Paranoid Android HALO unified notifications were first shown back in early-May. Since that point there has been some alpha releases, however as of today it looks like things have shifted to beta. In fact, the first public beta of Paranoid Android HALO has been released and it is said to have been completely rewritten from scratch.
The rewriting was done in an effort to “fight against the occasional jank.” But in reality, what that really means is that the beta should be much smoother as compared to those earlier alpha releases. Basically if you had been playing with an alpha release — now seems like as good a time as any to begin flashing the beta release. Details coming from the Paranoid Android team note the public beta as being “way smoother” with one exception.
It seems a heavy load of multi-tasking apps starting up will cause some strain. Aside from being rewritten, there were some other changes and improvements with this beta release. The team has said there are some new gestures to dismiss notifications and to hide HALO on the spot. Furthermore, HALO should now work for every app that you have installed on your device.
Otherwise, it was said that “apps going back home or refusing to open up in floating state should be fixed once and for all.” With that, those looking to do some flashing and playing will be able to grab this latest beta release on the goo.im website. While we plan to do some playing ourselves, we spent some time in the Paranoid Android Google+ comments to try and get a grip on what we can expect to see.
Anyway, as one would expect there are some issues and quirks still. Finally, for those not quite as familiar with HALO, think of it as Facebook Chat Heads, but for all your apps. The Paranoid Android team released a video highlighting the feature a little while back and while that was a “very early look” it should be give you a good idea of how this all works.
SOURCE: Google+ Paranoid Android
When I first heard of HALO I was excited. I haven’t tried it out but now I don’t really see the advantage of notifications being in a blob as opposed to the notification tray. Selecting one of several notifications in the blob seemed clumsy and less convenient than ususal.
What I really like about it though, is the fact that all apps open as a pop up when you open a notification. I really hope this will make it to other ROMs, specifically AOKP.
Does this require a PA ROM or can you flash it over any ROM you’re running?