Filed under: iPhone, iPod touch, App Review
Push Growl notifications to iPhone with Prowl
If you've seen a string of notifications pop up on your screen and then gracefully fade away, you've probably seen Growl; it's the open source & popular system-wide framework that allows applications to let you know when something happens. For instance, a Growl notification might appear to inform you of a newly-arrived email, new mentions on Twitter, a change of song in iTunes, or a download completing in Safari or Transmission.
The notification itself is a customizable pop-up that can also include an auditory notification as well. Growl is very flexible; it allows you to choose exactly which events trigger a notice, or pick a particular notification style for a specific event. Growl includes support for hundreds of OS X applications and is one of the first items I install on a new system.
Probably the only feature that could make Growl even more awesome is if it were to support forwarding notifications to an iPhone or iPod Touch running 3.0 via the new Push framework. Enter iPhone application Prowl (iTunes link), it is a Growl client for the iPhone that sends your Mac's Growl notifications out to your iPhone. Read on for my experiences and thoughts on the first Growl application for the iPhone.
Because Growl is installed on your Mac and Prowl on your iPhone, the requisite link between the two means there is some configuration involved in getting going with Prowl. You can't download Prowl onto your iPhone or iPod touch and be ready to go immediately.
To use Prowl you must first have Growl installed and then create an account at the Prowl website. An account is necessary for the Prowl plug-in on your Mac to know where to send the notifications. Once the client application is installed on your iPhone and configured it is simply a matter of setting your Growl notification style to use "Prowl" rather than your default. More detailed installation/configuration instructions can be found here.
Usage/configuration
Prowl immediately begins working and any notifications that appear from Growl are automatically forwarded on to your iPhone. You can configure Prowl to use a different notification style for notices that appear on your Mac. It is also possible to have Prowl only forward notices of a specified priority. Prowl even lets you decide when to keep the notices on your Mac, when to send them to your iPhone or when to have them them show up on both.
This works by configuring the option to "Only send to Prowl when computer is idle for more than X minutes." By using this option you can tell Prowl that after X minutes of inactivity it should begin forwarding notifications to your iPhone. While the computer is still active, however, it will use the local notification style. Leaving this option un-checked means that all notices will appear on your Mac and your iPhone or iPod touch.
Performance
In my testing I found that Prowl worked exactly as planned and the notifications appeared on my iPhone very quickly. When my iPhone had been in standby for about 20 minutes, there was a 3-second delay between the actual event and the notification appearing on my iPhone -- not bad at all. When I was actively using my iPhone the notifications arrived almost instantaneously. For example, downloading the latest release of redsn0w with Transmission, I heard the familiar sound-effect of my torrent download completing, and before the "ting" had ended my iPhone was vibrating with a new Prowl notification.
Conclusion
I was extremely impressed with Prowl and the elegance with which I was able to view Growl notifications on my iPhone. If you are already using Growl then this application is an easy $2.99US purchase.
Growl is also common with individuals running their own closet servers -- if this is you then Prowl is a must-buy. For example, you could have Growl notifications on your closet server show up on the office Mac and also forwarded to your iPhone when you're away from home.
Prowl is written by Zachary West, who is also one of the developers of the beloved, multi-platform chat client Adium. Prowl is a great application, and I am extremely pleased with the results I had in my testing.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
JaRet said 11:15AM on 7-08-2009
I installed this yesterday, and it is great! I have been using it to push notifications of new items in Google Reader. My only problem is: how do I turn it off at night??? I don't need to be notified that I have new unread items at 3 in the morning.
Reply
bastula said 11:26AM on 7-08-2009
That's the same concern I had. For now I just turn notifications off before I go to bed. The other thing I thought might not be a bad idea is to turn off notification sounds, since the phone will still vibrate if you have it in that mode. The last thing would be for the developer to put time limits into prowl, but that might be better suited for Apple to build into the iPhone OS.
Grant said 11:26AM on 7-08-2009
I would set something like RSS feed notifications to do badge only, no sounds or popup messages; however, it doesn't seem like you can set that for different Growl applications on the iPhone side.
David A said 3:36PM on 7-09-2009
I just put the computer that's pushing the messages to sleep!
ctferrara said 3:56PM on 7-09-2009
how are you being notified of google reader items?
if it is though an app then I don't know how to help.
but... if you are doing it my way....skim though the comments... the post is long. (works with geektool!)
it can easily be formatted to only work during cretin time periods.
shoot me an email at ctferrarajr @ gmail.com (remove spaces)
Alexander Stone said 11:21AM on 7-08-2009
I've been using Prowl for a few days, now, and it's wonderful. 2.99 is an abasolute steal for how useful this app is. Like the artcle says, if you're running a server with Growl installed, you get instant notification of various activity. Again, Mr. West could charge more for this app and I'd gladly pay it. Imagine how useful this would be for IT, server admins, or just folks that need to keep an eye on their machine.
This, combined with a Growl-enabled Twitter client like Tweetie or Twitteriffic (maybe tweetdeck. I haven't checked) also gets you the ever-sought-after Twitter notifications without eating up your API calls
Reply
ryaneanwalton said 11:22AM on 7-08-2009
The additions of Prowl and NotifyMe to the App Store have made PUSH such a great addition.
