Nokia moves Glance and Touch configurators directly into Settings with latest update

By Daniel Rubino
last updated

Starting with the Windows Phone 8 GDR2 and Nokia Amber updates, Nokia was able to offer new options for the Lumia line, including the coveted Glance screen and Touch features. Glance enabled the onscreen clock with vibration and charging alerts, while Touch allows users to modify screen sensitivity.

Both features are essential in getting the premium Nokia experience, but there was one problem: discoverability. In order for a new customer to learn about those features, they would have to do some deep digging in the myriad of options under Settings.

Well today, that is no more.

Nokia’s Extras + Info system app was updated to version 3.0.6.1 this morning and with it, moves Glance and Touch directly into Settings > System along with mini-descriptions below the listings. The update also has the usual fixes and improvements, but it is the repositioning of those two feature sets that is the big deal here. Users will now have each option openly situated for easier discoverability when navigating in Settings.

It’s a smart move by Nokia, and hopefully people picking up a new Lumia with Amber will now be able to find Glance’s onscreen clock with ease.

Lumia owners can scoop up Extras + Info version 3.0.6.1 here in the Nokia Collection.

Via: Windows Phone Italy; Thanks also to Giordano P.

QR: Extras + Info

Daniel Rubino
Daniel Rubino
Editor-in-chief

Daniel Rubino is the Editor-in-chief of Windows Central, head reviewer, podcast co-host, and analyst. He has been here covering Microsoft since 2007 when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, Microsoft Surface, laptops, next-gen computing, and for some reason, watches. Before all this tech stuff, he worked on a Ph.D. in linguistics and ran the projectors at movie theaters, which has done absolutely nothing for his career.

122 Comments
  • I'm seriously LOVING the glance/touch feature, loving my 920 even more!
  • Same here. Must have on my next phone.
  • I am having problems with Glance. I thought it was just a "wave your hand" item for the update, but I find that when I select Peek, it is ALWAYS on. At night, it never goes off sitting by itself on the table. Plus I found the need to have to plug in my phone more as it seems to drain battery.
  • It appears that Glance is always on when the phone is on charge. On my Lumia 820 the Peek behaviour works properly when on battery power. I did have to use the 'dim' feature, as my wireless charging pad is on my bedside table and without dimming the Glance clock was illuminating the room!
  • You know what? That may be part of the problem. It sits on the charger at night (definitely too bright at night).
  • There is a night mode that will turn the clock red (less bright) during a specific range of time.
  • Also if you're concerned about screen burn in, flipping the phone over turns the Glance screen off after 5 seconds. When you flip it back over it'll turn back on.
  • They already thought of that, the glance moves around the screen.
  • Latest settings?! I dont even have the amber update yet! Ffs stupid EE
  • They are still waiting to approve it. They simply are not the fastest with implementing Data Sense on their end. Well .. knowing the Customer service of Tmobile uk I am wondering if they even started to do something.
  • Feel the pain, but I forced mine to update....EE can get bent !!  You need to use the NOKIA RETIAL updater todo so....I've updated all Nokias this way, from the 720 to my 920, it doesn't care if the phone was from China, but it does tell you hehe ;)
    the Amber update is simply AWESOME !!! love it !!
  • Is that the way that wipes your phone at the same time? Or is there a way to force the update and keep the apps, settings, contacts, etc?
  • I have an unbranded Lumia 720 and still don't have Amber. Idk what's delaying it.
  • Hey, I have an unbranded *country variant* 920 for Australia and I only just got the update in the last couple of days.
  • And here we are on AT&T still waiting and waiting... And waiting.
  • Keep forcing your lazy operators.
  • What happened to the rumored WP8 feature that allowed carrier bypassing for upgrades...? I guess that was a ghost in the rumor wind.
  • Its called Nokia Care Suite! ;)
  • Only very few users are willing to flash their phones manually, so that is hardly a solution.
    Best way is to call/chat/email/forum/twitter/facebook ATT (or your operator) every week like clockwork and annoy them to death until they comply and stop the BS update blocking. Problem is most people just can't be bothered and then they complain about it after every article on a site ATT or any other operator will never see.
     
