Android O will finally bring native notification badges [Diving into Android O]

One of the rumors about Android O was that this update would finally bring iOS-like notification badges to stock Android, and it looks like that will indeed be the case.

iOS has had notification badges for a very long time now: it’s those small numbers above your app icons – whether it’s on your home screen on in your app drawer – that indicate how many unread emails or text messages you have among others. Some Android manufacturers brought that feature to Google’s OS with their own skins and launchers (most notably Samsung), but until now, stock Android didn’t have this feature.

Of course, with the recently-announced Android O, that’s about to change. Looking at the Developer Preview released earlier today, it’s clear that the upcoming OS will have native support built in for notification badges. Once you go into the info panel of an application, there is a toggle that says, “Show badge.” Currently, no apps have this feature enabled, so we have no idea what Google’s take on it will look like compared to Apple’s or other Android manufacturers’, but we will be sure to keep you updated once we learn more.