Reply
Martin said 11:27AM on 7-08-2009
I can see the usefulness of this program, but the only program I have that would get growl notifications while I am away from my home computer is Adium, and I already have Beejive, so don't really need that.
I suppose I could redirect Transmission download notifications to Prowl. I'd be interested in hearing other applications of the software from fellow TUAW peeps.
Reply
Ryan said 11:36AM on 7-08-2009
Handbrake encodes.
Mentions of your nick in an IRC channel your idling in.
Transmission, but you already mentioned that.
Long xcode builds.
ctferrarajr said 11:50AM on 7-08-2009
alright boys and girls. here is the my latest and greatest geektool script.
it works with prowl and growl and growl notify to display unread gmail items(without Mail.app or any other app) and unread Google reader items (without any other apps).
If you have just unread mail it will display a Prowl notification that you have unread mail and the number of unread messages. if you have unread reader items it will do the same. if you have both...it will combine the messages into a single prowl message for easy viewing. if you have neither then it does nothing thus eliminated many blank notifications.
it also adds a timestamp so you can know if you have addressed the items yet.
to get this to work is very simple. just follow the steps below.
1)intall growlnotify
2)set up prowl
3)set prowl as defualt for growl, but only for emergancy items.
4) intall this script into a geektool shell item.
##Gmail
gmail=$(/usr/local/bin/elinks -dump '[mail.google.com]' | awk '/Gmail/ {print "Emails : " $7}')
nomail="Emails : 0"
reader=$(/usr/local/bin/elinks -source 'www.google.com/reader/api/0/unread-count?all=true&output=json' | sed 's/":/\ /g;s/,/\ /g;s/max/\state/' | awk 'BEGIN {RS = "{"} ; /state/ {sum += $4}; END {print "Reader: " sum }')
noreader="Reader: 0"
date=$(date "+%a, %B %d "-" %l:%M %p")
if [ "$gmail" == "$nomail" ]
then
if [ "$reader" == "$noreader" ]
then
echo
else
/usr/local/bin/growlnotify -p Emergency -a finder -n Geektool --title $reader -m "$date"
fi
else
if [ "$reader" == "$noreader" ]
then
/usr/local/bin/growlnotify -p Emergency -a finder -n Geektool --title $gmail -m "$date "
else
/usr/local/bin/growlnotify -p Emergency -a finder -n Geektool --title $reader -m "$gmail - $date"
fi
fi
4)install elinks (for the fetching of unread gmail and reader items. after installing open it in terminal by typing elinks. then navigate to google.com and log in(so it can get your unread info)
5)Set it to an appropriate refresh rate and your ready to rock!
Questions, Comments, Concerns? email me at ctferrarajr @ gmail.com (remove spaces)
Reply
Michael Rose said 3:15PM on 7-08-2009
CT, you mind putting that script over at Scribd or someplace where it doesn't munge the comments page? It's a little overwhelming here.
JaRet said 11:56AM on 7-08-2009
I would like to see an app that uses apple's iSight and detects motion whenever I'm not home that will notify me when it detects something in my room and then allow me to view the video feed
Reply
Alex said 12:55PM on 7-08-2009
BRILLIANT IDEA!
I wish someone could make that happen!
KryptonianSon said 2:21PM on 7-08-2009
Actually that already exists. look for iCam in the app store. The feature you ask for has been submitted and is awaiting apple approval.
HD said 12:03PM on 7-08-2009
Is no one else concerned that everything that gets Prowled (email addresses, first lines of emails, IMs, twitters, etc.) is stored on someone else's server? That's a lot of collated information just sitting in one spot.
Or am I just a dinosaur, still worrying about my privacy? Pardon me, there's a bright light crossing the sky, I think I'll go check it out.
Reply
puhsitch said 1:18PM on 7-08-2009
Well, according to Prowl's web site, information is encrypted, automatically deleted after 30 days, and can be manually deleted from the server at any time. I've got no problem as long as the company clearly states its privacy policies and all that.
Murphy Mac said 12:13PM on 7-08-2009
This is interesting but I've never gotten Growl to work right across my network, despite hours of trying. Anyone else had network issues with Growl?
I suspect my Netgear router might be the problem, it doesn't work 100% right with Macs for DHCP either.
Reply
Alex said 1:00PM on 7-08-2009
I also have never had any success in getting this to work. I was using a crappy old Belkin router and now I'm using a slightly less crappy Linksys/Cisco router at home that I'm eager to try this out with.
Unfortunately, I'm down to a one-mac household at the moment so the experiment will have to wait til I find a new roommate ... that being said if anyone knows someone looking for a place in Astoria New York that wouldn't mind living in an A/V-centric house with loads of cool gear all over the place tell them to hit me up!
themongoos said 12:35PM on 7-08-2009
Has anyone using Prowl seen whether it hurts the battery a lot or not, cause it looks like a really useful program but I don't want it to kill my iphone battery, it's bad enough as it is.
Reply
ctferrara said 3:56PM on 7-09-2009
this uses as much battery as any other push notification. the way it workes is that Growl (on your computer) send the message to the Prowl servers and the prowl servers send it to apple which in turn send it to your ipod/iphone. it is very battery efficient and is just like uses AIM or any other app that sends push notifications!