HTC First - Not getting any Notifications for Phone, text or Voicemail. Only can see when Clicking on it

Question

One thing I liked about my old phone was if I got a missed call, text or Voicemail, it would putt a number, or in a more older phone I owned, an Alert symbol, notification informing me that I have one of these.

My HTC first is good, My first smartphone. But it does not inform me of a missed call. I have on my start up page of my phone my main 5 Apps, Contacts. Phone, Messaging, voicemail. and of course the shortcut to all my apps and phone stuff. I have these up there specifically cause that's what I use most. But when I get a missed call for any of those, no notification informing me :/. I have to go in each 1 at a time to see if someone sent me one, 3 out of 5 times there is nothing.

I would greatly appreciate if someone can tell me exactly how I can get notification on my HTC first for my missed calls / text and messaging. Will greatly appreciate it!

Answer 1

All those notifications usually turn up in the notification bar, located at the top of the screen. On all devices. Have you checked there?

^{example of the Android notification bar}

As you can see in this example, that's where notifications are displayed. Here you see, this user has new SMS and mail in their GMail app pending (to the left). Other notifications are indicators of available services (to the right), here telling that WiFi is active and the device connected, silent mode (no sound) is active, cell phone signal is available, battery is about 3/4 full, plus the current time.

Your "missed call" notification should also appear in the left-hand area, the symbol looking like this:

^{missed call icon}

Often, there're also numbers associated with them. Some launchers/lockscreens even allow for more custumization.

I would wonder if none of these are available with your device. Above examples are standard, and should be always available. Numbers on the icons (indicating how many missed calls, or how many SMS are pending) are something different: some manufacturers ship them by default, others don't. But using custom launchers / custom lockscreens, many things are possible.

Trouble with your HTC First might be the launcher: if I'm right, it comes with "Facebook Home", which wants to facebook-ify everything, and thus might hide some things usually visible. I don't use facebook at all, so I'm not that familiar with this area. But if that's the culprit, according to a review at AndroidCentral, Facebook Home can be turned off. On the other hand, a bunch of screenshots in the very same review clearly show those notifications being there, though a bit colorless:

^{HTC First screenshots (source: AndroidCentral)}

See the top of those screenshots -- and you will easily identify the GMail notification described before, here in the second and third screen :)