I recently got a new phone, and a new place to keep it. My previous phone was damaged when I sat on it and realized that keeping it in a back pocket was a bad idea. I’m keeping my new phone in a belt pouch with a Velcro seal and it takes me slightly longer to get at the phone than it would if it was in my pocket.
And so I was, a few days ago, messaging people using SMS and then putting my phone away. Several times my interlocutors would send me short affirmative messages which I would have to read by pulling out my phone from it’s pouch, turn it on with it’s (not always first try) security and then read a message that says “OK” or “Yes”.
So I thought; why not have the phone change it’s notification sound for simple messages? A table of possible short messages which would then translate into a different notification sound and allow the user to understand a simple message without having to pick up their phone, unlock it and read the message.
This would certainly make sending short messages slightly more polite as it can seem aggravating sometimes to have to read short messages. Even though it’s not the fault of the sender really.
- The idea would require a customized default messaging app for android, or possibly system configuration, I’m unsure how notification sounds are stored.
- A research stage where short messages on multiple phones was collected into a corpus of English messages. Each classified into what it probably means.
- An additional corpus of emoji messages that can be easily converted into sound. Example a kissing emoji into a kissing sound.
- A restriction on the time between the previous message to/from the sender and the notification. Say half an hour. This is to prevent an affirmative messages which arrive a week after the last correspondence from confusing the recipient.
- A secondary research phase where a group of people’s would have the app installed (replacing their messaging app) and would self report if the new notification sounds made any difference over a couple of months of use.
This is a sort of imaginary plan, but I could see this being useful. But the only way it would be come mainstream is if it was adopted by Google directly into it’s own messaging app. A stepping stone towards that would be adoption of the modified message app into after market android such as the Cyanogenmod project. The stepping stone would certainly allow more data to be collected about it’s functional use out int he wild.
Another alternative stepping stone would be to approach a manufacturer or telco network. But quite often apps these layers install are seen as bloat-ware and it might be better to avoid that route if possible.
What do you think? Good idea? bad idea?