I would appreciate if my droid would just notify me without disturbing me in the middle of what I am doing. Lately I kind of started missing the good ol’ ticker notification. But the good thing about Android is, there’s always an alternative and today we are going to see two of them. But before we dive into the topic, first let’s discuss what Heads Up notifications are and how are they different from the Ticker notifications.
Heads Up Vs Ticker Notification
The Heads Up notification system introduced in the Android Lollipop shows a floating notification bar at the top edge of the screen. They are always on top and no matter whether you are sending an email, or taking on the boss of a thrilling game, they just pop up out of nowhere. Ticker Notification is the one we have been using on Android ever since its birth. Of course most of us never knew its technical name, but it has helped us a lot over the years. These notifications show up in the status panel and do not intervene while you are working on other apps. They will simply notify you and at the end you have the choice to open it up from the notification drawer or just leave it for later. I personally prefer ticker notification when compared to the heads up and I am planning to change things on my phone today. So, if you think likewise and are on board with bringing back ticker notification, read on.
Disable Heads Up Notification
HeadsOff is a pretty neat app, available directly from the Play Store, using which you can disable the heads up notification on your Android. The app works without any root access, but you need to grant it access over to read all the incoming notifications on your phone. Once you do that, just open the app and start the service. By default the app disables all the apps that send notifications, but you can selectively choose apps. In the Settings menu you have the option to enable the ticket notification, but in the free option it didn’t seem to work. There was an option to give a forced notification in the paid version, but I was not ready to take chances. Rather I found an alternative for it.
Ticklr for Android Lollipop
Ticklr for Android is another app that brings the ticker notification to Android lollipop devices. Just like HeadOff, you need to provide the notification access to it so that it can read the incoming notification and notify you. Here too you can select the apps, if at all you just want it on the individual apps. By default it’s selected for all. The free version can be used without any limitations. However you have the option to get the color of the app on the notification panel and individual app control for just $1.49. Go for it if you really love your ticker notifications.
Conclusion
These were the two apps you can use to disable the heads up notification and enable ticker on your Android Lollipop device. Both the apps work hand in hand, but you can try and see if just HeadsOff works for you. And before you leave, don’t forget to mention the one reason that urged you to fall back to ticker notifications. For me it was gaming.