     
  • So true, yet it remains an alternative!
  • Never came about unfortunately.
  • ...and waiting lol
  • What about us with unlocked phones that are still waiting :)
  • First to get the phone....last to get the update
  • Yep. This from the "PREMIER" partner for Nokia and WP. I'm with Verizon (basically a second tier partner) and I got this update weeks ago.
  • Too bad AT&T has yet to push GDR2 and Amber.
  • Flash it, enjoy, and don't look back! :)
  • I flashed the 3049 APAC unbranded firmware with NCS and now Network+ wont load and also cant sign-in to Nokia Account.. I knew the risks, prob could have waited but didn't.. loving GDR2, don't care about the issues.. just sayin' :)
  • I flashed, both the French and the euro rom and had absolutely no problems.
  • And good luck if for some reason it screws up your $$$ phone.
  • Mine did all sorts of weirdness, strange c:\ paths in settings instead of settings names, updates sorted all that out but i guess left with a couple issues that for me are no big deal considering what i got in return.
  • how about update for Call+SMS filter? separate whitelist N blacklist is better?
  • I don't have amber.......but im updating extras again?? *Unlock amber achievement*
  • same here
  • Now if we can just get ATT to move GDR2 to our Lumia 920 handsets that would be a miracle!
  • Any word on the amber update on L620 in India, Nokia website says it is available but I have received none in my “phone update”
  • I also have the same notification, I'm checking continuously since afternoon.
  • I updated to Amber but nothing changed in my Lumia 620. What have to do?
  • I'm a huge glance fan. Glad they moved the settings. I always could never find them. Hidden in a side menu that you must recognize the ability to swipe to the side.
  • I think that the whole Settings Menu needs a reconfiguration. Sometimes is hard to find something that is not in a common sense order. And, this Glance and Touch menus should be inside the Lockscreen menu. Or perhaps create a new Screen settings menu and also add the Brightness inside.
  • Agreed. Not sure why we don't have yet an option to sort the list to match our preferences.
  • Even just A-Z would be nice!
  • New settings menu: +1
     
  • But those things show up under display +touch also why the hell keep them there when ur repositioning them ? Nokia ?
  • Just thought the same thing. It was actually quite good the way it was, IMO.. and now it's in two places.. confusing..
  • Exactly! Now the settings are redundant. You still have display+touch with the glance settings and now the dedicated glance menu option. Which one takes precedence? The dedicated option has the 'Interval' option and the other one has 'Timed'. I guess this was not well thought out before they implemented it.
  • Awesome! More news to be jealous about. Damn you AT&T.
  • The new setting have clock+notification. I'm not sure what kind of notification since it doesn't show any icon when I sent SMS to my phone.
  • So far the only notifications are the vibration and charging icons. Now I wonder why you would set it to peek for example but turn off Clock and notifications???
  • Thanks for the input. I don't remember that the option to switch clock and notifications is there and by notification I though it will be like pre-Lumia phones. 
  • This is not new. But unfortunately they mean whether your phone is on silent or not. Maybe active alarms as well. That's it. No notification symbols.
  • EE are crap. Will be last to get
  • No. AT&T, most horrible, they are. Last to get, we will be. Try, they say, to push out update.  I say, Do or Do Not...there is no try.
  • I see the touch option but no settings.. Wish the update would hurry up...
  • I disabled both features a day or two after getting the Amber update. I'm not really sure why there was/is so much hype over them. Different strokes, I guess.
  • So a new option available in glance menu, "notifications" so? Whats mean? I think while my friend send me a message from whatsapp, a whatsapp logo will appear at glance screen?
    #sorrybadeglish
  • Good catch! Maybe a future update will bring that option. Also, under touch setting it says something about windows keys. Hopefully his gives you the option to turn off the backlit keys.
  • was thinking same.. Right now its not showing any notification, may be next update will..
  • Every phone will get it by the end of September unless stated otherwise. Its only a minor update.
  • Rick : for all region? no need "Waiting for approval"?
     
