Windows Phone 8 images reveal pinnable credit cards and new lock-screen notifications

Pinnable CC's and new notifications

Many of the new features of Windows Phone 8 are already known due to the leaked SDK over the summer but exactly how some of it will look is still a bit unclear.

Take for example the NFC Wallet app. It’s a safe assumption that it will allow many different options—storage of coupons, deal cards, frequent flier pass and of course your credit cards. It’s also not too wild of a guess that Microsoft will allow you to pin those to your Start screen for quick and easy access.

Reader Hommus01 noticed in one of the new Nokia 920 videos a nice and bold Master Card tile on the Start screen (see image above). The tile reads ‘Master Card x6597’ with the last 4-digits used to ID and separate your holdings. There’s little doubt that you will need to enter in a security-code to go any further with the tile but it’s kind of cool to see it in place.

The other image comes from Nokia’s press shots and there we can see those new Start screen notifications. We first broke that story even before the SDK leak that users would be able to pick and choose which apps showed icons on their screen, as Windows Phone 8 allows developers to enable this function.

In the image above, we can see some system icons like Skype, Outlook.com, Exchange and Yahoo! Email, but one of those icons is clearly the Associated Press (AP) notification for a 3^rd party news app.

Skype in action

Will having five-notifications for consumers be enough, especially since there does not appear to be a notification center? We’ll just have to see but it is certainly a solid start. In a recent poll conducted here at Windows Phone Central, the desire for Microsoft to add a Notification Center was a top priority for our audience.

Finally, in another Nokia video reader Lerimer S spotted Skype. We get a good look at what Skype integration will look like in a call and while nothing mind blowing, we can't help but be excited over its inclusion in Windows Phone 8. It is neat to see the Bluetooth icon there meaning users will be able to use stream audio-out during Skype calls too.

Source: YouTube, YouTube 2, Nokia; notifications via WMPU

Daniel Rubino

Daniel Rubino is the Executive Editor of Windows Central, head reviewer, podcast co-host, and analyst. He has been covering Microsoft here since 2007, back when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, Microsoft Surface, laptops, next-gen computing, and arguing with people on the internet.

118 Comments

Looking good!
How about all notifications placed inside the 'Me' Hub/Tile. Simple and elegant. No?
I think that would work, good job
This was suggested when WP7 first came out. The conclusion was that it would cause information overload, since the me tile is already full of social notifications, which can also get heavy.
What if device/app notifications were seperate from social media notifications? Swipe to the side to see different notifications just like we do to see "What's new", seems simple enough.
Sounds good to me.
I tell you what. No way I'm going to do payments with my phone.
I am curious as to how it works out what 5 notifications to show, or perhaps it just cycles through all available after a set delay...
I'm pretty sure you pick what 5 you want. But I dunno if 5 is the limit or just how many were picked at the time?
It works like Windows 8, you choose which apps are shown on the lock screen. Was posted from the leaked SDK and judging from the desktop in my experience the option for 5 apps is wholly inadequate.
Better than nothing now isn't it? Stop being so damn negative all the time!
Text and email is all I need. lol. I will have to find 3 other things with notification.
I'm with you. Text, 2 email accounts and calls are all I ever needed
I hope there's whatsapp notification. And that's enough for me!
I agree. When is enough enough? My perfect p[hone is not going to be anybody else's phone much less everyone else's perfect phone! C'mon at least savor the moments of improvements instead of yopur first comment being neagtive that its not enough! Sheesh! Give us a break dude!
Shut up. It's not being negative, it's giving constructive criticism.
You shut up! You stupid prick.
On Android, is there an unlimited amount of widgets? Answer: No, unless it changed in ICS, which I've used and its not unlimited;
So now you are comparing widgets to lockscreen notifications, yeah that makes sense.
Maybe u can scroll across and have access to all notifications. Maybe u can prioritize them and that dictates what order they are shown in. Swipe left, get the next five and so forth
Just text and emails? I would have thought Wpc would have been on all your lists :P will be on mine see if there is any news easy as! Also game notifications for me!
Yeah, I noticed both. I also noticed the tiles for groups flip differently. Vertical now, instead of horizontal.
I still think it needs some sort of notification center...
Agreed
Agreed
Me to. It is odd to me they have not yet used swipe left to right for something. I don't want multiple homes as in android, but apps on the right, settings and notifications to the left? Sounds good to me.
Definitely, like this idea
Isn't swipe left to right is being used for the new "kids zone" thing?
If I remember correctly, the left swipe for the kids zone is only when on the lock screen.
Someone made the suggestion that a flag or number indicating a notification in a particular app could be put next to that app in the app list. So, you would have the lockscreen, the live tile on the Start Screen AND counter next to an app icon on the app list. I thought that was a pretty nice idea.
I like that idea, but if you have a long list of apps, it might take longer than it probably should to see the flag.
Agreed.
There will be a notification centre (ie a place that stores your toasts). Microsoft asked for feature requests back a couple of months ago and notification cente was by far the most popular, and it's a criteria for those coming from other OSes. They are not going to ignore this, especially given that it makes sense for toasts not to just completely vanish after a few seconds with no way of getting them back.
wow I am really excited about the platform.
Why limit it five! With over 100,000 apps, you get five?
You really want a lockscreen with 100,000 icons? Wait, more important, why are you installing 100,000 apps on your phone? ;)
lol
He obviously means that having 100,000 apps probably means you'll need more than 5 notifications.
For me:
-School Email/Work Email
-Personal Email
-Facebook
-Twitter
-News source (CNN, USA Today, AP News)

