Their absence encourages you to check your phone more often, which means you'll unlock it and look at some content more often, which means as revenue for someone.
You just wrinkled my brain right now.
Being honest I think the opposite of this is more likely true. Seeing a flashing indicator for all the notifications my phone “thinks” are important is going to make me more likely to constantly check my phone. Barring that I check when I want to. And with the new passive display modes I can glance and decide whether to even unlock or not.
passive display
This is the real answer for OP. Those lights were replaced. Maybe OP (and maybe me as well, I haven't really thought about it) would prefer to still have the notification LED, but to the hardware manufacturers they replaced those with something "cooler".
It’s a nice conspiracy theory. But unlikely. Who gets the additional review?
For some random hardware producer I don't see how that would be favourable.
Genuinely wouldn't be surprised if this was the truth. The tactics these companies employ are both putridly-covert, yet brilliantly executed - especially so if it also saves a few cents.
In Apple's case it's a subtle encouragement to buy their watch.
I don’t believe the iPhone ever had an LED notification light. The iPhone existed well before the watch did, as well.
I shouldn't have doubted Apple's campaign for minimalism > functionality
Higher end Smartphones have anyway always on displays. And the led needs screenspace - which should be maximized. That's why the notch on phones etc. was introduced.
Yeah, it’s basically just this. AODs took over for notification lights.
I still think it's a terrible compromise. I actually looke specifically for a phone without one and ended up with a Sony Xperia. Sure, the front isn't 100% screen and I have tiny bars above and below the screen, but who cares?
The led can just be put in the speaker grill though, I think my old HTC did this.
I also love notification LEDs.
I'm pretty sure the main reason for them disappearing is the displays extending all the way to to edge. There isn't any room left where to place it.
Also, on phones with always-on display, you can use the display to show notifications, the led is redundant.
But still, I find them really useful and am sad to see them being phased out.
My phone does not have a LED notification light. It does however have a little green LED hidden near the front facing camera which is within the screen area. This light comes on only when using the front facing camera and I assume is some kind of indicator light. Why this can't be dual purpose or why another LED or even small sections of screen can't be used for notifications is beyond me.
I think the real reason they removed the notification light is to make people use their phones more. Now instead of a glance to see a light I actually have to touch my screen which could allow additional scans of my figerprints or face and could contribute to data tracking when I am most active on my phone.
Personally, I want that light to have one purpose and one purpose only, which is to tell me when the camera is on. It should be hardwired into the circuit powering that front facing camera and not touched by software at all, otherwise you open up the risk of someone recording you with the indicator disabled.
I believe that's actually a legal requirement in some jurisdictions.
Sony Xperia user here, I recommend your Next phone should be a Sony. Not only does it still have notification LEDs, it also has an SD card slot and a headphone jack...and a 5500mah battery. Will never go back to Samsung again
How long does Sony support their hardware with OS updates? Do they lock down the ability to run custom roms?
I left Samsung because their flagship phones lost support after a couple of years and they made it harder and harder to load custom ROMs.
I move to apple mostly because it is the easiest to support my kids on and they support the phones for what seems like forever, making my hand me down phones much more valuable for much longer. I’d consider jumping back to android if I could expect a phone to be useful and up to date for 4ish years.
I'm still rocking my Pixel 3 with no complaints! I dumped Samsung once the Pixels came out. So much less bullshit preloaded into it.
I gotta say, sometimes I miss my fully customized LED on my blackberry back in the day. It could be in the bottom of a gym bag and I’d still know if I missed a Google Talk message (green) or a Facebook alert (dark blue) or an email (light blue), etc etc etc.
I had a Galaxy Nexus with a custom ROM and was able to set the led to any color I wanted per app. It was awesome.
I don't understand how Blackberry managed to drive itself into the ground like it did. I need a modern BB 9900 ASAP.
Off topic a little but I stop most of my messaging app to notify me. And my life is so much more peaceful. I told everyone when they connect with me on any messaging app that it'll take time for me to answer. I'll read it when I remember to read it, which I do like once or twice a day. They adapt to that and if it's really important they'll call.
With OLED, your entire screen is an array of possible LED notifications :)
iPhone = Settings / Accessibility / Audio Visual "LED Flash for Alerts" (at the bottom)
Packaging design, cost, manufacturing complexity, reliability. LEDs require a breach on the case for the lens. This requires a couple components plus sealing plus testing. Affects IP seal rating.
Every physical breach of the case is a reliability, sealing, dust, water, etc issue. Those are the things they fail on phones, after screens and batteries.
The PCB now has LEDs on the edge thdr need special assembly care like the three buttons do.
Most people put protective cases on phones so edges aren't available.
The top is all screen. The bottom sees the desk/table.
Haptics, screen, vibration do so much the loss of the LEDs is pretty minimal.
Don't be surprised if the power and up/down buttons go away sometime soon.
Headphone jacks are a huge problem as is USB and speakers.
I hate that everything useful is being thrown out the window for "water proofing." Fuck that, people need to quit being so lazy and careless with their shit.
And I'm calling bullshit on the dust thing. I'm not saying it's a negligible consideration, but it's not something they need to start gelding features for. That's just a horseshit excuse to effectuate planned obsolescence and sell you overpriced accessories.
I still use an 8 year old phone with a tool-free replaceable battery, headphone jack, and microSD slot. I live in the country, there's dust everywhere and it would be dead by now if dust was such a problem.
Look I live in a place where we get sideways torrential rain. Often. I need my phone to be waterproof enough to survive my commute to work on a bad day
It helps if you're wearing clothes.
This defense of feature removal always conveniently ignores the phones that manage to accomplish fantastic ingress ratings even with headphone jacks, SD cards, etc.
It's not because of water/dust. It's purely cost cutting.
My guess it is cheaper to do software features rather than a physical led .. cutting costs at every corner
Every phone has an LED for the camera flash.
On the front though?
*Huh mine does, I never use the selfie camera. Anyone else seeing spots?
I didn't know I miss those LED notifications until now. Thanks :(
I get so many trash notifications it would just be on all the time and I'd turn it off.
The whole front of modern phone is a display, there's simply no space for a notification LED.
I'm pretty sure it's just to cut costs / complexity / part counts in lower end phones, and higher end phones will use an always on display.
Though worth noting that the Nothing Phone 1 & 2 include pretty snazzy LEDs on the back that are used for notifications amongst other things.
When you have questions like this, the answer is almost always money.
For this particular question, it is money - the cost of the LEDs (which is of course minimal, but multiplied by millions of phones), but also manufacturing (need to have a hole in the case to let the LED shine though which can let water ingress into phone). To make those holes water tight would add more cost so instead they decided to use the screen itself as the notification method. I think Motorola's implementation of this was the best - they had their always on display to show notifications and a single tap would let you see what the message was even if the phone was locked.
I'm guessing that with everything they cram into those things nowadays, every last nook and cranny is valuable space to be used.
A little blinken light is probably not high on the list of features competing for that space.
On Samsung phones your whole screen flashes in a custom color and and animation, and after that you have your always on display. So they are no longer needed with OLED screens that can display it themselves
Modern smartphones hardly have any edges and therefore hardly any space for an LED at the notch. In addition, the pixels of AMOLED displays can be controlled individually, which allows displaying notifications well and consumes little power at the same time.
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