- Google is working on a new layout for heads-up notifications in Android 15 that makes them much more compact.
- Heads-up notifications are a type of notification that briefly appear in a floating window.
- Many people find them annoying and even go as far as to disable them entirely, but this new compact layout could fix that.
In the iOS versus Android debate, one area where Android generally comes out on top is notifications. However, Android still has some issues to deal with in that regard. For example, heads-up notifications are way too distracting when you’re watching a video or playing a game. Fortunately, Google has a fix in the works for this particular issue, and we could see it go live in an upcoming Android 15 release.
The heads-up notification was introduced nearly a decade ago with the release of Android 5.0 Lollipop. It’s a type of notification that appears in a floating window on the top of the screen that you can immediately see and interact with, no matter what app you’re using. It’s intended only to be used for important notifications that you need to know about immediately, such as messages from a close friend or family member. Notifications of this type can appear when they’re part of a channel with a high importance level or when an app is in fullscreen mode. When a heads-up notification appears over a fullscreen app, it can be quite distracting, which is why many people complain about the feature online and also try to find ways to disable it.