Description: Flash Notification 2 is an app that allows you to control the notification LED’s for you device, although not the LED indicator on the front like you might expect. A requirement for this app to work properly and provide the user with the experience that is intended, is that your device must have an LED flash for the rear camera for when notifications of any type come in. Instead of using the LED indicator to notify of you when any incoming messages, emails, calls or any other notifications come through, Flash Notification 2 will use your LED flash on the back to get the job done. It will also allow you to set other configurations like flashing your screen without a flash while the screen is on.
How It Works: First, what you’ll need to do is head over to the Play Store and grab Flash Notification 2 and download it. Once that part is done you can open it up and start playing around with to set the configurations for how you want everything to work.
Flash Notification 2 will work for virtually all devices, however if you want the LED flash portion of it to work, your device will have to have an LED flash on the back. Most phones do these days, but not all. If that’s the case, Flash notification 2 will let you set up screen flashes instead of LED flashes.
You can set the apps that have incoming notifications, that you want Flash Notification 2 to interact with. So for example you can add in Facebook, Hangouts, Google+, Gmail, and WhatsApp, but leave out virtually everything else if you wish.
You can set up the number of flashes and screen on options while flashes from notifications are coming through, and even set up a repeat option in case you may be out of the room to miss the first set of flashes. Screen flashes can also be set up with a specific color chosen by the user, and you ca select the thickness of the border. For incoming calls, you can do this as well and you can even turn on a “shake to call feature” with configurations for the sensor sensitivity, as well as set up parameters for missed calls like repeat intervals and such.
Flash Notification 2 gives you the option to set a “working time”, so that if you don’t want it going off while you’re at work or at some other function where it may be inappropriate to have it flashing continuously, you can set start and stop times.
There is also an option to set up a flash delay, and how many flashes per second there are before a break in between flashes, all the way up to 20 flashes per 1 second. This option is for incoming calls as well as any notification apps that you have selected. To modify the delay or flashes per second for notification apps, simply tap to add which apps you want, then once back to the main screen tap to modify the app you wish to change the configurations for.
Opinion: As someone who has a phone with the LED indicator on the front, I personally prefer this method of changing the colors of the LED indicator as opposed to having my LED flash go off. For those without an LED indicator on the front that can be modified Flash Notification 2 is a nice alternative with plenty of options and customization. It gives quite a bit of control over how the flashes work, and even gives options for devices that don’t have an LED flash on the back with the screen flash option instead. The added capability of start and stop times makes it so that you can set up all your parameters and then the app will just work during its given time period, no hassle of having to turn it on or off.
Ratings
- Speed (5/5) – Flash Notification 2 works quickly and you shouldn’t experience any issues with screen transitioning or open/close actions
- Features (5/5) – There are plenty of features here, and quite surprisingly so. You’d think that a simple notification indicator app wouldn’t have much about it, but that would be an understatement. There’s many options here.
- Theme (4/5) – The theme is not necessarily beautiful to look at, but things look nice and everything is readable without issue
- Overall (4.5) – It works well and has a decent amount to offer the user, and it’s free. If you don’t have an LED indicator to modify for notifications, you can’t go wrong here.
Pros
- Plenty of features for people to choose from, with lots of flexibility.
- Start and stop times, allowing for better management of when flashes go off.
- Blacklist/Whitelist allowing for management of which apps Flash Notification 2 interacts with.
- Color options for screen flashes.
Cons
- Notification alerts were missed a couple of times
Conclusion: When you take a look at what this app provides for the user, it actually does things pretty well. With many options and even the ability to set when it turns on and off during the day, you can be assured that flashes won’t go off at inappropriate times when you get incoming notifications. It’s versatile enough to work with most devices, even some that don’t have the LED flash on the back with the option use screen flashes instead. While I myself prefer to use an app that can allow me to modify the colors of my LED indicator, this a great option for devices that don’t have those.