... so after that I can't do anything else? I'd still enjoy having at least 7-8, and as long as I'm able to adjust whats on and whats off...
How many things do you want to be notified of on the lock screen? doesn't take you many seconds to unlock and check the start screen or app itself. Nice tidy elegant lock screen anytime.
I have 10. Some at top, some at the bottom. And no, its not ideal to have to FIND apps that need to be checked. That's NOT glance and go. Its search search search.
Wine Tasting events, beer gardens, my fav restaurant, my coffee shop, email. I think that's my five I'll ever need!
Its called customization without clutter. If that's what you want the maybe you should go back to the classic desktop look/feel of Apple & Android.
I still say the home screen is your notification center. And now with WP8 being able to resize tiles you can see a lot more of them instead of just 8...
isn't the start screen our notification center? Why would we need one?
It has already been rehased over and over and over again in the forum. My best example would be CNN's app. I don't want that on my start screen but if I miss an important news alert, say a Tornado is coming, I can check that one important news alert.
hm, WP is simply different ;-) So they need to come up with something different, something awesome! :) we'll see...
I seriously wouldn't rely on any phone app for a tornado "warning". :P
He was using that as an example
Its an app...ever heard of toast notification that most apps already have???
Well, if you miss the toast its forever gone. Thats why we need a notification.
There is notification but not a center. Why not make Notification hub. Sounds cool and make a tile for it. Notification tile.
CNN has a toast notification for breaking news. I'm sure the Weather Channel could create something like that for warnings in the area.
Very nice! Personally, I don't have a problem with notifications the way they are today, but I would like to see an option for toasts for email messages and Me hub notifications at the user's discretion (due to volume/privacy). I also get why people want a notification center, and it's not a bad idea, but as stated in the article... hopefully these changes will be a nice start.
Yes!! I've never really understood why there isn't a toast notification for emails.
Im done...
don't forget to wash your hands.
+1
That was fast, O.o lmao
What is the deal with date order? Go to images.google and search for "windows phone lockscreen". You get day/month and month/day Of course, the location matters, but in this case it appear english only
Bing works just fine too.
Bing is the worst thing about windows phone. Garbage.
Disagree
Works perfectly fine for me-won't ever be any google shit on my phone...
I somewhat agree, can't save images, can't turn off safe search, can't turn off the news under web pivot.
Have you used WP8 & IE 10 to know nothing has changed???
Hmm. Can't tell if serious.
Other countries speak English too. Like England, lol..
It is not the same order then in England? I mean, it is not month/day?
Yep, it is day/month. That explain everything
ONLY the USA uses month/day/year as standard. AFAIK Canada uses it along with other date formats. The vast majority of the world's countries use day/month/year. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Date_format_by_country
Wow I'm amazed U didn't know the whole world doesn't follow the same month/date as the US. Many follow the British system too...
They should have just put in a notification centre. It could have just been like that charm bar on Windows 8 where you'd swipe right to reveal a centre with quick access to settings and notifications. That would work wonders. I'm sure they are trying to find an original way to implement a decent notification system but they really need to hurry cause the last thing you need is people complaining about not getting their notifications properly after WP8 launches.
They are trying to be different for the sake of being different. Makes no sense.
It does when you get your pants taken by lawyers.
I hate that they won't have a real notification center. Come on Microsoft, just bite the damn bullet.
I really don't understand what the bizarre obsession these weirdos have with wanting a notification center? We have LIVE tiles on a windows phone!! Its enough to have these weird toasts pop up to alert you to something but I'm fine with them going away, I don't WANT something else to eat up storage space on my device thankyouverymuch!!! =/
