Windows Phone 8.1 is slated to be the nest big thing for Windows Phone devices, bringing along numerous new features including a Siri-like digital assistant named Cortana and a notification center called Action Center. New details have emerged about the Action Center, giving us a better (but not complete) glimpse at what we can expect.
According to details from the leaked Windows Phone SDK preview, the new Action Center in Windows Phone 8.1 will allow an app to have up to 20 notifications. Each notification can be persistent for seven days. The document makes no mention of what happens after the seventh day and the notifications likely go away once that time limit has been reached. Users can tap on a notification, remove a notification, remove a group of notifications, and remove all notifications. No details were given on how this can occur, but at least we know we can. After all, what kind of notification center prevents you from removing notifications?!
Developers, on the other hand, will have the ability to remove one or more notifications, tag and group notifications, replace a notification with a new one, set an expiration on notifications, and send a “Ghost Toast” notifications (create notifications that only show up in the Action Center). It sounds like developers are going to have some new capabilities to help them create and debug their app’s notification feature.
No other details were given and no specific release date for Windows Phone 8.1 has been revealed. Expect to see or hear about Windows Phone 8.1 during the Build 2014 Developer Conference in April.
