It will support multiple notifications from the same application

Mar 7, 2014 07:58 GMT  ·  By

Windows Phone 8.1, the next version of Microsoft’s mobile operating system, is expected to arrive on devices with a nice range of new features and enhancements, one of which will be an Action Center.

The new functionality has been leaked online before, yet specific details on how it will actually work are still missing, and we have only a partial idea of what it will have to offer when available.

However, a new set of leaked info coming from the recently released Windows Phone 8.1 SDK appears set to shed some more light on the matter.

Details coming from Roman L (via WMPoweruser) unveil that multiple notifications from the same application will be available in the Action Center.

An app will have up to 20 notifications displayed there. They can last for up to 7 days, but users will be provided with the option to group them (when they come from the same application, of course).

Moreover, the Action Center will allow users to tap a notification, dismiss all of them, or choose to open a specific group of notifications, it seems.

Furthermore, it seems that developers will be provided with the possibility to control notifications straight from the app.

Thus, they can set rules to remove a notification after the user has launched the application, to replace an older notification with a new one, or to tag and group notifications together.

At the same time, developers will be provided with the possibility to set expiration dates for their application’s notifications.

Windows Phone 8.1's Action Center gets detailed
Windows Phone 8.1's Action Center gets detailed
Support for “Ghost Toasts” will also be included, meaning that devs can set toast notifications that will appear only in the notification center. Most probably, they will emerge there without a sound alert.

The one thing that the SDK does not show for the time being is Actionable Notifications, which have already been rumored to arrive in the next Windows Phone release.

Given that there’s no sign of this feature as of now, it remains to be seen whether Microsoft has decided to opt out of it in the end, or if it merely needs some more fine-tuning before being pushed out.

During the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Microsoft has confirmed the upcoming availability of Windows Phone 8.1 (though it did not actually name it), and also unveiled that it will come with on-screen navigation keys, dual-SIM support, and many new features.

However, the company did not detail the OS upgrade, and it did not provide a specific availability date for it either. Rumor has it that it will unveil all about it next month, during the BUILD conference, and that it will start pushing the update starting with late April.

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Windows Phone 8.1's Action Center gets detailed
Windows Phone 8.1's Action Center gets detailed
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