the phone can't display the charging animation. It also said it is only white. This should be easy to confirm.

Related

LED under the earpiece?

I have had the phone for about a week now and I love it, however one of my big complaints is that the active notifications do not show any battery info, charging or percentage blah blah blah. My phone died the other night and when it was plugged in it had a bright green LED under the earpiece. Any other time I've plugged it in it has never come on. Does anyone know why it would come on one time and never again? Has anyone else seen this elusive LED?
SnowKing25 said:
I have had the phone for about a week now and I love it, however one of my big complaints is that the active notifications do not show any battery info, charging or percentage blah blah blah. My phone died the other night and when it was plugged in it had a bright green LED under the earpiece. Any other time I've plugged it in it has never come on. Does anyone know why it would come on one time and never again? Has anyone else seen this elusive LED?
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I saw this on a display model at ATT with a dead battery. The earpiece was lit by a green LED.
maybe try lightflow?
WolfsFang said:
maybe try lightflow?
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Click to collapse
I thought the same thing, and I played around with it a little and couldn't get the light to come on. I'm just curious because motorola made the point that LED's don't give any information like active notifications give, yet they still put one on the phone. It just appears it barely ever comes on.
We definitely need to figure this out!
Sent from my XT1058 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Never seen an LED on mine, but very interested in this. Would be awesome to enable it!
Sent from my XT1060 using Tapatalk 4
Anyone figure this out? I saw the same light under same circumstances but can't control it.
Sent from my XT1060 using xda app-developers app
with lightflow pro (pay edition) nothing happens...
LED Light Answer
Found the answer in the owner's manual, of all places, on the page "At a Glance" with the illustration of the phone's features. The arrow in the diagram points more or less to the sensor right next to the earpiece. That small oblong is not just the light sensor to turn off the screen when you have the phone up to your ear. It also houses the Low Battery LED. Sometimes it really does pay to read the instructions, however boring they may be.
Low Battery LED:
This LED lights up when you plug in your
charger and the smartphone’s battery level is too low to
power on the display. It means that your smartphone is
charging and will be ready to use shortly.
RevLauren said:
Found the answer in the owner's manual, of all places, on the page "At a Glance" with the illustration of the phone's features. The arrow in the diagram points more or less to the sensor right next to the earpiece. That small oblong is not just the light sensor to turn off the screen when you have the phone up to your ear. It also houses the Low Battery LED. Sometimes it really does pay to read the instructions, however boring they may be.
Low Battery LED:
This LED lights up when you plug in your
charger and the smartphone’s battery level is too low to
power on the display. It means that your smartphone is
charging and will be ready to use shortly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Knowing that Motorola's way of Notification LED was their Active Display, it would be redundant to have the Notification LED too.
Even with root there's no physical way to enable this light in other circumstances?
I emailed LightFlow and got this reply:
Hi
Sadly it doesn't really have much led hardware in it. There's one
green led which I think can only be controlled with root access from
the experiments I've tried with a user.
Cheers
andrew
Sent from my XT1060 using xda app-developers app
I'm pretty sure it was confirmed that the LED in the earpiece was connected directly to the charging hardware found on the MotoX. What does this mean? It means we will probably never be able to take advantage of it. It's nothing the software can take control of.
Just to throw this out there, will this work?
http://www.androidcentral.com/how-fix-moto-g-notification-led
Pfhortune said:
Just to throw this out there, will this work?
http://www.androidcentral.com/how-fix-moto-g-notification-led
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
doesn't work
jayboyyyy said:
doesn't work
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Click to collapse
Oh well, worth a try!

How are active notifications better than a colored LED?