AND I disagree with its supposed "convenience" buncha hippiecommies....lolz I'm jk, #comediceffect but seriously its not necessary =P
It's not about normal notifications, it's about the toast notifications that you miss if you're not watching your phone. Say a weather warning or something. Or, maybe a Pageonce notification that might be important.
I get it with the toasts. We really need something for that.
I would not dislike a notification center, but I have grown accustomed to just unlocking my phone and quickly scrolling to the bottom to see what has updated. Even if you save 5 seconds each time you look, and are crazy and check 100 times a day, that is only 8 minutes. So with exaggerations aside we are talking seconds a day to see updates in WP.
With toast you could just make the default "Show Notifications" set to Always or Until User Dismissed. Something like that. So, when you picked up your phone, the toast would be sitting there. If you wished to access it, you tap it. And, if you want to dismiss it, you swipe it away at which time the next toast would be visible if there were one and so on unti you've gone through all toasts.
And to go a step further, it's about getting notifications for apps not pinned to the home screen. I have a few apps that I don't use as much not pinned, so it would be helpful to know if something comes through on them. Some people don't want an endless scroll of apps on their home screen. Again, it defeats the concept of glance and go when you have to scroll through 30 apps to see the one with a notification.
How about the tiny 1/4 tiles? If you had 2 screens of tiles, the first one with 8 whatever tiles, then scroll down to the bottom screen and had 4 more normal tiles and 16 small tiles with notifications, that's a lot of notifications with little scrolling. This is sort of how I plan on using it.
And that may work, it will just have to take some tinkering to know.
I cringe at the thought of a wall of small tiles... It reminds me too much of the icon grids in ios/android
Meeeeee too!
Does this mean comment notifications from WPCentral? Lol.
5 icons.
Ok, text, mail, skype, whatsapp, and maybe viber or something (when it's not on beta anymore), that's all I need.
For the other notifications, I've got my live tiles!
Cool, windows phone 8 will finally catch up with everyone else and be an OS that people might actually want!
Don't you get it! A notification center gets against the windows phone philosophy! The live tiles are here to do this job. If MS implements a notification center it's like they admit that the concept of the live tiles is not as good as they claim, WP is not as good as they claim. Voila!
No it doesn't! The windows phone philosophy was to not have to spend a lot of time looking at your phone. So what happens when you miss a toast? You still need to go into the app. A notification center could alleviate an extra step or two by having the unread notifications listed in a left-to-the-home screen display.
I like this =)
I can see a need to make toast notifications better-maybe an option to keep them on the screen until you acknowledge them along with a loud annoying beep etc..
Good idea sir
I agree, toast notifications need to have the option to remain on the screen. All too often I miss the toast notification, and there's no way to retrieve it without opening the app. This would be a good combination with the lock screen notifications (especially if the rumors are true that only 5 notifications can be displayed).
•Slide right to dismiss
•Tap to open
•Slide left to open notifications
This actually is kinda nice, maybe it'll bounce to the left to indicate there are more notifications. It could be activated from anywhere like the lock screen, start screen, or while in an app. Then notifications would slide into view from the side. Swiping them would clear them and tapping on one will open up the open
Definitely, I like this idea
Sure sounds like alot of people want an Android or iPhone....
No, sounds like people want to improve upon a great OS, which incidentally, MS does too.
Just make the lock screen icons clickable, taking you directly to the relevant app and I would be more than happy.
How about that Skype eh? Nice nice :P
Add a custom led for notifications too. Then I dont have to even touch my phone.
