Show HN: I built an open-source notification inbox widget for Hacker News

12 points by anandnair 2 years ago | 3 comments

Hey all, I built a Chrome extension (open source) that adds a notification inbox widget (and optional email notifications) inside HackerNews.

* This inbox feed shows an unread bubble (Like in Reddit) whenever someone replies directly to your thread or comment.

* Optionally, you can enable email notifications for the same. (With batching support)

* Makes it easy to navigate to new replies.

== URLs ==

Github Repository : https://github.com/anandrmedia/hn-notifier

== How it works? ==

* This extension uses Engagespot to embed an In-App notification inbox.

* It just makes use of your public HackerNews username and nothing else! No cookies, nothing!

* This extension works by polling HN API every minute from the backend server to check for new updates. (No matter how many people use this extension, the server calls HN API only once every minute)

== Why? ==

Isn't it much better when there is a way to know that I have an unseen comment? Otherwise, I have to keep refreshing HN to know if someone replied.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.

How do you currently check for new replies to your comments?

coderider 2 years ago |

I've found myself gravitating towards reddit because of its comparatively better user experience, and I've often yearned for a similar feature here on HN. It's surprising why HN hasn't implemented it yet. Just a simple count like (4 unread) would be immensely helpful.

as90 2 years ago |

Well, sometimes I forget to check my threads and I don't think it is a problem.

anandnair 2 years ago | |

I just received a notification for this comment. Thanks to my extension ;) I think we lose the opportunity to engage in meaningful conversations if we don't get notified effectively. (Well on the other hand, too many notifications make it counterproductive though)