Enabling Notification Badges for Whatsapp and other Android Apps

Whatsapp is probably the most widely used instant messaging application on Android and since it’s cross-platform, it’s used on iOS, Blackberry OS and other mobile operating systems as well. I’ve used it (and still use it sometimes) on my iPhone 3GS and I love it but on crossing over to Android, I noticed the notification badge conuter I used to have for new messages doesn’t work on Android. Apart from the notification icon on your status bar and what you see in the notification center, there’s no way you can know about new messages through the lockscreen, homescreen or app drawer.

I prefer to keep my status bar hidden thanks to Nova Launcher and this notification badge this was badly needed. I actually need the badges to work just for:

1. Missed calls
2. SMS
3. Gmail
4. Whatsapp
5. Facebook Messenger

I finally got it working and was even able to show it on the lockscreen. Global badge notifications is one thing on iOS I really love and now, it’s working great on my Samsung Galaxy S2. By the way, I used 3 applications to get things to work exactly the way I want and this is one of the things I’ve been loving about Android OS since I started using it.

1. Missed it!

As a standalone app, this application may not be what you want but when used with the other apps I’m gonna list below, you’re really gonna love it. Missed it! lets you create a widget you can place on your homescreen that tells you about notifications from Facebook, Gmail, Messages, Whatsapp, missed calls and any other application that uses notifications.

Like I said, it may not achieve what we actually need as a stand alone app, we only need to have it installed. It costs $1.57 though.

2. Nova Launcher Prime

I’ve been using Apex Launcher for a while but had to switch to Nova Launcher Prime just because of global notification badges. With the prime feature unlocked in Nova Launcher ($4.00), you only need to set Missed it! as your notification provider from the settings (Unread Counts) and that’s it! You can have notification badges on most of your apps as shown in the screenshot above.

3. WidgetLocker Lockscreen

Since my phone is locked most of the times, a functional lockscreen is really needed and after trying lots of stuffs from the Play Store, I decided to settle for this cool lockscreen worth $2.99. A widgetized lockscreen sounds great right? It’s even better when you can add apps you access mostly on your lockscreen and display notification badges right on them. WidgetLocker Lockscreen is probably the best Android lockscreen replacement out there and the it’s integration with Missed it! makes it even perfect. You need to enable notification badges (Unread Counts) from the settings too and set Missed it! as your provider.

However, I didn’t get the notification count badge to work with Facebook Messenger and Viber but at least, it works for the apps I needed it for most, Whatsapp especially. I don’t even use Facebook as before since I converted my primary account to a fan page so I ain’t bothered about it..