Phone missing a notification light? Here's a workaround (Update: On Play Store)

Update, July 8, 2019 (10:30 AM ET): The Notify Buddy app described below is now available via the Google Play Store. This means you don’t have to sideload the app and will get quick, easy updates just like you would with all your other apps.

Additionally, you can now change the colors of the notification pulse for individual apps, and your app list appears in alphabetical order with a search function to help narrow things down. Great progress in just a short time for this app!

Click the button below to install.

Original article, July 5, 2019 (01:00 PM ET): An Android app dev over at XDA Developers has created a new app called Notify Buddy. The app is perfect for people who own a newer OnePlus phone or another device that’s missing an LED notification light.

Notify Buddy is still in beta at the moment and is not available on the Google Play Store (ED: It is now available, the button below is up-to-date). However, the comments so far have been very positive and the developer seems keen on getting the app to be as good as possible.

The idea for Notify Buddy stemmed from the developer’s frustration of their OnePlus 6T not having a notification light (the first OnePlus device to abandon the feature). The app works around this hardware limitation by using the display as a notification light, repeatedly pulsing light when a new notification arrives.

Although the app was designed and tested on a OnePlus 6T, it should work on any device with Android 8.0 Oreo or later.

Unfortunately, the app is pretty clunky at the moment. When you first install it, you need to tweak some system settings to make it work properly. After you’ve done that, you need to then turn on a notification light for every app in your system that you wish it to work for, which is tedious. It’s especially tedious because the app list within Notify Buddy doesn’t appear to be in any discernable order, so finding the apps you want to switch on is time-consuming.

You also can’t, as of yet, customize the colors of notifications.

However, you can alter how long the LED light-up effect happens and how long the interval should be between each pulse. This is certainly handy!

Feel free to post your opinions in the comments here to help out other readers who might be interested!