So, I'm just wondering about the advantage of active notifications over a multi-colored LED? I mean, the LED continues to blink without any user intervention, while the active notification requires user intervention to display. Sure, the IR sensors used to wake the device are incredibly useful. It would have been great to have both the IR sensors and a LED. Or, are the active notifications shown for an indefinite time until the user acknowledges them?
floepie said:
So, I'm just wondering about the advantage of active notifications over a multi-colored LED? I mean, the LED continues to blink without any user intervention, while the active notification requires user intervention to display. Sure, the IR sensors used to wake the device are incredibly useful. It would have been great to have both the IR sensors and a LED. Or, are the active notifications shown for an indefinite time until the user acknowledges them?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My (admittedly non scientific) experience indicates that the active notifications for email or SMS seems to stop after 15 minutes or so. Of course a wave of the hand shows it again. But I too remain unconvinced of the usefulness vs LED.
OK, maybe an Xposed module could keep those notifications blinking until the user shuts them off. I can easily see this happening.
Well i go back and forth with this issue..
I have the Z2 and new moto x, and before i was using nexus 5 and motoX , and cant tell you which one is better for sure.. When i use the muti colored led phone, i miss the active notifications, and the opposite when i use the active notifications . With led setup , you still have to touch to know what is it , even if you know that the color green for eg. is for sms. and yellow for em-mail. Same goes for active notifications, you see the icon on the screen representing the app that has a notification and still have to touch for more details, often for me the details are not helpfull , i still have to unlock and pull down the notification bar to see what is about. And with led , you dont have to look more carefully at the screen to see what app is, you can see the color by far or with your peripheral vision .
Well, i still think that the popup notification with android L and the iphone are better for me, but they end up calling to much attention to the screen when you receive a message , so it's not discreet like a led or active notification and people around will look every time something appear.
It doesn't require user interaction, it shows up when you get a new notification and go away after a while, which then you can still show it again with a wave.
Notification LED doesn't allow you to quickly read part of read the text message or see who it's coming from (unless you use LightFlow and set a specific color and pattern for each person, and I'm not going to go to that length to manually adjust and remember all that), which is the point of Active Display.
It's better in it's own way, RGB LED have it's own advantages, they are different things. If you prefer RGB LED, buy a Nexus.
The answer is rather simple actually. Active Display is not better than a coloured LED notification.
With LEDs you can set different colours for different purposes, which are cool, and the most advantageous thing is you can see it from distance.
With Active Display people generally say that you can see the incoming text or a missed call info just by tapping on the icon, true, but how many times do you not unlock the device actually? I at least do it all time. So if you are actually unlocking the device most times then what's the benefit of having Active Display over LED? None, at least that's what I think.
When I came to Moto X (2013) from S4, I loved the Active Display, I am not saying that I don't now, but as of this moment I don't find this option as useful as LED notifications, not at all.

Led Notification or Moto Screen ?

