Expose an API for accessing current notification count

[jessemillar]

On the Apple Watch, a little red dot appears on clock faces when there are unseen notifications on the watch. I don't think such a dot should be default on all Fitbit Versa/Ionic clock faces, but I would sure love an API exposed to get a count of unseen notifications (or even just a boolean stating whether or not there are any unseen notifications) so that clock faces could implement this on a case-by-case basis.

Moderator edit: Labels

[SunsetRunner]

Nice suggestion @jessemillar and thanks for sharing within the community. We look forward to hearing what other developers think.

[_json]

I agree that it would be good to have information about current notifications. Possibly even app names or notification content, but I know that's probably unlikely...

[timbop45]

It would absolutely be great to have an API to retrieve the number of pending notifications, or at least a bool if there are any.  Being able to show a notification icon on a custom watch face is no-brainer IMHO, instead of constantly having to swipe down.  There's a reason it's been a staple of phone manufacturers for years.  I don't always notice the haptic feedback, so find myself constantly swiping down. 

[dreasvd]

I actually just switched back to my smart watch, because my Versa 2 cannot show a notification indicator. I had planned to use the Fitbit just for time/date/notifications, so would love to see this added so in the future the always-on display can show an indicator. Hope it will be seriously considered! All it needs to do.is return an integer.

The only workaround for now.would seem to run an app on the phone which pushes an incremental notification counter to a server, and then reading that from the face. That is a complex workaround though 🙂

[dreasvd]

Perhaps the (today) 49 votes from a similar request can be merged here?

[Sofia-Dev]

As a person who does not recognize the haptic feedback every time, I'd love to have some indicator on my watch face about the (number of) current unread notifications.

At the same time, as a researcher studying the behavior of wearable devices' users, it would be great to know whether a user is looking at their device because of a new notification or to check the current time and their activity levels. Because these are different use cases.

[LobsterOfTruth]

I'm also building a clockface and have been wondering about that feature. I'd love to implement some sort of indicator that there are unread notifications... Please implement this - other watches, even trackers, have this.