3074: Push Notifications

2025-04-11T11:49:58Z

DatHypnoboi: Additional notification text at high value

{{comic
| number = 3074
| date = April 9, 2025
| title = Push Notifications
| image = push_notifications_2x.png
| imagesize = 277x347px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = NOTIFICATION: Now dismissing a head of the Notification Hydra… NOTIFICATION: Success! You have dismissed a head of the Notification Hydra! Different title text: :3
}}
To experience the interactivity of the game, visit the {{xkcd|3074|original comic}}.

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Please write a better overall explanation and explain the other functions of the comic. If you see any comic images that haven't been uploaded yet, please download and add them!}}
This interactive comic is the 15th [[:Category:April fools' comics|April Fools' Day]] comic released by Randall, just over a week late. It uses {{w|push notifications}} to change the comic image over time and make other statements.

Upon viewing the comic for the first time, a sequence of notifications will be rendered over the comic itself. The notifications have a fade-in animation and appear one after another. The sequence is divided into several "groups" of notifications, each containing up to 4 regular notifications and an interactable button, which has a circled arrow icon to the right as well as a different text color. Clicking the arrow removes all notifications on screen and proceeds the sequence to the next group.

At the end of the sequence, a red-background option to sign up for xkcd notifications is presented. This part differs depending on if the user is "playing" from a mobile or desktop browser.

On desktop, clicking this will result in the browser prompting the user to allow or block xkcd.com's request to send push notifications. By clicking allow, the game begins. If blocked, the comic shows a message "An actual error occured :(", and the laptop bursts into flames. Note that the laptop also blows up in response to any other browser error, such as a 500 Internal Server Error, which is reported to happen if you click the pause button too quickly.

On mobile, a new on-screen notification will show up, telling the user to add xkcd.com to their home screen in order for it to send push notifications on mobile. Upon doing so and opening the webpage from the home screen, the system will prompt the user to allow or block push notifications from this webpage. The outcomes of allowing and denying are the same as on desktop.

Once the game begins, you are provided with two buttons: one labeled "Emergency Stop" which will let you either end the game or sign up for real xkcd updates only, and one labeled "Silence notifications at a cost" which will silence notifications at the cost of notifying two random people.

Up to 7 clickable cats periodically spawn at predetermined positions around the page, including one on the edge of the Emergency Stop button.

For a table of all notification messages, see [[3074: Push Notifications/Table of Notifications]].

