Customizing Your Notification Bubbles in Ubuntu 16.04

Last updated: May 8, 2016

notification bubbles

A patched version of Notify OSD with some extra features to Ubuntu’s on-screen-display notifications is available in Leolik’s PPA.

With the patch and a graphical Notify OSD configuration tool, you can easily tweak the notification bubbles by:

  • Close notification bubble on click
  • Stop fading out when mouse cursor hovers on it.
  • Change notification display timeout.
  • Change notification bubble location
  • Edit the bubble size, background, transparency, etc.
  • Edit the text size, color, etc.

1. Install the patched version of Notify OSD:

Open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run the commands below one by one to get it from PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:leolik/leolik

sudo apt update

sudo apt install notify-osd

Or grab the .deb installer from the link below:

Select download and install the latest version of:

  • notify-osd_x.x.x+16.04.x.x.x-0ubuntu1-leolik~ppa0_i386.deb for 32-bit Ubuntu 16.04
  • notify-osd_x.x.x+16.04.x.x.x-0ubuntu1-leolik~ppa0_amd64.deb for 64-bit Ubuntu 16.04

2. Restart notify-osd daemon by running the command below in terminal:

pkill notify-osd

Just close the terminal after running the command since there’s no terminal output.

3. Install a graphical configuration tool for NotifyOSD:

Open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run the commands below one by one to get it from Webupd8 PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8

sudo apt update

sudo apt install notifyosdconfig

Or grab the .deb installer from the link below:

Select download and install the latest version of:

  • notifyosdconfig_x.x+xxx~ubuntu16.04.1_i386.deb for 32-bit Ubuntu 16.04
  • notifyosdconfig_x.x+xxx~ubuntu16.04.1_amd64.deb for 64-bit Ubuntu 16.04

4. Finally launch the configuration tool and enjoy customizing your on-screen notifications:

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One response to Customizing Your Notification Bubbles in Ubuntu 16.04

  1. Hi, Ji,

    Is there a way to disable the bubble notification?
    Actually the volume notification bubble keeps popping out in Ubuntu 16.04. And it is confirmed to be a bug. (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/pulseaudio/+bug/1585084)
    I just want to know if you have a workaround method?

    Thanks