AcDisplay and HeadsUp: Better Notification Handling

We've featured both HeadsUp and AcDisplay by XDA Recognized Developer AChep in the past. Both have been constantly improved since they were released, and with the recent updates for better Lollipop support and material design, we figured it would be a good time for a double feature.

The two apps are excellent for handling your notifications, each in their own and distinct manner.

AcDisplay

AcDisplay informs you of new notifications you receive while your screen is off, by showing you a minimal overview allowing you to view, clear or action the notification.

Many customization options are provided: you can set the minimum and maximum priority of notifications to be shown (this is useful so that your screen doesn't wake up for weather updates, for example) or even configure AcDisplay on a per app basis, choosing a custom wallpaper (or dynamically picking the notification's icon/artwork), using the system font (as opposed to Roboto) and more. Inactive hours can also be defined to disable AcDisplay entirely during your sleep.

Two additional modes are also available, giving you the choice to use AcDisplay as your lockscreen, or automatically activating it when you pick your device up. Both of these options can also be dynamically disabled when no notifications are available.

HeadsUp

HeadsUp, on the other hand, is more comparable to the feature introduced in Lollipop, though it adds many needed features and customization options to it.

When it comes to looks, you can select from two themes (dark and light). That's not all, though: you also have the option to configure the heads up's position, having it show at the top or bottom of the screen, and optionally overlaying the status bar. Emoji can also be enabled, as well as using the system font (mostly useful for non AOSP ROMs).

Swiping to the right or left can either dismiss the notification or hide the heads up — this is configurable by the user. Swiping up always hides all heads up notifications. Naturally, you can disable or enable HeadsUp for each app individually. A neat addition over the stock heads up system is that multiple notifications can be displayed at once, instead of replacing the previous one.

(If you're on Lollipop and your ROM doesn't allow you to disable the stock heads up system, you may want to try the Restore notification ticker on Lollipop Xposed module by XDA Recognized Developer MohammadAG.)

Both are compatible with all devices running Android 4.1 or later, though 4.4+ is recommended as it introduces notification listeners (giving third-party apps the ability to clear notifications and letting them know when one is cleared).

What's New?

Versions 3.x have been out for a few weeks (with the latest releases coming out just yesterday), with bugs being squashed along the way and some features making it in. They should be fully usable now, with many changes since the 2.x releases.

For those who haven't been following their development, here's what's new in 3.x for AcDisplay:

• Material design!
• Basic JellyBean (4.1&4.2) support.
• Options to show emoji instead of text smileys, for overriding system fonts and better privacy features when Android's secure lock is enabled.
• Many other improvements, bug fixes and translation updates.

… and for HeadsUp:

• Material design!
• Options to make heads up overlap the status bar, show at the bottom of the screen or on the lockscreen, and to disable the timeout entirely. The behavior when swiping to the left or right can also be customized.
• Users can swipe up to hide all heads up.
• Many other improvements, bug fixes and translation updates.

(You can view the full changelog for HeadsUp here, and for AcDisplay here.)

 

 

 

Get Them Now!

AcDisplay and HeadsUp are both open source and published under the GPLv3. You're welcome to check them out or contribute: HeadsUp GitHub repo, AcDisplay GitHub repo.

Interested? Make sure to visit the HeadsUp forum thread and AcDisplay forum thread for more info, downloads and support!

The post AcDisplay and HeadsUp: Better Notification Handling appeared first on xda-developers.

source: xdadevelopers