A general list of notification types include:
* A few starter notifications about this comic, the successful sending of a notification of this comic, and the lack of another comic.
* An announcement that an old comic was posted, specifying a (seemingly) random comic and its publication date. The publication date seems to be shown in a random {{w|Calendar date|calendar date format}}.
* A word game where a first notification asks you to type a word, with further notifications to be sent whenever someone chooses the same word as you.
** The word can be chosen by clicking on the first notification, which lands you in the comic page. The comic pane will be changed to a comic-style input dialogue with a space for the word and a submit button.
** Upon providing a word, a notification informs you that you will then receive notifications (of the form "Someone else has selected the word <Your Word>!"), and that your choice is permanent and cannot be changed.
** It is entirely possible to (mis-)submit a blank word, and to receive "Someone else has selected the word !" notifications.
* A "streak" notification counting the number of times you've clicked it. The message changes first every 10 clicks, then every 50 clicks (after 100) and then at increasing intervals, with the last new message name being at 2000 clicks. After every 50 clicks there is an offer to make future clicks count twice, making this a simple version of {{w|Cookie Clicker}}. If you choose to accept the offer by clicking on it, it will reset your clicks back to zero but makes all future clicks count double of the current click rate; you can also reject the offer by continuing to click on the click counter message. There are occasionally notifications encouraging you to keep clicking and "extend your streak," tempting you with "a free click to keep you going". After 400 clicks it will reset your clicks back to zero but makes all future clicks count four times.
** Early notifications encourage further clicking.
** Approaching a hundred, the messages grow more concerned and later start warning that the server will crash or has crashed.
** Above 750: "Are you just doing this to annoy me?"
** 1000-2000: "You're just doing this to annoy you?"
** Above 2000: "I guess it worked"
** Above 1000000: "Wow, you're really into this"
* A "have you seen my cat?" notification which causes all the cats to spawn when clicked.
* Cat fact notifications that appear when a cat is clicked, in reference to [https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/241/756/e6e.png this exchange].
* Various "Erroneous Alerts" with a warning triangle {{w|emoji}} (⚠ U+26A0), some with just flavor text, some corresponding to changes in the comic image.
* "Zoom notifications" including numeric coordinates, sometimes prefixed with "oh look!"; plotting these coordinates creates an image that appears to be a turtle, which could be a reference to [[1416: Pixels]].
* "Constant reminders" with references to mathematical, physical, or some other constants. The constant values are stated to be "at the tone", likely in reference to {{w|Speaking clock|time-of-day phone services}}, which are live or recorded human voice services that tell you the exact time "at the third stroke" over the phone.
* A notification that offers to provide weather alerts for your location, which leads into a series of notifications asking whether you live in a named city. If none of the cities that it knows are selected, your location is set to the summit of {{w|Mount Washington}}.
* When the time is near a full hour or half-hour, that the current time is five o'clock.
* An invitation to subscribe to the "What if?" YouTube channel
* A notification with the heading "System Log" that reads (INFO): A user has paused notifications
** This notification presumably appears when a random user has pressed the "Silence notifications at a cost" button.
* A reminder to comment and subscribe. When click on it will redirect to one of various Wikipedia pages, including: {{w|Talk:Mathematics}}, {{w|Talk:Romance}}, {{w|Talk:Language}}, (presumably, as the fourth of the stated topics [[xkcd]] is about) {{w|Talk:Sarcasm}}, {{w|Talk:Alarm_fatigue}}, {{w|Talk:Boneless}}, {{w|Talk:Sitting}}, {{w|Category talk:Unix text editors}}, {{w|Talk:Robot}}, {{w|Talk:Jamming avoidance response}}, {{w|Talk:Squircle}}, {{w|Talk:Like}}, {{w|Talk:Drafting linen}}, {{w|Talk:Hot dog}}, {{w|Talk:Goomba}}, {{w|Talk:Tidal locking}}, {{w|Talk:Multiple unit}}, {{w|Talk:Flag semaphore}}, {{w|Talk:Stoating}}, {{w|Talk:Roseate_spoonbill}}, {{w|Talk:Teleportation}}, {{w|Talk:List of dumplings}}, {{w|Talk:List of hat styles}}, {{w|Talk:Cats and the Internet}}, {{w|Talk:Laminar flow}}, {{w|Talk:Time management}}, {{w|Talk:Hole}}, {{w|Talk:Spot welding}}, {{w|Talk:Myst}}, {{w|Talk:Agriculture in ants}}, {{w|Talk:East}}, {{w|Talk:Smoot}}.
* A "{{w|Carriage return|Carriage Return}} Line Feed", referencing the Windows standard of storing line returns as a carriage return character followed by a line feed (newline) character. However, the xkcd Carriage Return Line Feed is instead a news feed concerning the next stop on a supposed "Carriage Return Line" of a train system. The announcements are all related to stations on the {{w|London Underground}}, including the use of the phrase "{{w|Mind the gap}}".

The title text references the {{w|Lernaean Hydra}}, a multi-headed serpent-like monster from Greek mythology; the Greek hero {{w|Heracles}} was tasked with slaying the Hydra as {{w|Labours_of_Hercules#Second:_Lernaean_Hydra|the second of his twelve labours}}. When he cut off one of its heads, however, two heads would grow in its place, resulting in more heads than before; Heracles soon realized he could not kill the Hydra in this fashion.
The title text describes a similar situation with the "Notification Hydra": a push notification "head" of the Notification Hydra was dismissed, which subsequently spawned two more push notification heads providing updates about the status of the dismissal. If one of these new notifications were to be dismissed, it would again spawn another set of the same two push notification heads; thus, the Notification Hydra is unkillable in a manner similar to the original.

The subdirectory where the images and scripts for this comic are stored is titled 'marconi,' which is likely a reference to the Italian engineer and inventor of the same name, {{w|Guglielmo Marconi}}, who is credited with inventing the radio, and did much work in the field of early communication systems.

Clicking the "Emergency Stop" button allows you to either restart the full game or to subscribe just to notifications for new comics. Blocking notifications to just new comics at this stage will also result in [[Cueball]]'s laptop exploding.

