[Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge Questions and Answers] budorat:
BLUF: Notifications suck on the S7 Edge to the point that I have reverted to my iPhone 6S+ as my daily driver and have contacted Samsung to return the phone.

Before I am accused of being an iTroll, let's review some my recent phone ownership history... Galaxy Note 2, Galaxy S4, Sony Xperia Z3, HTC One M8, Galaxy Note 4, Nexus 6, iPhone 6S+, Nexus 6P, Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge .....

As you can tell, I clearly have an issue with phones, or at least keeping them for any reasonable amount of time. I guess I am still searching for the perfect phone, aren't we all.

I am a die hard Android guy that has been taking the iPhone 6S+ for a spin the past 6 months. I got my S7 Edge on Fri 11 Mar 16 and I have to say it is indeed a very beautiful phone. It is waterproof, smaller with the same screen size, faster and has a better display than the iPhone 6S+. I find most Android apps to be better than the equivalent iPhone app. The phone is beautiful, comfortable to hold (Spigen case in place) and is ALMOST perfect, almost.

The one thing that is getting to me about the S7 Edge is Notifications, or lack there-of.

The always on display and the stock lock screen do not support third party notifications. It wakes on receiving an SMS but does not wake when receiving other notifications. After numerous tests, an hour with Samsung Tech support on Sat night I have concluded that only the Samsung apps have the ability to wake the device to display notifications. Even with the "Always On" display disabled none seem to wake the phone to display the notification (Outlook, Facebook, Messenger, LinkedIn, Gmail etc) save for Samsung's built in apps.

I want my notifications to wake the device and display on screen without me needing to interact with the device. I work in an open plan office, I need to have my phone on silent while at work, so I rely on the screen waking up to tell me about incoming notifications. My iPhone displays the notification right away, so I can decide to interact with it or just ignore it. With the Edge I would have to interact with the phone every time just to see what the notification was. The always on display is also a little irritating.... the time/calendar moves every so often to avoid screen burn in I assume.... the issue is that while I am working it catches my eye sufficiently to distract me from the task at hand.

I have tried several pop up/notification apps today with varying levels of success. The main issue here is that none really seem to support the fingerprint scanner. This is actually be a deal breaker for me and I have contacted Samsung Australia this morning to return the phone, I am just waiting on an approval. This is not something that that I expected given I am a die hard Android fan. I only decided to try out the 6S+ to see what it's like....and while I am not excited by the iPhone I am happy with it because it just works. I would have to say that the strength of iOS for me is its notifications, they really have nailed it.

I do not think I am asking that much, my previous Nexus 6 and Nexus 6P both allowed third party apps to wake the device. It is clear to me that Samsung have disabled this option.

If someone has a solution, then I am willing to try it out, otherwise I fear I will be on iOS till the next Nexus release (unless the HTC One 10 is a worthy consideration).