Memorizor and Kastri showcase:, local notification permission

[Rollo62 536]

Hi there,

I'm sure most of you were aware of @Dave Nottage and his very helpful (live-saving) Kastri(Free) projects.

Now with the presentation of the Memorizer, there are certain discussions about issues in the cross-platform world.

Same as Dave I try to postpone permission requests to the bitter end, just before touching the hardware.
For camera, sensors, etc. thats usually no issue.

The problems may start when using local notifications, or related permissions, like Bluetooth and location.

 

The local notifications permissions are fired right at startup, and thats annoying.
You can imagine if you need a few permissions at startup, then they all will appear, and the user has to click them away before
showing any useful screen.

 

But for local notifications permission this might be maybe the right way too, because in mobile you also can run in
foreground or background.

So I would like to discuss the possibilities and pros and cons we have, for the permission settings from a users point-of-view.

 

1. Ask permission right after startup (as is now)

- this is annoying to the user, especially if several requests appear one after the other

- works in all cases, also for background mode, as it forces the user to decide

- its a little like the old "Android way", permit all before use anything, but Androids style has changed meanwhile (for good reasons)

- sometimes the app runs in background, and has no other chance to notify, than by local notification

  So the local notification permission shall be given at startup, to ensure this works.

 

2. Ask permission short before usage (in foreground)

- thats what I like too, users shall decide each function before they use it.
- but when moving to background w/o giving permission before, this might fail.
  A user cannot give permission while in background mode, the function simply fail or crash.

 

3. Ask permission short before going to background

- this is not possible, because the app cannot do much when changing the states, especially no long-lasting alerts.

4. Allow permission in a special setup dialog

- This is the "windows" setup philosophy, I think very much out of fashion in mobile: Force the user to visit setup first.

- This will solve the issue in 2.), but I really try to to avoid this forcing of "setup" style design.

 

Are there any other ideas or use-cases ?

So far I think 1.) (as is) has its need too, and its not easy to cover all use-cases with one solution in mobile, there are too many options.

Beside that, Android and iOS might have different philosophies as well, howto get them all under one umbrella ?

 

 

Edited October 14, 2020 by Rollo62