===Gallery of comic images===
<gallery class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" widths=100px>
File:3074_normal.png|Cueball sitting at his desk, with his laptop.
File:3074_big_laptop.png|Cueball sitting at his desk, with a very large laptop.
File:3074_plant_small.png|Cueball sitting at his desk, with a small potted plant.
File:gallery_placeholder.png|Cueball sitting at his desk, with a squirrel in the pot.
File:3074_plant_big.png|Cueball sitting at his desk, with a much larger plant that has clearly outgrown the pot, at least vertically.
File:3074_big_plant_cat_A.png|Cueball sitting at his desk with the larger plant, with a cat on one of the branches.
File:gallery_placeholder.png|A second image of Cueball sitting at his desk with the larger plant with a cat on one of the branches, but in a different spot.
File:3074 Desk with Cat Foreground.png|Cueball sitting at his desk, with a cat in the foreground near the point of view.
File:3074_cat_chair.png|Cueball sitting at his desk, his chair replaced with a large cat.
File:3074_computer_fire.png|Cueball sitting farther back from his desk, with the laptop on the desk on fire.
File:3074_float.png|Cueball, the desk, and the laptop floating in the air.
File:3074_spin.png|Cueball spinning in his chair.
File:3074_desk_sit.png|Cueball sitting on the desk, facing the laptop on the chair.
File:3074_gameover.png|The desk vacant with "Game Over" displayed if you use the emergency stop.
File:3074_sword.png|Cueball sitting at his desk, with a laptop on the desk, and a sword leaning against the desk on the other side.
File:gallery_placeholder.png|Cueball and Ponytail swordfighting while the computer has an hourglass icon, referencing [[303: Compiling]].
File:3074_flooding.png|The room flooded 2/3 of the way up the desk. Cueball is still sitting with his laptop.
File:3074_sailboat.png|The same flooding, with a miniature sailboat behind Cueball.
File:gallery_placeholder.png|The same flooding, with a cat face behind Cueball.
File:3074_Flooded_Shark_Fin.png|The same flooding, with a shark fin on the far side of the desk, facing toward Cueball.
File:gallery_placeholder.png|Cueball kneeling on the chair, which is raised up higher than the desk, and leaning over to use the laptop.
File:gallery_placeholder.png|Cueball sitting at the desk, which has been extended behind his laptop like a long meeting table.
File:gallery_placeholder.png|No Cueball, only the chair, desk, and laptop.
File:gallery_placeholder.png|Cueball using the laptop on his lap, with no desk.
File:gallery_placeholder.png|Cueball with a squirrel on his head.
File:gallery_placeholder.png|A squirrel sitting at the desk, seemingly using the laptop.
File:gallery_placeholder.png|Cueball standing on top of the laptop keyboard.
File:gallery_placeholder.png|Cueball sitting at the desk, wearing a wizard hat.
File:3074_floor.png|Cueball sitting on the floor behind the desk.
File:3074_tentacles.png|Cueball sitting in his chair, shielding his face from a tentacle coming from the computer screen.
File:3074_cat.png|The cat that appears after returning to the comic window after leaving it idle for long period of time. It has a unique title text of ":3".
File:zoom_turtle.png|The turtle that appears when graphing coordinates from the Zoom Notifications.
</gallery>

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Cueball sits at a desk in an office chair. He is typing on a computer.]
:[Gray message boxes with a small circled “x” at the top right corner are shown:]
:Happy April 1st (observed)!
:To celebrate, we were excited to introduce a new xkcd.com feature: push notifications for new comics!
:Unfortunately, this feature has gone horribly wrong.
:Until further notice, we are asking people ''NOT'' to sign up for new comic notifications.
:Frankly, we recommend not even clicking on any notifications to learn more.
:''Click this notification to learn more!'' (a circled arrow is shown)

:“Push notifications for new comics” sounds like a simple feature, right?
:There’s a nice API for browser notifications. xkcd updates three times a week.
:So you just send a notification for each update, right?
:That’s what we thought, too.
:''Click to continue!'' (a circled arrow is shown)

:[To the side of the comic frame is a big, horizontal hexagonal stop sign]
:Sign: Emergency STOP
:Below the sign: ''Halt ALL notifications and forget everything''
:The good news is that we did build a button to stop xkcd new comic notifications.
:You can press this button at any time and the system will stop sending you notifications.
:The nightmare will be over and the server will forget you ever existed.
:This part definitely works.
:''The rest of the system does NOT work.'' (a circled arrow is shown)

