Dog – Advisor is an Android app that aims to keep smartphone users up-to-date with any missed notifications on there device, but do so in a manner that’s fun and engaging. That’s why the Yalos Company has made their “Advisor” app a fun and engaging Dog character. The Dog will appear on your screen whenever you have an email, a missed call, calendar events and even pre-programmed alarms. Developed by a Russian team of developers, the Dog – Advisor app is available in both English and Russian and can not only help to keep people up-to-date regarding missed calls and notifications, but also keep users interested with engaging animations and sounds, as well.
To get this fun little character on their devices, users just need to download Dog – Advisor from the Play Store. Once that’s done, users will be able to launch the app, which offers users a settings page.
I would have expected the app to have some sort of fun, engaging tutorial on what our Dog friend has to offer people, but there’s just this settings display. Here, users can choose which sort of notifications the Dog – Advisor app will react to. I decided to have them all on for the sake of testing. When I received a text message (an SMS) our fun little Dog friend appeared on my screen.
There are some settings that users can adjust as well, each of them independent of each notification type. So users can adjust how Dog appears when someone gets a call, for example.
One thing that I thought was a little curious, and didn’t seem to have much use at all outside of the entertainment value was the fact that Dog can be programmed to randomly appear on screen at certain intervals.
I have to say, the animation quality is really good here, everything is nice and fluid and the high-resolution artwork really looks great. Some of the ways that Dog can appear on your device are pretty amusing, too.
If you don’t like Dog appearing quite so much on his own, when there are no notifications to deal with, you can adjust this in the settings by launching the app icon at any time.
The idea here is that Dog can appear when you have a message or have a missed call to let you know that while also bringing a smile to the user’s face. I think for the most part, Dog does this, and the Alarm feature is perhaps one that will work well for users needed to make sure they don’t lose track of time.
I have to say though, I think Dog would be more useful as a sort of reminder app on its own, with some more detailed programming and settings. After all, users get so many notifications these days that one thing on top of it could become quite annoying. Having said that, getting a reminder on a calendar event can often be exceptionally helpful and it’s this area where I feel Dog makes the most sense. As something that pops up on people’s displays every now and then, he could become annoying after a while. Having said that, all of the settings can be adjusted and there’s a lot of flexibility in how Dog appears and why he appears. With a more in-depth and colorful setup app, and more notification triggers – such as WhatsApp, Hangouts, Skype, Facebook Messenger and so on – then Dog would definitely become something easily-recommended to a lot of users, but right now it feels more as though it’s still in testing than anything else.
Ratings
- Speed (4/5) – Dog has little to no impact on how well a device performs overall, and whenever he does appear the animation is always nice and speedy.
- Theme (5/5) – In terms of charm and good-looking animation, Dog is well-animated, fluid and has a cheeky charm to him I think younger users will really enjoy.
- Features (4/5) – Dog is good fun, and I’m sure that he has his uses, but it all feels a little limited right now. With not much in the way of other notification support or a better app to configure things, there’s definitely more that Dog could offer in later versions.
- Overall (4/5) – While it could do with a little more polish, the core character is working well and will definitely put a smile on people’s faces.
Pros
- Will appeal to younger users and perhaps those that ares suffering from depression and need a little lift here and there.
- Helps to keep people up-to-date about missed calls and such in a fun and cheeky manner.
- Animation and graphics look great, Dog is a fully-realized character that’s well-drawn and animated fluidly.
- Alarm function gives users the option of something a little more entertaining than the usual alarm clock apps on Android these days.
Cons
- The Dog character could do with a name, as it feels a little impersonal without one.
- Doesn’t offer users much more besides four different notification types and an alarm clock.
Dog – Advisor is an app that has a lot to offer, but it could also end up offering so much more if it just added in some extra features, like the ability to deal with more notifications from the likes of WhatsApp and so on. Besides, something like this is bound to grow tired on users after a while, no matter how charming Dog really is. There’s a lot of potential here, but right now this is something that would appeal to younger users and perhaps those looking for a little lift during their day.