No number of unreaded on icon in 4.1.2?

[ulmus]

Hi!
I was using for long time AM and have small circle with number of unread emails on icon. Now i bought new phone with android 4.1.2 jelly bean and i cannot see that feature
Am i missing something or is it dissabled in JB?

[Kostya Vasilyev]

This is addressed the FAQ, just search the page for "icon".

The FAQ is on the main site, or see link below.

[ulmus]

I've read that i have to change my luncher and enable some option to get unread number onto AM app icon? So, how the heck my phone application, gmail application and sms application get numbers on its application icons? Isn't there any standard to do that? ... weird, some apps can some cannot...

[Kostya Vasilyev]

You don't have to do anything, I was just trying to explain. Whether it's true or just a lame excuse on my part -- well, that's in the eye of the beholder, you know?

If you think you know better --  and that I won't do it for some stupid reason, even though there is a well documented, official way to do this for all Android devices, and which works for third party apps* -- well, good for you.

* - there isn't.

[ulmus]

Why the anger? I am simple user, i've bought app, i was using on one device then on the other and noticed that i missed something, wanted to know why, that's all. I was just curious. Bad day? Anyway, thanks for explanation, got it now.

[Kostya Vasilyev]

No anger, just frustration that these things are 1) difficult to explain and 2) even when I do, somehow it still looks like my fault.

I'll try again though: as stated in the FAQ, Samsung does this for their own apps, built into the firmware -- which is very, very, very different from offering (documenting) this capability for third party apps.

Now, as it happens, someone did figure it out, even though it's undocumented and not intended for third party apps.

I just tried it out, and it worked fine on my three Samsung devices (Note 3, Galaxy S4, Galaxy S4 Mini). This will be included in the next development build (in a couple of days).

Screenshot: standard TouchWiz launcher on a Galaxy S4 mini. This is the actual AquaMail launcher icon, not a widget.

Supposedly, this is also possible on Sony devices (although the code is of course entirely different). I'll try it if I'm able to borrow my nephew's Sony Xperia P.

[ulmus]

I'd like to add i have lg l9 p760

[Kostya Vasilyev]

Ah. The Samsung specific code I added last night won't work on an LG. Or a Sony. Or an HTC.

I hope you can now appreciate the mess created by the manufacturers: pretty much every one implemented this ("like an iPhone, yeah!"), setting user expectations -- and each is incompatible with the others, and not documented in the first place.

The other option (besides using either Nova Prime or Apex Pro launchers) is to use my app's widgets. This is a standard Android feature, and works on all makes / models / launchers.

[ulmus]

My earlier mobile was xperia neo v with holo launcher, it has no option about notification on icon or something... but it's worked...
That's why i'm surprised that suddenly it is not working.

[Kostya Vasilyev]

AquaMail does not have any special support for Holo Launcher (it supports Apex and Nova, both of which provide documentation on badge counts).

Maybe Holo launcher supports the Apex / Nova badge APIs, maybe it snoops "regular" (status bar) notifications. I really have no way to know.

Don't think I have anything else to add.

[ulmus]

Now i am using widget. But i have one question: if you change in your application its icon to the new one then the system will refresh that icon everywhere it uses that? if yes then... you could paint number overlay on icon and exchange app icon?
You're painting your widget icon though... so... maybe set that icon as your AM icon (option for user to do that or not) and it would be versatile... ?

[Kostya Vasilyev]

Oh my...