:We’re sorry.
:We don’t know how things went so wrong.
:The system is sending more than three notifications a week. A LOT more.
:We cannot recommend signing up for xkcd new comic notifications at this time.
:''Click here to ignore the warnings.'' (a circled arrow is shown)

:No, really.
:Our notification system may send a large number of very real system notifications.
:These may flood your browser, displace other notifications, and cause problems.
:<big>⚠️DO NOT ENABLE XKCD NEW COMIC NOTIFICATIONS⚠️</big>
:''Yeah, I get it, but I definitely want to enable xkcd new comic notifications.'' (a circled arrow is shown)

:Are you sure?
:''Yes!'' (a circled arrow is shown)
:Absolutely sure?
:''YES!!'' (a circled arrow is shown)
:To enable push notifications on mobile you need to add xkcd.com to your home screen.

:''Click here to subscribe to xkcd notifications''

:[Initial static image shows Cueball sat on an office chair at a desk using a laptop computer. A notification 'window' is speech-bubbled above the computer]
:[Grey notification box, header:] April 1st (Observed)
:[Notification box, further text:] Open xkcd.com to view.
:Laptop: [Warning sign.]

:[When viewed live, various xkcd-style popover notifications appear, each can be dismissed or (usually the last on every page) invited to press an 'onwards'-style button.]

:[First page of messages]
:Happy April 1st! To celebrate, we were excited to introduce a new xkcd.com feature: Push Notifications for new comics!
:Unfortunately, this feature has gone horribly wrong.
:Until further notice, we are asking people NOT to sign up for new comic notifications.
:Frankly, we recommend not even clicking on any notifications to learn more.
:[Notification with 'onwards button':] ''Click on this notification to learn more''

:[Upon choosing to continue, further messages appear, replacing any prior ones left open]
:"Push Notifications for new comics" sounds like a simple feature, right?
:There's a nice API for browser notifications, xkcd updates three times a week.
:So you just send a notification for each upafte, right?
:That's what we thought, too.
:[Notification with 'onwards button':] ''Click on this notification to continue''

:[Next set of popover messages]
:The good news is that we did build a button to STOP xkcd new comic notifications.
:You can press this button at any time and the system will stop sending you notifications.
:The nightmare will be over and the server will forget you ever existed.
:This part definitely works.
:[Notification with 'onwards':] ''The rest of the system does not work.''
:[To the right of the comic frame, a red, octagonal button has white text upon it:]Emergency Stop
:[Below the button is red text:] Halt all notifications and forget everything

:[Next set of popovers, "stop" button remains permanently so long as you continue]
:We're sorry.
:We didn't know how things went so wrong.
:The system is sending more than three notifications at this time.
:['Onwards' notification:] ''Click here to ignore the warnings''

:[Next set.]
:No, really.
:Our notification system may send a large amount of very real system notifications.
:These may flood your browser, displace other notifications, and cause problems.
:[Text bookended by warning triangles:] Do not enable xkcd new comic notifications
:['Onwards':] Yeah, I get it, but I definitely want to enable xkcd new comic notifications

:[Just two popovers, initially]
:Are you sure?
:['Onwards':] Yes
:[On clicking onwards, two more appear below]
:Absolutely sure?
:['Onwards':] Yes!!
:[On clicking, a further popover]
:[Red-tinted 'onwards'-style popover with warnings:] Click here to subscribe to xkcd notifications.

:[...something appeared then dissappeared...]
:[Genuine(?) browser dialogue activated:] xkcd.com wants to send you notifications. Block / Allow

:[If allowed, one more popover in the original style]
:Success!!
:[Below the Emergency Stop button, an oval gray button appears labeled in white:] Silence notifications at a cost
:[Below that, in grey text:]Temporarily pause your notifications at the cost of notifying two random people.

:[Further changes include the contents of the pane, whether Cueball is sat at the laptop, whether the laptop is larger, or a pot-plant, whether there are cats in the frame, outside the frame, sat on the Stop buttons, whether Cueball is sat on a large cat instead of an office chair...]
{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Interactive comics]]
[[Category:April fools' comics]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]

explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

3074: Push Notifications