Pops: Jazzed up message notifications for Android

Ten years ago, mobile phones came with nothing more than a basic notification system, and little more than monophonic and polyphonic ringtones. Now you can assign pretty much any song or sound, personalizing each and every tone for each app, contact or message.

Pops is a brand new Android app which takes the whole ringtone feature to a new level, introducing animations and videos as part of your notification system.

Pops is the brainchild of the three man Israel-based team, Yaron Orenstein, Nir Ofir and Kfir Goldman. Asking Orenstein what inspired them to launch Pops, he told The Next Web:

“In a world where mobile notifications became a major part of our life, we found that there is no way to customize, enrich and modify the way we receive notifications. From our research we found out that an average smartphone user receives about 1,000 alerts a month – teens and other highly connected users receive more than 2,500 notifications a month. Pops is the ringtones for the smartphone generation – the generation that not only want its smartphone to be smart – but also fun and personalized.”

After downloading the free app, you can authorize both your Twitter and Facebook accounts, to receive notifications for replies, comments and other activities on the social network. Pops will also notify you of new emails and SMS messages. The app completely replaces the notification system on your phone, also accessible from the notification bar.

You can download packs of notifications directly through the app, with over 80 animations to choose from, with some pretty cool choices including a Nyan cat pack, as well as a few Android specific animations.

You can either easily set all of your notifications to one pack, or if you want some variety, you can pick and choose from different packs. You can also use your own personal photos or videos taken on your phone.

The notifications, which appear only when your phone is on standby, include the message of the text, the name of the sender and their photo. You can then dismiss the notification, go directly to the message, or freeze all animations for a set period of time.

To really appreciate Pops, you have to see it in action, so check out the video below:

If you’re the kind of person who likes to personalize your ringtones based on who is calling you, you’ll probably love having the ability to add a little bit of pizzazz to your message notifications too.

To try out the app for yourself, you can download it for free from the Android Market.