know that the Nexus 6 will have a Amoled screen, but the notifications be equal Moto X (moto screen pulsating) or notification led like the Nexus 5?
I'm wondering about the notification LED myself. It has always been a staple of nexus devices, but it doesn't seem like this one is going to have it. Motorola is more prone to waking the screen when a notification is received rather than LEDs. I think, with great disappointment, that this iteration of the Nexus won't have an LED notification light.
Although I have no knowledge or proof and hoping someone can confirm or deny.
I was just going to post a thread asking the same question. Does anyone know if the N6 will have the active display like the Moto X? Where you can say commands and have it answer you back etc etc...
I heard that android L introduces "OK google" with the screen off on nexus 6, along with some level of screen notifications
rapha.194 said:
know that the Nexus 6 will have a Amoled screen, but the notifications be equal Moto X (moto screen pulsating) or notification led like the Nexus 5?
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Click to collapse
I hope that it will have an notification LED. If not, it will be one more reasen that i (may be) don´t buy it.
What I remember reading about the guy on G+ who was a device tester for the N6 there is no notification LED. Instead we will have a variant of the "Active Notifications" screen.
While this may be disappointing to some out there I am not surprised they went this way not because of the AMOLED display, but because of Android Wear being pushed out to the market to the point where we have headware, watches, hell even jewelry capable of notification alarms making the notification LED almost obsolete these days. Hell the only time I ever see my LED work is when its charging/low batt/full battery. I will not miss it too much.
I think the LED is more anonymous, so i like this much more.
The other question is, which one takes more accumulator? The LED or the active display (AMOLED)
this is such a disappointment, i rely heavily on the LED, it's much less time consuming, just look at the light, no need to push the power button.
Koolieman20 said:
this is such a disappointment, i rely heavily on the LED, it's much less time consuming, just look at the light, no need to push the power button.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If its some sort of active display notification there won't be a need to press a button either. It'll just flash a few pixels on your screen with better information as to what type of notification.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk
biggiestuff said:
If its some sort of active display notification there won't be a need to press a button either. It'll just flash a few pixels on your screen with better information as to what type of notification.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk
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Click to collapse
Constantly like LED or when you wave?
borchgrevink said:
Constantly like LED or when you wave?
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Click to collapse
They call it "breathing". It's not as rapid as a led light but it's still low power consumption because it only uses a few pixels to light up the notification and it uses the lower power core on the processor so it's not waking the phone. Not sure if it's going to be the same like on the motos but if it is, I'd prefer it over led notification light.
Sent from my XT1053 using Tapatalk
http://www.androidpolice.com/2014/1...bient-display-personalized-take-moto-display/
I have a Moto 360 so neither really concerns me, but if I didn't I'd rather have use of the Moto Active screen than a notification LED.
Hmm, seems like a step back to me. LED keeps battery usage to a minimum, and is always visible. This only lights up when lifted or new notification. I like coming into the room and seeing the LED blink different colours for different notifications.
borchgrevink said:
Hmm, seems like a step back to me. LED keeps battery usage to a minimum, and is always visible. This only lights up when lifted or new notification. I like coming into the room and seeing the LED blink different colours for different notifications.
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This. Exactly! And from my understanding (at least on the Moto x) you can't change colors of the notifications. So you won't be able to tell from a distance.
Pretty sure that there's tons of AMOLED apps that let you choose custom notifications on the screen, at least from what I remember when I had a GNex. The other benefit of that method is you can display multiple notifications at once.
I still prefer the dedicated LED though, seems to be brighter and visible from further away. Also power use is lower, and the general consensus is AMOLED notifications should be 'bounced' around to various spots to avoid burn-in, which makes it a bit annoying.
SenK9 said:
Pretty sure that there's tons of AMOLED apps that let you choose custom notifications on the screen, at least from what I remember when I had a GNex..
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Click to collapse
Yeah, the LED on Nexus 5, with "Lightflow", saved my mental sanity a thousand time.
Someone knows a good app like that for Amoled screen?
I want to be prepared...
Gil. said:
Yeah, the LED on Nexus 5, with "Lightflow", saved my mental sanity a thousand time.
Someone knows a good app like that for Amoled screen?
I want to be prepared...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lightflow was a nightmare half the time with the LED, sometimes it works when it wants to work and other times it just does what it wants.
I had to eventually disable the notification LED's all except for low battery, charging and Full battery. Those were the only ones that were not problematic (most of the time).
Dr Faustus said:
Lightflow was a nightmare half the time with the LED, sometimes it works when it wants to work and other times it just does what it wants.
I had to eventually disable the notification LED's all except for low battery, charging and Full battery. Those were the only ones that were not problematic (most of the time).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Strange, never happened to me.
For me that app was a savior!
I hope I'll find a good competitor for AMOled.
I am sure given time developers will be able to find and mod the "Ambient Display" System to do anything you want it to. Hell if we are lucky and get an Xposed for ART support we will certainly see an xposed module to take full advantage of it.

