Toast notifications are short messages that pop up on your screen to give you important information or alerts. They are called "toast" because they are similar to a toast popping up from a toaster – quick and easily noticeable.
Full definition
One nice thing about notifications is that you have the ability to receive
toast notifications when severe weather alerts are issued for your forecast city or cities (you get that choice).
For example, breaking news applications
sends toast notifications (banners) along with sound whenever there is a breaking news.
There will be a new updated user - interface with
adaptive toast notifications to bring more engagement with large images and more content, and there will be widgets with richer information.
The offiical Twitter app's new Toast push - notification in action If there was one nagging issue with the official Twitter app for Windows Phone, it was the inability to get
Toast notifications for new mentions or re-Tweets.
Indeed, on Windows Phone 8.1, you often can not see the whole
Toast notification in the Action Center, making it a bit cumbersome.
Inline progress bar for notifications (PC): Based on your feedback, app developers can now send
toast notifications with a progress indicator to show progress to the user, such as download progress, exercise progress, etc..
Interactive toast notifications now reflect the rich information displayed on Live Tiles giving users a more consistent user capability along with more detailed notifications.
In addition, the Action Center also houses the Notification Center, where users can see all the missed
incoming Toast notifications, as well as silent ones too.
Toast notifications still reign in Windows 10, sliding out from the bottom right edge of your desktop (just above the notification area of the taskbar) whenever an app needs to let you know something.
The
little toast notification shows up just as the brightness drops on its own in the middle of the game you're playing, and when the system cools down you are once again allowed to control the screen brightness on your own.
This also includes Mango features like «fast app switching» and
deep toast notifications which will make multiplayer much more enjoyable.
Windows 8 introduced its
own toast notifications, which were small rectangular boxes that slid out from the top - right corner.
Improving your update experience: We've heard your feedback, and with Build 16188 we've replaced the previous modal Windows Update dialog with a new interactive
toast notification so you can easily be aware of an available update without it interrupting your work.
Other Microsoft representatives that The Verge has talked to at Build this week have pointed towards Live Tiles as a way to display notifications, but it's clear that Microsoft is considering a system to
aggregate toast notifications for a quick overview.
Even in Windows 8, which finally
provided toast notifications that could pop up and then expire, there was no way to see expired notifications you might have missed.
Also, during last week's Ignite conference, details about new Live Tiles, features in the Action Center, and
actionable Toast notifications were presented to developers.
The lack of notification center presents a problem in Windows Phone,
as toast notifications simply disappear after they are shown, and the only way to know you have something to attend to is a Live Tile that you have to set up on your phone's Start Screen.
Create an alternative option for those that want a quieter solution than
toast notifications while still having a visual cue that a new notification has arrived
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.
It's also worth mentioning that the virtual assistant got beefed up in the Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 15007, gaining abilities that include displaying quick links and allowing developers to send in -
line toast notifications with a progress indicator.
One addition is the use of full -
screen Toast notifications, which is used for incoming calls, alarms, or reminders, at least on the phone (not for PC, obviously).
The update adds the ability to save and pin your favorite teams and sports to your Windows Phone Start Screen, customize the Live Tile score updates and you can now
receive toast notifications for news and score updates.
The promise of interactive Live Tiles on top of
active Toast notifications is looking to create a very powerful, but intuitive system for users.
These
future toast notifications will show more relevant information, and with bigger images, new button styles, better discoverability, and other improvements, they will offer a richer user experience.
Notification controls, such as an arrow to
move toast notifications into the Action Center rather than a confusing «X,» were also reworked to make notifications easier to manage.
In addition, the Action Center also houses the Notification Center, where users can see all the missed
incoming Toast notifications, as well as...
The Readit team has once again updated the recently launched Windows 10 version of their popular Reddit app, adding inbox support along with
interactive toast notifications and more
Tanks has Live Tile support to show you how many pending moves you have and
toast notifications when your opponent moves.
Autoplay has gotten a makeover in Windows 8.1 with
new toast notifications that slide from the top - right screen edge.
Toast notifications will show how many more taps you have left before «becoming a developer.»
Taking a screenshot on a BlackBerry 10 smartphone is quick and easy, just press and hold the volume keys together for 3 seconds and
a toast notification pops up to let you know a screenshot has been taken.
Tap a few times and you'll see
a toast notification with a countdown that reads «You are now X steps way from being a developer.»
You'll see
a toast notification telling you how many clicks are left to enable Developer Mode.
We have seen how to disable or temporarily hide
the Toast Notifications in Windows.
You'll see
a toast notification letting you know how many are left until «you become a developer.»
Toast notifications and Live Tile updates alert the user to when the data limit is creeping closer.
Microsoft is gearing up to deliver new features on the Start menu, Action Center and
Toast Notifications, Cortana, and Microsoft Edge.