Android Guides

How to use notification dots (notification badges) in Android Oreo?

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ow to use notification dots (notification badges) in Android Oreo?Notification dots (aka notification badges), a new feature in Android Oreo 8.0 (and 8.1) quickly alerts you to unattended notifications from supported apps so that you will not miss any important notifications.

In addition to notifications in the notification panel, you can now find notification dots, which represents unread notifications near corresponding app icons, in the home screen and apps screen.

This Android Oreo guide shows you how to use notification dots in Android Oreo 8.0 and Android Oreo 8.1.

In addition to notification dots, Android 11 has introduced notification history; a feature that allows users to track and access dismissed notifications on their devices. Check out this post to learn more about this new feature.

Table of Contents hide
1) What are notification dots?
2) How to use notification dots in Android Oreo?
3) How to enable/disable notification dots in Android Oreo?
4) Notification dots (notification number badge; app icon badges) in Samsung phones with Android Oreo

What are notification dots?

When a new notification arrives, it will be automatically shown in the notification panel.

If you clear all notifications in the notification panel, you can then only find the notification/message after you open the app.

Therefore, sometimes, you may miss some important notifications, when you accidentally clear all attended notifications and forget to open the app later.

This problem was addressed in Android Oreo 8.0 with the introduction of notification dots.

If you are a Samsung Galaxy phone users, you probably have used the number badge already. But number badge is Samsung’s proprietary implementation. Only apps that implemented some Samsung libraries will have this number badge feature.

Notification dots in Android Oreo works with all apps. Even the app was developed (targeted) for old versions of Android, Android Oreo is able to show notification dots (notification badges).

You can also customize notification dots in Android Oreo.

For example, you can enable or disable notification dots for individual apps (read on). Notification dots also work with notification channel introduced in Android Oreo.

App developers can further customize notifications to be shown in notification dots.

How to use notification dots in Android Oreo?

Notification badges only appear when you receive notifications in an app.

For example, if you receive a new SMS message, a notification dot would appear at the top right of the messages app icon as shown below.

If it is an app folder, the notification dots indicate the presence of notification badges for one or more of the apps inside the folder. You need open the folder to find out the app having unattended notifications.

How to use notification dots in Android Oreo

To see the notification, press and hold the (long press) app icon.

A pop-up (pop-out) window will appear. App developers can customize this pop-up window.

So the look of this pop-out window may vary from app to app.

For example, for Android Messages app,  the pop-up window looks like below when you have unread messages.

How to use notification dots in Android Oreo

There are four components in this pop-up window as illustrated in the screenshot above.

  • a shortcut to App info (marked as A).
  • indicating widgets available for the app (marked as B)
  • app shortcuts for this app (marked as C).
  • notifications (in the red box).

If you have more than one attended notification, the number of these attended notifications may also be shown.

To dismiss the notification, you can swipe it away as what you do in the notification panel.

For example, you can swipe to the right to dismiss this notification as shown below.

How to use notification dots in Android Oreo

The notification dot would disappear after you have dismissed or read all unread notifications.

How to dismiss notification dots in Android Oreo

How to enable/disable notification dots in Android Oreo?

By default, notification badges are enabled in Android Oreo.

But some Android vendors may disable it by default.

You can enable or disable notification dots in the Settings.

For example, you can enter phone settings through the quick settings panel as shown below.

How to enable/disable notification dots

In the Settings page, tap apps & notification as shown below.

How to enable/disable notification dots

In the apps and notification page, tap notifications as shown below

How to enable/disable notification dots

Once in notifications page, you’ll see the option to allow or disallow notification dots as shown below

How to enable/disable notification dots

If you want to disable/enable notification dots for an individual app, or an individual notification channel, you can do this through app info page of individual apps.

Notification dots (notification number badge; app icon badges)  in Samsung phones with Android Oreo

If you are using a Samsung Galaxy phone with Android Oreo update (or preinstalled), you may find you have the option to show the number of unattended notifications.

But the notification number badge in Android Oreo update for Samsung phones is actually notification dots, which is different from the old number badges in previous versions of Android for Samsung phones.

Please check this guide on using notification dots/notification number badge in Samsung phones with Android Oreo update.

Do you know how to use notification dots (notification badges) in Android Oreo 8.0 and 8.1? Do you know how to enable/disable notification badges in Android Oreo?

If you have any questions or encounter any problems in using notification dots (notification badges) in Android Oreo 8.0 and 8.1, please let us know in the comment box below.

The community will help you find the solution.

For questions on Android Oreo (Android 8.0 and 8.1), please check Android Oreo guides page.

For questions on Android Nougat (Android 7.0 and 7.1), please check Android Nougat guides page.

For questions on Android Marshmallow (Android 6.0), please check Android Marshmallow guide page.

For questions on Android Lollipop (Android 5.0 and 5.1), please check Android Lollipop guide page.

For other Android questions or problems, please check Android 101 page.

Please note, this is an owner-help-owner community. If you need official technical support or have warranty/sales related questions, please contact the vendor directly.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Lisa says

    My Samsung s8 phone updated this morning to oreo, I had badges before on my message+ app. But now, even after looking at the message, the badge remains on the icon. Any way to clear it when you don’t have any unread messages?