Notifications related questions from a new buyer perspective

Hi folks!
I am considering to buy Moto X (1st gen, smaller is better for me) but have couple of questions regarding how notifications are handled on the custom ROMs.
I am so used to seeing my notifications on LED panels on both Xperia SP and Xperia Ray. I can not live without them. LED notifications help me to see what kind of notifications are pending and accordingly I decide whether to pick up the phone or not.
Regarding Moto X with custom ROMs:
1. Can I see notifications without speaking and without touching the phone? I see it has Active Display feature, how long it lits the display after notification is received?
2. Can the LED on Moto X be used for notifications and configured different colors for each notification?
Little offtopic: How is the camera? You like it?
Thanks.
1. Search for Moto X active display on YouTube. Best to see it in action for yourself. I don't miss having a notification LED at all because I don't have to power the screen on to see what my notifications are.
2. No, there's a thread regarding the LED.
3. I'm fine with it, but I don't expect iPhone quality pictures.
nhizzat said:
1. Search for Moto X active display on YouTube. Best to see it in action for yourself. I don't miss having a notification LED at all because I don't have to power the screen on to see what my notifications are.
2. No, there's a thread regarding the LED.
3. I'm fine with it, but I don't expect iPhone quality pictures.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. I have seen the video but I could not figure out how long the notification would be displayed on the screen. When I work, I put the phone at the side on my desk and check it only when there is any notification. Suppose that a SMS arrived and screen lit up with the notification but due to work, I did not notice that I have a new SMS. After some time say, 10 minutes, I glance at the screen (without touching). Will I see the notification on the screen in this case? Currently I glance at the blinking LED and then I know there is something and only after that I pick up the phone to check notification. I hope that I was clear. Could you please clarify this?
2. I will check the LED thread.
3. Yes, I am not expecting much
Waving your hand over the screen or gently rocking the phone will activate active/Moto display. I've never timed the frequency of the notifications but I'd say it's about as often as a notification LED. With this, you won't have to pick up your phone to check because you'll know exactly what's waiting.
nhizzat said:
Waving your hand over the screen or gently rocking the phone will activate active/Moto display. I've never timed the frequency of the notifications but I'd say it's about as often as a notification LED. With this, you won't have to pick up your phone to check because you'll know exactly what's waiting.
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Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply. What I am looking for is, with the glance only I should be able to tell that the notification is waiting. So, waving or picking up the phone to see notifications is not what I expect to do. Looks like active display is not what I thought it would be
If there is a new notification and you were not there to notice it, the screen will light up enough pixels periodically to inform you of the new notification(s). It will pulse on periodically and is noticeable in your peripheral vision. These active notifications are controlled by a low energy processor core and take less energy than a constantly blinking notification led. You can get very valuable info from the active notifications without turning on the screen, the notifications only use a few hundred pixels, whereas you have to turn on the whole screen to see what's up with a notification led. I was leery of the lack of a notification led, but now I greatly prefer the active notifications and will look for that feature on my next phone.
Groid said:
If there is a new notification and you were not there to notice it, the screen will light up enough pixels periodically to inform you of the new notification(s). It will pulse on periodically and is noticeable in your peripheral vision. These active notifications are controlled by a low energy processor core and take less energy than a constantly blinking notification led. You can get very valuable info from the active notifications without turning on the screen, the notifications only use a few hundred pixels, whereas you have to turn on the whole screen to see what's up with a notification led. I was leery of the lack of a notification led, but now I greatly prefer the active notifications and will look for that feature on my next phone.
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Click to collapse
This is perfectly explained, kudos to you! Thank you very much.
enli said:
Thanks for the reply. What I am looking for is, with the glance only I should be able to tell that the notification is waiting. So, waving or picking up the phone to see notifications is not what I expect to do. Looks like active display is not what I thought it would be
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Also, the notification will flash about every 5 seconds and will be illuminated for about 2 seconds. I think it slows down after a while

