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I've read many of the other posts, but it seems that I have a more basic issue (and it doesn't seem to be related to the language bug reported in other posts): I've got a Radius Dot and it's set up to send a tiny URL using the Eddystone-URL protocol. I'm testing with a Galaxy S7 (Android 6.0.1), and Location, Bluetooth and Nearby are all turned on.

I'm able to get notifications if I check for them manually via the Settings/Google/Nearby Discoveries process. The problem is getting useful real-time notifications when I come within range of a beacon, without going through a manual process.

On the lock screen, I received nothing for quite a while, and then after restarting the phone I eventually received a "Google Play Store - contents hidden" message on the lock screen (not a very useful message, as who would know that Nearby Notifications are part of the Play Store process).

On active screens, although a newly discovered beacon is in range, I never get a notification icon/symbol at the top of the screen, but rather I only see beacon notifications if/when I swipe down on some other kind of notification, for example when an email notification icon appears.

I seems to me that developers may have erred too much on the side of not bothering users, to the point where Nearby might be useless - it's so hard to know about an active beacon without taking some kind of manual action each time!

I'm wondering if the lack of a notification icon/symbol at the top of normal active screens is a bug, or if it's designed that way?

Thanks in advance! Scott Stingel

Scott Stingel
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    Great report. I have witnessed similar results. You may have better luck getting an answer as to whether this is by design on a Google-sponsored forum like here. https://github.com/google/physical-web/issues – davidgyoung Aug 09 '16 at 14:29
  • Thanks David - I will check that forum out. – Scott Stingel Aug 10 '16 at 18:30

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This is the correct behavior. They have intentionally erred on the side of not bothering users. The process works like this:

Configure your Eddystone-URL beacon with a short (less than 18 character) HTTPS URL. You may wish to use a redirect service to do this.

If you have Chrome installed and have enabled Location for Chrome and Bluetooth, then your phone will scan for nearby Eddystone-URL bluetooth frames when you activate the screen.

You will receive a notification for any URLs discovered, but they will all show within a single combined notification. Further, you will not nee a notification tray icon, or receive any haptic or audible indication of the notification.

Much of this information is available in the official Physical Web faq: https://google.github.io/physical-web/faq

You may also want to look into using the Nearby Notifications service as it provides greater flexibility in delivering Web Site URLs as well app install notifications. Information on Nearby Notifications is available at https://developers.google.com/nearby/notifications/overview

angst7
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    What I'm describing is indeed operation using the Nearby Notifications service. Nearby (Eddystone-URL method) seems almost useless in the current form, without even a hint of a notification in the notification bar. Who would think to continually swipe down and look for notifications all the time? According to the other comments I read (from Google developers) they have in addition implemented a system to de-prioritize particular notifications once they are swiped away, which is fine. I'm just questioning the method of letting the users know about a Nearby notification in the first place. – Scott Stingel Aug 10 '16 at 18:37
  • To be clear: The Eddystone-URL frame type is detected though Chrome and the Physical Web app, they need not be registered with the Beacon Tools App, and do not use attachments. Nearby Notifications do not use the Eddystone-URL frame type. Instead Nearby Notification URLs are attached to registered beacons using the Eddystone-UID or EID frames. These should display a small diamond-shaped icon in the notification bar. I just tested this this afternoon. I agree that the Physical Web notifications are underwhelming. The nearby notifications for URLs are better. – angst7 Aug 11 '16 at 00:49
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    Thanks for sharing your experience with UID/EID's, which I will try myself. When originally researching this, I had come across the intersection of the Nearby Notification and Physical web terminology in this Google article: developers.google.com/nearby/notifications/overview. A quote: "Eddystone-URL lets you advertise a URL (HTTP or HTTPS), and is designed for interacting with the Physical Web. Nearby Notifications can also show HTTPS URLs broadcast from Eddystone-URL devices, although Eddystone-URL does not support app intent or app install URLs." – Scott Stingel Aug 12 '16 at 13:19