    i've got bad times with "amber" update, it launched very late -.-
     
    #sorry english
  • Sounds good. I wish the Skype UI would change so finding the video message was a bit simpler
  • Man I feel pretty good that I went to the 1020 after my 920 and seeing how late ATT has been with the update wow
  • Notifications was the missing piece of the puzzle for me. I'd always look at my screen and say "why can't it tell me I have messages? Time is great but it could do more for my battery loss" now im happy :) for the critics (minimal battery loss). Lol thanks Nokia! Love you
  • Ok wait... What are notifications for.... Its not what I thought it would be.
  • just for charging and vibrate/silent status. someone already answered the question on my comment above =)
  • Thx buddy. Cheez n crackers! W.e I wish it did tho. The option is kind of obvious. We don't have a notification light so its the least they cud do.
  • Apparently double tap to wake drains the battery. Might this have been the cause of the Lumia 925 battery issue?
  • Its always said that.
  • Nope
  • It does drain, I can personally testify to that
  • Both double-tap to wake and glance will use additional battery power. I turned both off on my 925, and I am having no problems with battery lasting all day.
  • Here in Nigeria, we don't have the Amber update yet *waiting for approval* but can I update the Extras+Info?
  • Sure. But don't expect the same functionality as those on gdr2. What phone do use by the way?
  • I love the move, but can they make settings list alphabetically sorted !!
  • Im with you there!
  • This.
    Infact the whole items under the settings menu needs to be organized. I wouldn't mind a different animation or even metro style icons to make it easier finding items.
  • How about "double-tap to wake" for the Lumia 620 as they promised?
  • Wht I found nt gud is no double tap wake even for nokia Lumia 720 atleast . Reason is hardware limitations but I m gettin the glance screen still
  • And yes, after this update, I see Glance and Touch as new things in Settings list, but it doesn't remove it from Display+Touch settings :-)
  • I took a screenshot of the Settings page on my Lumia 920 while the Extras + Info app was installing. Incidentally exposed a bit of the underlying OS. https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=EE89333CC810C954!10572&authkey=!AM...
  • Nice touch is hitting the information icon in 'extras' which takes you to the amber update availability page. Don't think that was there before was it?
  • Received the update on the T-mo 925.
  • You already had the update on the 925. Out the box update.
  • I think he's talking about an update for extras. I just installed the latest extras update on my 925. Wish they hadn't added glance and touch to the Settings > system list. The list is long enough.
  • Hey! Correct, I was talking about the upgrade for extras wpguy. Thanks. Ya, quite the growing list. Jeeze.
  • I would be loving it but like so many disgruntled people I chose to go with EE. They have yet to update if they ever will.
  • Lumia 521 issues: Did the update, I can see touch in settings now, but display+touch is still there too, why touch is in 2 places?
  • Same with the 925, and my question too. I don't really see the need for glance and touch to be separate items in the settings list. It made sense to leave them in display+touch.
  • Noticed the other day they added the ability to block people from calling and texting you. When was this feature mentioned??
  • A couple updates ago to extras.
  • You AT&T guys should feel lucky that you're even going to get all this Glance and Touch goodness, if a little later than planned.  Spare a thought for us HTC users, we've seen exactly zero innovation from HTC since launch.  If only I had waited for the carrier exclusivity to end at the time, I'd be sporting a 920 right now.  Ah well, all I can boast is that the 8X is beautifully designed.
  • Beautifully different
  • Having a 920 on AT&T I am really starting to get sick and tired of hearing about GDR2 and Amber.
  • Not to p*** you off, but that's normally what it's like for non AT&T customers waiting for the ridiculous exclusivity period to end.
  • I guess this doesn't include the Lumia 521 ....
  • This bullshit doesn't work on my L720