Don't let your phone be smarter than you guys, just unlock and slide up it's not that hard and it won't kill you. Better yet, one of you should build an is that includes everything Android,iPhone and BlackBerry, then after you get your ass handed to you in the form of countless lawsuits, you'll be broke and living under a bridge with no cell phone and a notification centre will be the least of your worries. What they did is different and its good enough. Especially at this point right now with everybody suing everybody. play it safe and make money. Once they have established themselves, then start stepping on toes.
MS is messing up. There are plenty of ways to bring up a notification center that doesn't copy Android or IOS. How's about pinching open a corner of your screen. Or quarter circle swipe on a designated corner of your choosing. Just a couple ideas. But I'm sure there are plenty more. Them guys are too smart for their own good.
Smartphone wars are getting really real right now. Nobody is playing around.
Not if your phone is also your office computer out of office, like using Office apps???
How about a Notifications Tile that that is about the size of the pictures tile that shows your top 3 or top 5 highest notifications, unless you custom set it differently. It should be a double sided tile to show more notifications.
There is a Skype notification on the lock screen too! coooool
I'm sorry but I dont see the point of this. Please save me from the obvious answers, but if I have the live tiles why the hell do I need to have another counter on my lockscreen? So I wake my phone and I see I have 3 new notifications from AP, then I unlock my phone and see I have a 3 next to my AP tile? Completely redundant and not very useful.
How about this idea:
Why not be able to interact with those notifications on the loackscreen in a limited capability?
Tap on the icon on the start screen an the title and first couple of sentences from the first AP article pop up. Swipe right to cycle through the articles. You would still need to unlock your phone to read the entire article.
Also, I never understood, unless it is patented, why Microsoft didn't steal WebOs style wifi/airplane mode functionality. How about besides being able to lock the battery, signal, wifi, etc. on the status bar, just tap or swipe down to toggle those things on or off.
It's supposed to be a 'glance and go' interface. Press the power button, glance at notifications and either put your mobile back in your pocket or unlock & deal with them. Notifications on the tiles is okay, but you have to fully unlock your phone and often scroll down to see them all. Personally I have little need in more notifications as calls + sms + email x 2 is sufficient. Although if Skype works properly that'll be handy too. Most apps I've disabled all live tile functionality, disabled all background tasks, and if I can't do that I unpin the app. I can't stand having apps drain my battery & data allowance, and I don't like to be nagged with new info all the time :P
+1

Or tap the notification icon and have it open that specific app. Just like the camera button wakes the phone have that one strip of notifications do the same.
Not really sure I need a notification area when what I have tiled tells me what I need already!
I like how WebOS handled toast, it stayed at the bottom of the screen and you could swipe it away or keep it there until you looked at it.
Agree... One of the things in WebOS that was awesome.
Isn't the home page a notification center? Isn't that the point?
Hasn't any of these people that campaign against a notification center been in the following situation: you're sitting on the couch watching tv and your phone makes a notification noise. It's on the counter so you wait a min and go get it. Nome of the apps you have pinned shows any notifications. Aren't you curious what you missed??? Wouldn't it be nice to ho and see a list? I just don't understand why people fight so hard against it... If you don't want it, don't use it.
How about make the lockscreen slide to the left or right but only partially like 20% remains. Revealing all notifications and if you want to unlock the phone you just slide the remaining lockscreen up
Microsoft could of helped Nokia quite a bit if they announced some of these features at the Nokia event. The stock price would have gone up quite a bit had they done so. Having these features demo'd would have been much better then hearing them yack about start screen customization for 30 minutes.

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