    Reply

  2. Chuck says

    I have a Samsung Galaxy S8+ and recently upgraded to Oreo. Prior to Oreo, my text message app icon and email icon had an app badge with the number of unread messages. With Oreo, those app badges show new notifications but if I open the messages or email app, the number on the app badge clears out, even though I still have unread messages. Is there any way to display unread messages (not unread notifications) on the app badges?

    Reply

  3. Pigeon says

    Since updating to Oreo, I don’t get any icon badges period, no notification dots or the option to tinker with them in app or notification settings. It’s making me mad in my head brain.

    Reply

  5. Gabriel hernandez says

    I am using a galaxy s8+ with at&t and ever since updating to oreo I have enabled notification dots but they still don’t work with ANY application!!

    Reply

  8. Bobk says

    My email notification dot always displays 16 as the total no matter if the actual total is 1 or 101.
    Reboot doesn’t clear this.

    Reply

  9. Rai says

    Hi I was just wondering as to some other people here, I liked how in the old version although you clear the notification panel the badge is still there on the app is that still possible, it slightly bothers me.

    Reply

  10. Richie says

    Is it just me that thinks this feature is absolutely useless?
    The notification panel at the top of my phone and the badge icon against an app should not be related in any way! Why try to fix something that wasn’t broke in the first place?
    It’s easy to see that this new ‘feature’ is disliked by pretty much everyone with a simple Google search – see the confusion mentioned by non-techie end users!

    Sort it out Android because this is a pathetic unnecessary feature that needs addressing asap.

    I should be able to look at any app from a glance and see how many unread notifications there are for that particular app. This is now a step backwards in Oreo.

    Reply

  11. Tito says

    Totally hate the new update! I’v always had my badges numbered…and if i cleared my dropdown notifications, cause there are so many, at least each app icon would still show me i had a notification waiting for me!! however, now with the update, if i pull down notifications and clear them… the numbers on each app also erases… and im forgetting to check messages later because of it!! If they insist on adding things why do they forget to leave the fundimentals. I want to be able to clear the drop down notifications without clearing the badges unless i actually go into the apt to check them!!!

    Reply

  12. Dan says

    Since a recent update my phone now comes up with a notification in the notification bar and shows the dots on the apps. When I clear the bar at top of phone it clears all the dots above the apps. Why has it started doing this it never used to. If I cleared the n.bar the dots would still display numbers. Have checked everything in the settings and all seem good. Unless I am missing something simple!!!

    Reply

  13. agaladari says

    Same problem here. They have really messed things up. Yesterday, I had almost 10 SMS messages that I missed and some were from the Bank. I missed most of my emails since notifications were getting cleared and icon badges are not getting updated. Whose idea was it to update? wasn’t there enough testing done before releasing it to public? I dare to find one person who likes this update. I mean I am ready to forget about all the new features or enhancements that was introduced in the Oreo and go back to the Nougat. At lease the notification will do what they are supposed to do.
    By the way, I tried Apex Launcher, its not that straight forward and does not report the correct number of notification and many times it just stopped.
    Can anyone guide me on how to downgrade to Nougat from Oreo on Note 8?

    Reply

  14. Caitlin says

    I’ve had the update for one day and I’ve already missed so many messages because I forget they’re there.

    Is every phone company going to this? or can i just leave team samsung and have my unread messages tab back?!

    Reply

  15. Christina says

    Mine just updated last night, and it’s awful! The “old version mixed notifications and unread messages” argument is ridiculous– okay, so what if I have a notification that I have a new E-mail, but I don’t have time to read it, but would still like the notification to be there so I remember later? This is just a trash update, let’s face it . . .

    Reply

  16. Ninjai says

    I also hate oreo because of this new “feature”. My phone no longer shows notification badges for any apps. I have rebooted my phone several times and double checked every level of app notification badge settings to make sure that all are turned on and still this function is non operational. You would think that with tech advancements and faster smarter phones that things should get better but android os now no longer serves this most basic functionality. Total android fail and still after 6 months this os is broken. If I could roll back to previous os I would. This is the stupidest ever and if they ever fix this problem I would be extremely reticent to trust any future updates not to break my phone again. I have just been learning to live with a half functioning phone and its super annoying.

    Reply

  17. Blueberry says

    I wish I had not updated.

    I prefer to see the badges if unread even after dismissing the notifications.

    Please bring that feature back – badges remain when unread. 🙁

    Reply

  18. Shary says

    Just updated Galaxy S7 edge to Oreo. I can’t find the notification button option to turn it back on. It is not under Apps nor notifications. I have rebooted. I get some texts that I have on a silent ring, that I still want to see, and the button worked well for me, showing previous unread texts. I have searched and searched but this option just is not anywhere for me to turn the buttons back on. Help!

    Reply

  19. Shary says

    I got my notification button problem fixed! When the Oreo update on my S7edge, was installing it had asked if I wanted the Google Now Home screen called Google Now launcher or Samsung Experience and I didn’t know which one to select, so I selected Google Now launcher which did change some of the home pages around. Hence my notification dots also vanished! The Samsung rep at Best Buy, had to look a bit but found the issue and switched it back to the Samsung Experience screen, and Now I have the notification dots, and with counts, as I selected!!! Search Home screen>Default Aps> select Samsung Experience Home…be sure to have icon badges turn on under notifications screen. I hope this is the solution for later models too.

    Reply

  20. paultx2 says

    Off-topic here: please, what place is that in the wallpaper? It seems like Godzilla is stumbling somewhere!

    Reply

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