Well gang, it happened. Again.
As a presumed human being who lives and breathes all things Android, I just realized that I had gone months without enabling one of the most powerful and fun customization options on the platform.
This time, however, I saw a pattern.
You see, late last year, I moved to a new Android device: the cheery and commendable Pixel 7 Pro. And as part of this migration to a different digital home, I inadvertently left out that bit of advanced customization.
It's not the first time, now I realize it. Just about every time I've moved to a new phone in recent years, this same maddening slip-up has occurred. And almost every time, it takes me anywhere from several weeks to almost a year to notice, then I gently press my palm against myself, grimacing in frustration.
I bet the same thing has happened to you, and in fact, you could be in the middle of the forgetting part of this cycle right now without even realizing it.
Round-trip Android customization
Before I get into the details of this situation, let me backtrack a bit here: back to the old digital age of 2020. In that year, Google introduced Android 11 to the world, and with it, our Android overlords have given us a big boost in the organization of platform notifications.
Android 11 introduced a much-vaunted new "Conversations" section to the Android notification panel. It was part of a much bigger and more ambitious plan to transform the messaging experience on Android and bring together all the different messaging apps most of us use into one streamlined configuration.
Whichever app has been sent to them, all of our incoming communication-related notifications will appear together, in this cohesive section at the top of the Android notification panel, and will make Android messaging less like juggling conversations from a dozen different apps and more. how to interact with a single consolidated communications center at the operating system level.
It was a noble ambition. But then, well, Google... you know, I Googled. At one point, the idea of that separate "Conversations" section in Android's notification panel quietly faded away, without any fanfare or fancy goodbyes. So much for that, huh?
But while the section itself has evaporated for no apparent reason, one small piece of that puzzle has stuck around all this time, and it's the piece I always forget to activate on every new phone I use.
It's an option to designate any specific thread in a supported messaging app as a "priority" conversation, and in doing so, give that thread its own custom notification icon that stands out from all the others on your phone's status bar. .
Here, for example, are two icons showing new messages from conversations I've set as "priority" along with some more generic Google Messages notifications:
JRAs you can see, these icons actually display the associated person's beak and peepers, or whatever you decide to use as a profile picture, as a notification icon. It's a much more distinctive and eye-catching approach than the standard new message icon, which simply displays a generic message symbol for any new message you receive.
Now, here's the weird part: Unlike the original Android-11-era vision, setting a conversation to "priority" no longer does anything different in your notifications panel. As of current versions of Android, conversations set up this way display more or less the same as all other incoming messages: there's no longer the separate section and top-ranking of old.
JRThis makes it even easier to forget that this option exists, because at first glance it doesn't really seem to do much. But let me tell you, this custom notification icon can make a world of difference in your ability to see what important messages you have pending and help you stay fully aware when someone important has sent you a message.
But the bad news: as I've just been reminded, again, your settings in this area don't stick around when you switch phones. That means it's up to you to think and configure it every time you start over with a new Android device or even just reboot your existing phone.
And that, my colleague who appreciates Android, is exactly what I forget. Each. Shit. Time.
3 steps to customize Android notifications
Now for some good news: Enabling Android's priority chat system is actually incredibly easy. The hardest part is just remembering.
But hey, you're thinking about it right now, aren't you? So take 20 seconds to do this:
JRI told you it was easy, didn't I? Now to clarify: You'll need to be running Android 11 software from 2020 or later for this to work (but if you're running anything older than Android 11 right now, my friend, we've got bigger fish to fry). Other than that, the feature may or may not be compatible with all messaging apps, but it's absolutely available with Google Messages (and if you're using something like Samsung's completely superfluous Messages app, you're probably better off switching anyway). .
Another daring step to consider before you call it a day on this: If you're feeling particularly inspired, you can head over to the Google Contacts app (and, again, if you're still using the mediocre alternative your non-Pixel phone maker gave you). , for the love of Goog, ya rock). Find the entry for the contact whose notifications you just prioritized, and make sure you're happy with the profile picture that person/porpoise has, because you'll see a lot from now on.
Finally, the really hard part, and the part I still can't figure out: make a mental note to perform this same step again every time you reboot your phone or switch to a new Android device. For some reason, despite all the progress we've seen with Android phone sync and reset over the years, this little customization never continues on its own.
But now you know. And now you can implement this awesome feature on your own phone right now, and then join me in realizing you forgot about it again four months after switching to your next device.
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