The lock screen notifications in Windows 8/RT isn’t entirely a new concept, but it’s quite refreshing for Windows OS as it was never seen in any of its prior versions. These push notifications allow third-party apps to display real-time on-screen notifications for events like new email, weather updates, Facebook messages, Twitter mentions and the like. Although, its quite a nifty features that can save one a lot of time, there’s no central location where you can view all your pending notifications related to every app together. Earlier this month, we covered a Windows Phone app named Unification, aimed for somewhat similar purpose i.e. to bring all your notifications under one roof. The app has now arrived on Windows 8 and RT as well. Unification, being a cross-platform app, is designed to to automatically sync your notifications across all Windows based devices, including WP7, WP8, Windows 8 and Windows RT.
Unification for Windows 8 and RT works in a similar fashion to its Windows Phone counterpart, which means for using the app, you’ll need to connect your Microsoft Account with it. The first step in doing this is to sign in to your Microsoft Account (Outlook, Hotmail, MSN, Live etc.) and grant the required permissions to the app.
Once signed in, you will be presented with a simple landing screen which is the main area for all your notifications to appear. The notifications are split into three sections labeled what’s new, recent and most active. Unification syncs all the notifications automatically but also provides option for manual synchronization from the app bar. Speaking of the app bar, it allows you to pin selected notification to the Start Screen, or remove them from the list. The Apps button at the top-right brings up the supported apps list.
To receive notifications through Unification, you’ll need to connect it to the supported app of your choice. You’ll most likely find the relevant option in the Settings bar of the app. Once connected, all your latest notifications will start to appear under What’s New.
The current supported apps list displays apps from both Windows 8 and Windows Phone platforms, and isn’t quite impressive yet. We hope the list will eventually grow as more developers add Unification support into their apps. App titles with the CERTIFIED badge next to them means they have been tested to be working fine with Unification. The apps list comprises of Live, Recent and Requested items.
The Preferences pane (accessible from Charms Bar via hitting Win + C) allows you to toggle automatic synchronization for notifications, tile updates and duplicate notifications. In addition, you can specify the frequency of auto removal of notifications in days (with 2 days being default).
Unification is available at Windows Store. Both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows 8 are supported by the app.
