The first images of the new Notification Center, dubbed 'Action Center', for Windows Phone 8.1 have made their way on to the web. The screenshots appeared on the site Winphollowers and Windows Phone Central is able to confirm their authenticity at this time.

The screenshots appear to have come from a confidential email sent around Microsoft, detailing various aspects of the new OS. Only one page of the email, or slide deck, is shown and it’s the one that details the Action and Notification Center.


The Action Center for Windows Phone 8.1

The image of the Action Center for 8.1 (aka 'Blue') shows the ability to enable / disable connections such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Airplane Mode and Driving Mode. These are of course, configurable for the user. On the left side, you can see an option to 'Clear All', that is, clear the notification list. To the right, a user can access 'All Settings', including the ability to configure the quick access tasks, mentioned above. Users swipe down once for the quick-actions, and can swipe again for the notifications. 

In addition, it is now clear that a battery percentage can be shown to users below the battery icon at the top left (in addition to the date), yet another minor feature that many users have requested.

The slidedeck also mentions about how apps can ‘intelligently manage notifications’ such as silently add, update and delay alerts. We’ve mentioned these in the past under the name ‘ghost notifications’ whereby a user won’t be actively alerted, like current Toast notifications, but instead, the alert will show in the Action Center. This will be useful for less important alerts to the user, and developers will be able to leverage these independently on their apps according to their design.

From sources familiar with the matter, we can also confirm some of the behavior of this Action Center. For example, if a user is playing a full screen game and they ‘swipe down’ accidentally, they won’t see a huge center come down, but instead will just see a small, blue tab (akin to the blue bar in the image). This intelligent usage of the Action Center will ensure users only can use it in appropriate contexts and not in others.

Windows Phone 8.1 is expected to be announced by Microsoft on April 2 during their Build conference in San Franciso, with new devices being announced at a later date. A developer preview of 8.1 will also be  announced on the same day, with it being opened up as an opt-in program akin to the current Developer Preview program for Update 3.

Source: Winphollowers; Thanks, Redeemed, for the tip!