Chapter 17. Notifications
A notification is an important status message or warning. On the iPhone (or in Windows 8), you get one every time a text message comes in, an alarm goes off, a calendar appointment is imminent, or your battery is running low.
iPhone apps use this mechanism, too. You get a message when your friends post updates on Facebook or Twitter. When your flight is two hours from takeoff. When a new Groupon discount becomes available. When your online Scrabble or chess partner makes another move.
It’s no different on the Mac. Mail and Messages might want to let you know that a new message has arrived. Game Center might want you to realize that it’s your move. The Calendar app might want to remind you that an important meeting is about to start.
In OS X, you know when some app is trying to get your attention: A message bubble slides into view at the top right of your screen (Figure 17-1, top). Some of these alerts slide away again after 5 seconds; others require you to click a button, like Close, Snooze, or Show (which opens the program that’s waving its little hand in your face).
Note
Only apps you got from the Mac App Store can tap into the Notification Center. Other programs will use whatever alert mechanisms they always have—pop-up dialog boxes, for example.
All kinds of warnings—dying battery, failed Time Machine backups, disks ejected improperly—appear in these subtle notification bubbles, rather than bleating their news in show-stopping dialog boxes.
Get Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual, Mavericks Edition now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