Notifications on Marshmellow

Is it just me or are notification just broke in MM or the N6 in general? I'm under the impression that the N6 has a Proximity Sensor but unlike it's half brother the Moto X waving your hand over the display doesn't do anything. Is this correct because if not mine doesn't work.
The other thing is it might or might not make a notification sound when notification comes in or it might or might not always light up the display. And if it does it may only flash the lock screen two or three times and then it just stops. Picking up the phone may or may not trigger the screen to light up. It doesn't matter if it is a Gmail, Text or a Calendar reminder. The notifications in MM just seem broken to me at least on the N6. My N7 works properly other then it doesn't have the Ambient Display.
I've reset the phone. I've flashed the stock factory images. I've played with the settings until I think I've turned on and off every switch there is to change. I've been stock, or stock rooted but nothing changes. The notifications are just wonky and my N6.
One last little rant while I'm in the mood. Why doesn't the N6 support 360 degree rotation? Seems silly that my N7 does but that "feature" isn't part of the N6. Come on Google get it together already.
Over all I like everything about this phone and MM in general which is more then I can say for LP when it first landed. But man this notification issue is just driving me nuts.
So is it just me and my phone?
Thanks,
fasthair
It won't show notifications if you wave your hand, it will light up when you receive a notification and when you pick up or move your phone though
I usually just use the LED notification but ambient display works every time when I have it enabled.
In your settings area, under sounds/notifications- check your do not disturb settings and make sure those settings are correct for how you want them, when and what makes noise for notifications.
Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk
fasthair said:
Is it just me or are notification just broke in MM or the N6 in general? I'm under the impression that the N6 has a Proximity Sensor but unlike it's half brother the Moto X waving your hand over the display doesn't do anything. Is this correct because if not mine doesn't work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Does not trigger on proximity. You need to BONK the phone -- it uses a motion sensor.
The other thing is it might or might not make a notification sound when notification comes in or it might or might not always light up the display. And if it does it may only flash the lock screen two or three times and then it just stops. Picking up the phone may or may not trigger the screen to light up. It doesn't matter if it is a Gmail, Text or a Calendar reminder. The notifications in MM just seem broken to me at least on the N6. My N7 works properly other then it doesn't have the Ambient Display.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are a few things that can impact it. For instance the proximity sensor will *DISABLE* notification display. The reason for this, is that it indicates that the phone is in your pocket or something. If the screen lights up in your pocket, it enables the touch sensor, and makes it possible for your pocket to push buttons. Two or three times sounds right. That's what its supposed to do, not blink perpetually.
One last little rant while I'm in the mood. Why doesn't the N6 support 360 degree rotation? Seems silly that my N7 does but that "feature" isn't part of the N6. Come on Google get it together already.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
N7 is a tablet. N6 is a phone. Making sure to keep track of "which way is UP" is useful so you don't try to talk into the speaker and listen from the microphone. Consider for a moment, you are browsing a website with the phone upside down, a phone call comes in, HUD notification shows from what visually appears to be the top of the phone, you answer, and put it on your head upside down. Alternatively, if the phone call forces it to right-side-up notification, you end up fumbling around with it trying to right side up it while in the process of hitting the answer button.
Thanks for the replies folks.
I do Bonk the phone to get it to light up and see if there is notifications. It just seems silly to me that I have to touch the phone when it's laying on my desk to see if I've missed a notification of some sort. I really miss the LED notification. Yes I know there is a hack to make the LED work on this phone but it works just as wonky for me. To me notifications are just broke since the only way to know if you missed something is pick up the phone, more or less, and look instead of just giving the phone a glance to see if the LED is blinking and what color it is to tell what type of notification it is. Anyway, now that I know it is supposed to be this way I'll just have to get used to it. I did find some settings under the Do Not Disturb as @DroidFire pointed out where off a bit. Adjusting those has helped so thanks for pointing me to look there.
The point about the N6 being a phone and as such no 360 degree rotation makes sense now that it is pointed out as @doitright has done so well. Thanks for that bit of logic.
fasthair
Just keep in mind that it was a temporary oversight on google's part. The 5x/6p went back to blinking notification lights. It was an interesting, but frustrating idea.
I think that the notification light can fairly easily be made to work reliably, but without blinking. Would end up needing at least part of the OS to be rebuilt. The hacks that you found that are unreliable, are addons rather than component replacements. That's why they are unreliable.

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