Tons of posts about 'what is this notification'

[nickdalzell]

I have noticed a ton of posts asking the same question: 'what does this notification mean? what is this icon? etc' There's been a way to find out for years--ever since Android became a thing in 2008.

Swipe down from the top of the screen, and you should be able to read each notification--including the 'unknown' ones you're asking about.

Tap and hold a notification to get a sub-menu, depending on your version of Android you might see 'app info' or a settings cog icon (a gear), or a notification settings option. Tap one of those and it should take you to the app's page in Settings.

However, and it's still hard to believe this may still be a thing, but most 'oddball' notifications such as hearts, stars, rainbows and the like are spam notifications from RAM cleaners, Battery Savers, CPU Boosters and Task Killers. Many of whom were written by the infamous Cheetah Mobile, which I had hopes got killed off by the Play Store in like 2010 or something. I haven't heard of them in quite some time, not since the old 'AirPush' spam days. Do they still exist in some Zombie form I'm not aware of?

Also, UNINSTALL apps like Task Killers and RAM cleaners. Hard to believe people still fall for them today. Android does NOT need it. Leave it alone and it works perfectly fine on its own, and DON'T update apps all willy nilly. I know that the 'update' button on Play Store is enticing and all, but you'll eventually reduce your phone to a crawl as resources increase for updated versions. By all means, keep banking apps, shopping apps up to date, but many games, ebook readers, and the calculator or alarm clock do NOT need updating.

I use an 11 year old phone and it works as good as the day it was launched because I never updated a single app pre-installed on it and I use app APKs from the Android 2.3 days on it for any third party stuff.

 

[ocnbrze]

like i just posted in another thread.......it usually is not members phone. 99% of these questions are from jealous partners wanting to know if their significant other is cheating on them. so because of that, the member is not willing to ask or is not brave enough to just look in the other's phone.

this question comes and goes, but we get it here almost daily basis. i use to answer them almost religiously pretty much saying the same thing over and over again. i even had an answer that i just copy and paste(not sure where it went must have accidentally deleted it a while ago).

edit: but lately i sometime do not have the energy to post a response.......

 

[mikedt]

I think the main proliferation of AF "What is this heart notification?" questions, started about the same time as the COVID-19 lockdowns and quarantining. When peeps were stuck at home for weeks and months on end, and probably looking their smart-phones, with not much else to do. They became paranoid that their other half was possibly been unfaithful, and using dating apps, and that paranoia may still continue to this day?

 

[svim]

OK but you've made it clear you have limited experience with Android devices and prefer to use an out-dated phone and have no online presence to speak of. But most people have moved on and are using newer mobile devices and a lot of them have way too much of an online presence. So all those queries about all those mystery icons are from those who may indeed be a bit clueless about Android's inner workings (they have other things in life to focus on) but there any number of developers who push out apps and services that are on occasion lacking so icons that pop up here and there don't always have proper, corresponding I.D. A lot has changed in 11 years, the Android market is a lot more complicated now.
If it is so simple to just identify every mystery icon, why are so many of those postings not answered?

 

[Milo Williamson]

I am with ocenbrz on this one, I just too tired of seeing it just bombarded on here, please if you are going to just not post it, have it one massive thread at least, okay? We are only human!

 

[ocnbrze]

I am with ocenbrz on this one, I just too tired of seeing it just bombarded on here, please if you are going to just not post it, have it one massive thread at least, okay? We are only human!

@Phases used to have a thread going just for that purpose.......can't seem to find it. i think it has to do that he no longer is associated with the site????

 

[Unforgiven]

So, let me weigh in here as a mod. Yep, there are a ton of "What app notification is this?" threads. There are a bunch of us that try to answer. Most of those threads go unanswered. I think they really kicked off with health and fitness apps in the last few years since they all seem to use a heart of some kind, except for Samsung, the largest Android phone player, which uses a female profile with a pony tail, so still, not helping.

A couple years ago, actually, before Covid hit, the site owner @Rob started a megathread about app notification icons. I can't find it right now, but it will pop up from time to time. As you can imagine the name is as generic as all the other threads, except it has a lot more posts.

One of @Phases (and he has moved on) rules for us mods, and one that I think makes androidforums.com a better community, is that we try to treat each member's question thread as a unique question first, so that the member feels the community is helping them, and not making them solve their question finding the right way to word it in a search engine. I've seen this time and time again with memory optimization (farce), launchers, rooting and bloatware, and countless other common Android inquiries.

I see the proliferation of "what icon is this" threads as no different, even though they are more abundant. Each one is an opportunity for us as a community to help another member solve whatever question they have with their device. Like all other questions or threads, if you have something to add, please share, and if you don't, move on. Some choose to respond to each with a message about swiping down, others with a message about simply asking the party that sent the screenshot, and some that mention the proliferation of fitness apps. Every once in a while, one of us finds the app and can link to it in Play and put someone's mind at ease.

So long as each member is treated respectfully, there is really no wrong way to respond. After all, that's what brought all of us here, and that's what keeps the lights on here.

 

[Maniofficial]

I have noticed a ton of posts asking the same question: 'what does this notification mean? what is this icon? etc' There's been a way to · like i just posted in another thread.......it usually is not members phone. 99% of these ques.

 

[Milo Williamson]

So, let me weigh in here as a mod. Yep, there are a ton of "What app notification is this?" threads. There are a bunch of us that try to answer. Most of those threads go unanswered. I think they really kicked off with health and fitness apps in the last few years since they all seem to use a heart of some kind, except for Samsung, the largest Android phone player, which uses a female profile with a pony tail, so still, not helping.

A couple years ago, actually, before Covid hit, the site owner @Rob started a megathread about app notification icons. I can't find it right now, but it will pop up from time to time. As you can imagine the name is as generic as all the other threads, except it has a lot more posts.

One of @Phases (and he has moved on) rules for us mods, and one that I think makes androidforums.com a better community, is that we try to treat each member's question thread as a unique question first, so that the member feels the community is helping them, and not making them solve their question finding the right way to word it in a search engine. I've seen this time and time again with memory optimization (farce), launchers, rooting and bloatware, and countless other common Android inquiries.

I see the proliferation of "what icon is this" threads as no different, even though they are more abundant. Each one is an opportunity for us as a community to help another member solve whatever question they have with their device. Like all other questions or threads, if you have something to add, please share, and if you don't, move on. Some choose to respond to each with a message about swiping down, others with a message about simply asking the party that sent the screenshot, and some that mention the proliferation of fitness apps. Every once in a while, one of us finds the app and can link to it in Play and put someone's mind at ease.

So long as each member is treated respectfully, there is really no wrong way to respond. After all, that's what brought all of us here, and that's what keeps the lights on here.

Ah as an ex mod myself. I understand this pain!

 

[Rob]

This is an age-old Android question without a good solution.

It would be awesome if Google provided a repository of notification icons. Maybe that's a privacy issue. Regardless, unless you're in possession of the phone, it's usually a shot in the dark. And if you don't have the phone, things often become shady and unfun.

We've tried a "master thread" but it's an unwieldy challenge, and inevitably, people are focused on asking their one specific question.

I think most people probably search Google (describing the icon) before using AF as their last resort. Following that line of thinking, the best we can do is offer people helpful, detailed solutions. Having mods rename the thread title to include a description of the icon provided by the user might help, hoping we pop up in the search results when they're initially looking.

Not sure what other thoughts to offer here... it's a conundrum for sure!