Google’s Little Signals devices will deliver notifications in a subtle way using our plants

Living in an always-on world can be both a blessing and a curse. It’s a blessing because you will never miss an email, a message, or a call because you have notifications on your smartphone, smartwatch, or your smart speaker. But it’s also a curse as it can be very distracting or even triggering for some. You can turn off notifications to avoid being bothered or disturbed, but you may miss important information. Google appears to want that delicate balance and Google is trying to find it.

Designers: Seed Studio and Map Project Office

Google has created something called the Little Signals Series, which aims to provide distraction-free notifications. They came up with a way to integrate ordinary, everyday sounds that are part of your environment to still bring you alerts but not get distracted or bothered by them. This experimental project provides distraction-free alerts with six devices: Shadow, Tap, Air, Button Movement, Shadow and Rhythm. Users can pick from a variety of options to best suit their needs and lifestyle.

The Air device seems the most interesting one if you are a plant parent. You will receive an alert that the Air device is using patterns such as blow, spin, and wiggle to affect objects or plants nearby. Of course, if you’re not paying attention much, you might miss the signals but at least there’s a way to make it less in your face. It is also more visible as the Button device will either pop up or twist slightly, giving off subtle chime sounds. The button is bright orange, so you will notice it.

The Movement device has seven different actions you can choose from like move, bounce, push, and can even create a “graph” to let you know you have a notification. The Rhythm one seems the most “calming” among the devices as it gives off ambient sounds and can be controlled with the wave of a hand. If you don’t need it to give you notifications, you can just flip it over. I would personally choose this one if it ever goes to market.

Shadow, like its name says, casts movements of shadow when you receive notifications. Shadow can breathe, move, twist, turn, and shake to subtly catch your attention. Tap can also be used to point, knock, wave and spin various notifications. Design-wise, these devices seem to match the Google Home line and are also pretty subtle in appearance, matching their functionalities and how we can interact with these devices.