Tweet Lanes; notifications are the “next big new feature” and they will be poll based (on the device)

The Tweet Lanes app has been updated on a fairly regular basis up until this point in time. In fact, at the end of July we saw the “buttery” update arrive and then a few days back the app got support for Direct Messages and more. And while I have not used it since it originally landed in Google Play, I have been using it lately and it has become my go-to Twitter app on my Nexus 7. Anyway, my usage aside, it looks like Tweet Lanes may soon be getting another update. This time it will be notifications. The developer, Chris Lacy recently posted on Google+ and stated that;

“Notifications are the next big new feature in Tweet Lanes”

It seems that aside from bringing notifications, a big part of the decision here was whether to make them push or poll based. And well, according to Chris, the notifications will arrive as poll based (on the device). And given that some users may be disappointed, Chris stated that he believes this is the “only realistic option” available for him and perhaps more interesting here;

“As a programmer trying to write the best app and service I possibly can, believe me when I say this disappoints me more than it likely does you.”

That all aside, for those wondering the difference and what this really means in terms of you getting notifications — Chris offered up some positives and some negatives in terms of polling on the device.

Positives:

• This is definitely the fastest way for me to implement notifications and release the functionality to users.
• Poll time will be configurable.
• No server costs.

Negatives:

• Polling sucks.
• Notifications will be displayed when the poll recognizes you have new alerts, not the instant the event was triggered.
• Polling on the device will use the battery and data plan (Note: I will add a setting so users can elect to poll only on WiFi).

Finally, those curious about the other options (for notifications) that were considered should follow the Google+ link at the bottom of this post and continue to read.

Via [Google+]