Notification Badges for Galaxy S7

[Android Central Question]

This question has been asked before but so far I've not seen the solution I need for my S7.

I'm specifically looking for a way to enable notification badges without using a launcher. The notification badges have to work for apps on the homescreen and the app favorites bar (so notification apps that use widgets won't do). Some apps I need badges for include: Phone, Messages, Gmail, Voxer.

I'm actually baffled that this is not a native feature of the phone. Any solutions?

 

[chanchan05]

It's not a native feature of the phone because it wasn't a native feature of Android before 8.0 (Oreo) because the launcher is separate from the OS itself. I think the only reason Google finally adds it is because manufacturers haven't really been making their launchers support it fully. And hence, this is a feature of the launcher and not the OS. So if your launcher does not support it, you have to change. You can't add features to an app without rewriting the app or going through workarounds.

In other words, no. Use a different launcher, or widgets, or forget about them altogether until you receive the Oreo update.

On a side note, I'm curious as to why you won't use a launcher. That's practically the thing that makes Android great: the ability to replace what's provided with a better alternative if you want additional features.

 

[Homelessdollars]

Hey chanchan05, this is OP. Thanks for the explanation.

There are a couple reasons why I was avoiding using a lanucher... one is that I am trying to do this to our 6 work devices. We already have our launcher customised for our workers and I was trying to avoid having to customize a new launcher on 6 phones. The other reason is that of all the popular launchers I've checked so far the badge feature is a paid feature. If there was a good launcher that offered badges for free then I might look into it.

You say that the Android version on S7 (Android 7.0) does not support badges.. however the stock Messages app does use notification badges. It's the only app on the phone that shows a badge. So the feature is in there somewhere, but for some reason only enabled for Messages.

I do use Nova Prime launcher on my personal phone and I have the notification badges. However the cost of setting up 6 phones just for this feature is a bit too much.. as useful as the feature would be to us.

 

[Rukbat]

Contact Tesla and ask if they could give you a discount for 6 launchers and 6 copies of Unread. As chanchan said, until Oreo, it was a feature of the launcher, that an app could be written to access, but almost no apps do.

 

[chanchan05]

Hey chanchan05, this is OP. Thanks for the explanation.

There are a couple reasons why I was avoiding using a lanucher... one is that I am trying to do this to our 6 work devices. We already have our launcher customised for our workers and I was trying to avoid having to customize a new launcher on 6 phones. The other reason is that of all the popular launchers I've checked so far the badge feature is a paid feature. If there was a good launcher that offered badges for free then I might look into it.

You say that the Android version on S7 (Android 7.0) does not support badges.. however the stock Messages app does use notification badges. It's the only app on the phone that shows a badge. So the feature is in there somewhere, but for some reason only enabled for Messages.

I do use Nova Prime launcher on my personal phone and I have the notification badges. However the cost of setting up 6 phones just for this feature is a bit too much.. as useful as the feature would be to us.

The S7 is using Samsung's launcher which adds notification badges for some apps. Not all. There is no such thing as a phone with no launcher. Again the notification badges are a feature of the launcher and not the OS in versions lower than Android 8.0

 

[Homelessdollars]

Roger that. Thanks!

 

[Homelessdollars]

So my S7 phones randomly started showing notification badges on 3rd party apps this week. They are still using the TouchWiz launcher.. I have no idea what happened. I don't see any information about an update.