Could we please add push notifications for the Android app? I’ve searched the feature request forum and I can’t believe there’s been hardly anything posted about this issue. I pretty much do everything iNat-related on my phone and rarely log into the website so I never see messages or when someone has identified one of my observations. I know there are email notifications but my inbox is clogged up enough as it is and I check my email as little as possible. I’m sure I’m not the only person that feels this way.
Examples of notifications that I would like to see:
When someone identifies or annotates my observation
Messages from other users
New followers
When someone has posted an observation for a species of interest (based on a list I can create)
I approved this request but I think it’s very unlikely iNat will have push notifications anytime soon. I rememeber we explored it a bit a few years ago and there were cost issues, among other things. So adding push notifications would be a pretty big undertaking. However, I wouldn’t rule it out entirely.
Personally I’ve turned off most push notifications for my phone and it’s been a boon for my mental health.
I hate push notifications. I turn them off in every single app I have on any of my devices. Those annoying things are a perfect example of what’s wrong with a world constantly connected through phones, tablets, computers, etc.
The thing is, no matter my opinion or your opinion on notifications personally, I think having the option of push notifications would be good for some people. It shouldn’t be the default, but it would be useful to have it as an option for those who want it.
How would there be cost issues for implementing a feature like notifications into an app? Genuine question, because unless it would involve hiring more developers, I can’t see where the extra cost would come from.
While I don’t use android, but iOS, I would much appreciate push notifications also.
Like tiwane and earthknight I have them turned off for almost every app, too, but iNat would be the exception. As is, I check my iNat notifications like 5/6 times a day at least and having push-notifications would definitely make that more seamless. I honestly don’t really use my devices for much apart from iNat nowadays, anyway… ^^
If you search for “push notifications cost” or similar on your favorite search engine, you will get a variety of results showing the different costs different providers charge for sending/managing push notifications. These vary based on number of notifications, subscribers, etc. It’s not hard to imagine that with iNat’s number of users (which is always increasing) and the amount of notifications each is likely to get each day, that the costs for providing push notifications would quickly add up. I’d personally prefer iNat to allocate their limited resources towards other things.
Adding to what @cthawley said, there are definite costs involved, either through paying a third party service or hosting a server of our own. I don’t know what either method would cost and how it would fit into the iNat’s overall financial allocation (we’ve really only been independent for about 1.5 years), but it’s definitely something that would have to be considered.
What I would find more useful is if the app had some functionality similar to the icons on my dashboard. As it is, if I want to be sure of finding all the pink tags, I have to scroll all the way through my >1,000 observations. There is already a three-dots menu in the top right corner, but it only says “Mark all as viewed”; whereas I would have expected it to be more like the speech bubble icon in the same location on my dashboard on the website, that is, show me the new notifications in one spot. As it is, I am just today finding pink tags from a week ago.
Would this be a more feasible option than push notifications?