Notifications - when? how often?

So..................

When should we send push notifications? Each move? Each new game? Think about it - do you REALLY want a push notification every time your opponent makes a move? What is you are online with the main site, and your iphone is next to you, and each time you move, it buzzes?

The way it currently works is you don't get a notification if you are online on the site, and you only get one at a time. If you have received one, you won't get another notification until you have moved. That way you don't have moves going all the time.

The risk is that you don't always get your notifications - especially if you were online recently (in the last 10 minutes).

IMO there is no need for constant buzzes...
It is ideal to make it buzz when you are critical with time, lets say 8 hours or something like that... Otherwise it is good to have those notifications once per day :)

...Why would I *ever* need a notification that *I've* made a move?..  :)

Push notifications immediately with each new instance of it becoming my move in any game.  Period.

I don't need a notification if someone plays a move for which I already have made a conditional move ('cause it's *still* not my move).  And I don't need a notification if a new game starts if I'm playing black (ditto).

That's my 2 cents.  If you just want notifications once a day, I'd submit that you should turn them off.  That's not how notifications are supposed to work.  Aren't you going to log in about once a day anyway?

sorry - meant YOUR move. so you want a notification every time it is your turn to move in every game?

Sure thing!  I can already turn off the sound and just keep the badges if I'm one of those maniacs with 500+ active games.  :)

And if I want notifications generally, I don't see why I wouldn't want them when I was in Tactics Trainer or writing a blog post, etc.

Why not make notifications an option?

They (always) already are - as configured on your device. 

Check under your Settings button (the one in your main iPhone menu that looks like a set of gears - not the Settings link inside the chess app).  The 4th item in the menu is "Notifications."  For every app that supports notifications, you will see a menu option in here.  You can specifically set whether you want notifications at all for a given app, and then elect to recieve 'badges' (in this case, a number displayed on the app icon that shows you how many games where it's your move) and/or sound alerts.

Ideally, from a product perspective, this should be a configurable option that the user decides.  Depending on the user's usage habits, I could see both being a desirable behavior.

For example, users may not wish to receive a push notification each time one of their opponents make a move in an active game if they are these types:

• users who log on frequently or stay logged in throughout the day
• users who visit the site less frequently (once or less per day) and typically make all moves during that session and log off
• users playing a lot of concurrent games

However, a user may wish to receive push notifications for each opponent move in situations such as:

• frequently away from the computer, but available via their mobile device
• users who care about their avg time/move
• users who only play few concurrent games
• users who wish to have a more real-time experience

Ultimately, the success of a consumer product is dependent on the user experience.  Typically, the combination of good content (UI and feature functionality), ease of use, and meaningful configurability play a large role in user acceptance. 

For these reasons, coupled with the fact that chess.com targets a broad range of users, it may be beneficial to support more than one notification option.

Again, remember (or take note) that notifications are completely user configurable per app, under iPhone/iPod Touch Settings.  Hit the "gears" button, hit "Notifications," and edit settings individually for every app you've got that supports notifications.

Setting aside any lingering bugs that might be in play, the flexibility you speak of, mb405297, is already there.

Cheers!

I don't like how it's implemented at the moment. I think it should send a notification each time anyone made a move. Because as it is now, I only get a notification like twice a day. Sometimes I wait for hours, didn't get any notification, and then log in to see that someone made a move. Also, I think it should send them even when one is logged into the site. Just my opinion.

I totally agree with Mindzi. Push notifications are made to make you aware of what is going on... Anyway, if you don't want to be anoyed with sounds or vibration just turn the sound option off in your iphone notification setting.

I apologize if I wasn't clear in the last post.  I think we are talking about apples and oranges here.  At the platform/OS level, the user is able to enable or disable notifications for any the applications that support the feature.

Within the application, the conditions surrounding the when/how often the notifictaions are sent is what I was talking about.  I believe that configurabilty surrounding the when/how often should be a consideration.

It doesn't make much sense to restrict the notifications just because some people might get annoyed - the push option is easily disabled in the iPhone's settings.

I agree that, ideally, the push options should be user defined within the app, with an option to be notified whenever it's your move, or just once per log in, etc. If that's not feasible, then the default setting should be to notify me for every game that's waiting my action. If I turn the sound off, a little badge with the number of pending games is hardly annoying.

I agree with  mb405297

User configurabel notifications would be best from a user perspective. I like the flexibility that apps with configurable user notifications offer.

It may not, however, be practicable to spend the time making chess.com's  configurable, as I am sure getting an app approved and in use as quickly as possible is a priority.

I would prefer a notification each time it is my move, and perhaps, if possible, a notification on a game ending as well.

agreed. we should push a notification for each time it is your move in a new game.

Is it possible to have an option where you get only a badge on the icon with the number of games where it is my move? Kind of like the email app has. No buzzing, or popups. That would be the ideal setup in my opinion.

You can do that - go to your iPhone's settings, then Notifications. Here you'll find a list of all your apps that use push notifications. Select Chess and disable Sounds. You should only get the badge.

I think you should add the "alerts" option. Most apps have all three as options under notifications: Sounds, Alerts, Badges.

Alerts is the best one for me as it pops up a window saying someone has made a move and the option to close the alert or click view game. Even if you're in another app it pops up. This means that whenever your iphone/touch has a connection it pops up the alert (if it's your turn to move) so you don't have to go scrolling through pages to see if you have a new badge on the app.

Can you activate alerts Erik?

I definitly second the alerts pop up option. Very useful stuff on the iphone.

Since I started using the app a few days ago, I have got exactly one notification. But almost every time I start the app and navigate to the online chess section, I surprisingly find that there is one or more games waiting for me. 

I would have expected this behaviour: Badge count increasing with each move waiting for me, with sound. I can turn off sound if that annoys me. 

In addition, a pop up is very useful. For instance, the first time a new move is waiting for me, until I visit the game again, and additionally a warning if I'm running out of time in one or more games. 

Apart from this, a great app!