If you’ve had a smartphone for awhile, you’re probably used to the various noises that your phone makes. One noise will let you know that you have a new Facebook message while another noise alerts you when a text message pops up. These noises are efficient, but there’s nothing spectacular about stock smartphone notification sounds.

For the developers of the Android app POP, the lack of great notification sounds is a big problem. That’s why the POP team created, well, POP. POP is a new way to put an original spin on Android smartphone notifications. Is it necessary? Probably not. Is this app going to be super popular? There’s no doubt about it.

What POP Does

When you download POP from the Android Marketplace, you will be given a package of animations and sounds. You can then assign these animations and sounds to any given smartphone notification. Let’s say, for example, that you want to see a puppy racing across your screen when someone sends you a text. Let’s say that you also want to hear that puppy yelping as it moves across your screen – POP can make this happen.
Yep, you’ll get a number of different animations and noises when you download POP.

You can then choose any one of these packages and apply them to different smartphone notifications. If you don’t like the sounds and animations that POP has to offer, this app also offers the possibility to create your own custom sounds and photos. Go ahead, download that movie of your kid walking when you get a Facebook message, nobody will stop you.

POP Is Free (For Now)

At the time of this writing, POP packages are free. Just look for POP in the Android Marketplace. However, as soon as this app becomes popular (and it will), you will have to pay a price to use POP. In short, download the app now if you want to use it for free. Of course, the paid version will, no doubt, come with a bunch of new and improved sounds and animations, but it’s up to you to decide when to stop the madness.

Interestingly, this app is being received very well across the globe. Many feel as though POP is a necessary Android app that is long overdue. Some, on the flip side, feel that the noises people’s smartphones make are loud and obnoxious enough. For those folks, there’ll be no end to the sounds coming from smartphones across the world. Heaven help us.

Do You Need POP?

I can’t imagine that anyone actually needs this app, but that doesn’t mean that POP won’t be fun to use. If you have a hard time differentiating between the noise that an incoming text makes and the noise that an incoming Facebook message makes, POP might be what you’re looking for.

If you just like sound-effects and graphics, POP is for you too. Just keep in mind that your friends and family members may not be as thrilled about the POP noises you choose, so turn off that volume when you’re dining or when you’re at an intimate party.