AndroidGood and EVO

Android Lollipop: What’s that star in the notification bar?

Android Lollipop Star in notification barIf you’ve got Android Lollipop and a tiny human who occasionally grabs your phone and presses things with joyous glee, chances are you may have noticed a star in the notification bar.

I’ll note this doesn’t appear to affect Android 5.0.2 on the HTC One M7/Sense, this seems more geared to stockier Android ROMs (like the Google Play Edition on the M8, pictured here).

Swiping down reveals nothing, and there’s no obvious indication as to what the star indicates. Simply put, your phone’s pretty much on do not disturb and at least on the ROMs I’ve played with there’s no menu option to take it off that is readily apparent.

The easiest way to disable this is from the launcher. Press volume up, and there will be a menu pop up (only when on the main screen of the launcher,) with all, none, and priority as listed options. If you want to receive calls and texts, select all. If you’re tired of talking with the world but still want to play Angry Birds with an internet connection, choose none.

If you want to remain slightly connected, choose priority and define what your priority notifications are in the settings menu under sounds/notifications. I’m not seeing this in the M7/Sense offerings of Lollipop, so most One users may be without this feature/curse.

The star notification option was chosen by Google most likely because almost anything else might have included some hint as to what the notification was and that your phone was no longer receiving calls or texts.

As I now have two phones in the household with Lollipop that have been in the reach of the toddler and at least once this week have missed phone calls due to the little star popping up there, I figured I’d share what the star in the notification bar was and how to disable.

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Paul E King

Paul King started with GoodAndEVO in 2011, which merged with Pocketables, and as of 2018 he's evidently the owner. He lives in Nashville, works at a film production company, is married with two kids. Facebook | Twitter | Donate | More posts by Paul | Subscribe to Paul's posts

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