  • I'm guessing September 20th for Amber update. It's exactly 30 days from Verizon's 928's release. You'd think at&t would be ready, so I think there must have been some kind of exclusive for the first update on Verizon. Sometimes you have to offer extra goodies to slow to adapt service providers.
    Doesn't really matter since I have the 1020 coming tomorrow! Still need update to sell my 920.
  • I would like to know what is the logic behind item's Settings organization... sometimes is hard to find anything there =/
  • now the settings show up individually and still within display + touch. kind of redundant.
  • I don't see the- oh right I'm on att...
  • Nothing happened after the update.
  • Maybe it takes after the next reboot.
  • I like Glance + Tap, but they do take a bit more energy that I'm comfortable with.
  • Awesome. Hadn't gotten the "1" on my store but I'm downloading now... Thanks WPC! This is why I love your app, always the latest!
  • I cannot find Glance my Nokia 925 i have already update Amber but i bought from France SFR but il now from Tunisia.... Please help me
  • System -> Settings -> Display+Touch. Works whether or not you have the latest update for Extras.
  • i have already latest update amber 3047.0000.1326.10144 !!! only Display+Touch because i bought from FRANCE SFR is so shit! please do you have hack firmware ??? please
  • In the text under "Touch" it shows - Sensitivity, Wake Up, and Windows Keys --- What is it referencing with Windows Keys? On my 928 there are no options for chaning anything about the Windows Keys
  • Was wondering the same thing and the text is showing up under "Touch". Is it referencing to another update soon??? ;-)
  • As someone already pointed out - they really need to make the backlit buttons dim with the screen. Hurts my eyes when in bed reading my goodnight news and stories. :)
  • No use of this update for 520 users...they shud atleast mention that with update info...
  • Can anyone explain why I never get the notification for updates like these? and when I do they are months later than the release? Thankfully this site always puts the links to get the updates as soon as they are available so I am gratefull for that :)
  • Well... And the settings list gets even longer :/
    Anyway, what annoys me about Glance is that it is always on when the phone is charging. At least give us the option to choose whether we want that to happen or not
  • There are that many settings now isn't about time they were in alphabetical order? Takes you bloody ages to find something.
  • Is there anyway to rollback the installation? Lockscreen behaving erractic and app not opening though the device is registerig the touch. Had to reboot the device (Lumia 920) to getting it working again
  • Great move!  But I agree with most of you, the Settings menu is way too long now and hard to find things.
    What I hope to see in GDR3 or 8.1:
    - Revamped Settings menu (with Recently-used settings, categories sorted alphabetically and maybe collapsable? Windows 8.1-style)
    - Completely new Outlook (the current one is too basic, and you can't do half the things you can do on Outlook.com such as categories and proper folder navigation)
    - Completely new Calendar (again to be on par with the web app and nicer looking, even the new Android calendar is more 'metro' than ours).
    - Better integrated Skype (less battery drain, faster and easier to use)
    - Start Screen wallpaper (similiar to Windows 8.1, optional for those that actualy want it)
    - App groups (again similiar to Windows 8.1, and the abilty to rename/reorder them).
    - Notification Center (for missed toast notficiations)
    Can't wait :-)  
  • can someone tell me what is the new  "Clock and Notification" usage under Glance setting?
    I know the Clock function, but what does it maent by notification? notificatioon when new text/missed calls/missed calendar??
  • Would be nice if they could enable this for my Lumia 521 phone
  • They forgot the Lumia 521. Would have nice to test it out.
  • Looking for lost app! I had a cool clock app on my 822 screen when phone was locked. It turned off when phone was in picket but woke up when removed. It also had dim display between 10 PM and 6 AM. I lost the app when performing hard reset and can't find it again. Glance looks like it but doesn't function the same unless i don't have it set up correctly. Any help available?  
  • I updated to Amber but nothing changed in my Lumia 620. What have to do?
  • Please provide glance me to 625