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White Notification is rainbow colored?

mrvirginia

Android Expert
so the default notification color is white i believe. on mine, it actually looks more like a rainbow color that's mostly white. anyone else seeing the same thing?

edit: just wanted to confirm this is indeed how it's supposed to look as default "white". there's an image of it over on xda :)
 
It is most likely an RGB led that is multiplexed, which is to say they are color mixing by flashing the red, green and blue led's very quickly which the eye will see as white. It is most apparent when you look in one place ( pick a spot in front of you ) and then wave the phone around... you should see the separate colors, which is probably what you are seeing as "rainbow color"
 
It is most likely an RGB led that is multiplexed, which is to say they are color mixing by flashing the red, green and blue led's very quickly which the eye will see as white. It is most apparent when you look in one place ( pick a spot in front of you ) and then wave the phone around... you should see the separate colors, which is probably what you are seeing as "rainbow color"

it's just very apparent with the phone just sitting there and me seeing the LED light. but it believe you're right. looking closer, the very center of it is white, surrounded by a light red/pink, green and blue.

ROMs will bring about the changing of this to a single color. the darker LED colors like solid blue, red, or green do not have this effect, only lighter colors such as light blue, cyan and of course white.
 
The Droid X is the same way - "white" is actually a very apparent mix of other colors.

+1 bv :).

There's an "ledARGB" setting in the NotificationManager API that allows for setting of the amber/red/green/blue colors for the LED.

Most devices don't support all of the possible LEDs colors (i.e., my HTC Droid Eris supports amber/green; the Moto Droid-class phones mostly support red/green/blue; Samsung 4G supports the red/blue, etc.).

Each LED has a corresponding brightness file that can be given a value from zero (off) to 255 (full brightness). Combining the colors of the various LEDs will give you your desired colors, although they don't always translate perfectly in real-life ;).

To give you an idea about how the colors can be combined to create new colors, here's a sampling the color codes for the ledARGB variable that I use in my BattMonX for the colors I chose to support:

Code:
//                                         amber    red  green  blue
COLOR_NONE            =   0x00000000;   //     0      0      0     0
COLOR_AMBER           =   0xff000000;   //   255      0      0     0       
COLOR_RED             =   0x00ff0000;   //     0    255      0     0
COLOR_GREEN           =   0x0000ff00;   //     0      0    255     0
COLOR_BLUE            =   0x000000ff;   //     0      0      0   255
COLOR_WHITE           =   0xffffffff;   //   255    255    255   255
COLOR_YELLOW          =   0x00ffff00;   //     0    255    255     0
COLOR_DARK_ORANGE     =   0x00ff8c00;   //     0    255    140     0
COLOR_ORANGE          =   0x00ffa500;   //     0    255    165     0
COLOR_DARK_VIOLET     =   0x009400d3;   //     0    148      0   211  
COLOR_DARK_GREEN      =   0x00006400;   //     0      0    100     0
COLOR_DEEP_SKY_BLUE   =   0x0000bfff;   //     0      0    191   255
COLOR_GOLD            =   0x00ffd700;   //     0    255    215     0

Not every manufacturer's hardware implements the LED API functionality perfectly. I've found Motorola to be among the best amongst the devices that I know my app has run on.

Cheers!
 
it's just very apparent with the phone just sitting there and me seeing the LED light. but it believe you're right. looking closer, the very center of it is white, surrounded by a light red/pink, green and blue.

ROMs will bring about the changing of this to a single color. the darker LED colors like solid blue, red, or green do not have this effect, only lighter colors such as light blue, cyan and of course white.

It sounds like there are three separate LEDs and they are spaced out a bit. When viewed from a distance they will all blend to white but up close you can see the separation.
 
Ive had mine for over a week and my view is that the colours are intentional and not meant to be white at all.

The the circle is split into three with each section a different colour but blending white in.

Its definately meant to be like that.
 
How can I have different colours for Email, SMS etc ?

You can't unless someone comes up with a 3rd party solution. I could find no adjustments except to turn it on or off!

A huge miss in opportunity.

The light also need to blink at a faster rate. Right now it flashes about every 5 seconds. It takes more than a glance to see if it is blinking. You got to stare for at least 5 seconds before you know for sure if it is blinking. It should blink every second with OUR choice of colors.
 
Have you tried LightFlow? I don't know if it's ICS compatible yet, but LightFlow lets you set each app's notification color, how the notification lights blink, etc.
 
Have you tried LightFlow? I don't know if it's ICS compatible yet, but LightFlow lets you set each app's notification color, how the notification lights blink, etc.

+1 binary visions!

Andrew (Light Flow developer) originally wrote Light Flow on and for his original Nexus, so I'm sure there is (or will be) some synergy there.

Cheers!
 
Oh, and the developer (Andrew, as SA said above), is super nice and very responsive, so if it doesn't work on ICS, reach out to him and let him know.
 
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