Yes, initially, then I will enable them as I need them, not as the app wants them.
I bought an app to get heads up of northern lights, at first I disabled notifications, but that made the app pointless, so I have allowed some notifications.
Other than that, I only have notifications on my message app.
I disable notifications for everything I can, but some need to stay enabled. My line of work means I need to leave email notifications on, for example. Texts and other messaging apps are on too, because otherwise I’ll go days without talking to people. My blue light filter app also has a spot of the notification bar, so that I can always turn it off and on when I want to.
I’m not very aggressive about disabling[0] notifications. I don’t install apps that try to sell me stuff or otherwise manipulate me though so it’s rare I get unwanted notifications.
Quite a few commercial apps have perfectly good websites, and I use those in preference to apps most of the time.
[0] Technically just not enabling; Android now requires them to ask for permission before sending any
It’s the first thing I do when installing a new app, as most prompt for it on first launch, and I reject it immediately. I can always allow them later, but it’s been my default mode since iOS started letting you control them.
For email and work IM’s, my phone shows only the badge, no sound. Signal, SMS, and the phone app get sounds, too. That’s it, silence on everything else.
Email, Signal and SMS get notifications. Literally everything else is off, and I use Buzzkill to shorten the vibrate. I have ASD, and run my own business, so I get literally 30-40 SMS/200+ Signal notifications a day, and the constant BZZZZ BZZZZ actually causes me an immense amount of sensory overload. Buzzkill ensures that vibration pattern is nothing more than a very quick sub-half second, one-off buzz. The number of apps I actually have installed is so few, I can literally fit them on one screen, no scrolling required, and I check for the few app updates I'll need manually each day.
Android user here. I have five different classes of notifications:
Completely off, notifications blocked. Any category that doesn’t give me actionable notifications or notifications based on something I’ve explicitly asked for is here. All streaming apps and games are here. Any app that tries to send me an ad in a notification gets this treatment. Almost every social media category also gets this setting, though there are a couple notable exceptions I’ll get to later. All notifications that are not important and not urgent go here.
On, but delivered silently and minimized. “Silently” might be a bit of a misnomer here since I rarely have sound on, but this also means no vibration. The notifications are also minimized in the notification shade and go to the bottom of the list. This is where my new email notifications go, because I’ve got my inbox pretty well filtered down and only things that are actionable are allowed to stay unread in the inbox. Basically this is for anything that’s important but not urgent.
Silent. See above for “silent” disclaimer. This section is for notifications that are urgent but may or may not be important; notifications from my cameras, for instance, or headlines from a news org. I also allow selected categories of Mastodon and Lemmy notifications through: only messages typed out by another human, though. Not likes or reposts.
Vibrate/sounds. For notifications that are both important and usually urgent. Text messages, Discord messages (from friends only), Slack messages while working. 2FA checkins. Most notifications from my library. Delivery notifications. The notification that my garage door has been left open (it happens a lot). Also, unfortunately, I have to have Instagram DMs in this category, because my wife sends me memes and they’re always really good.
Vibrate/sounds and override Do Not Disturb. This category is for VERY urgent and VERY important notifications. Messages from family members (though not group messages). Notifications from my alarm system. The doorbell.
I do also use BuzzKill to finesse messages that I think are delivered in the wrong Android categories; like the stupid notifications my cameras always send about cold weather. I know it’s cold, and I know that’ll affect your battery life. I don’t need to be told every time the temperature dips below 40°F, but I do still want to know when somebody is trying to get into my garage.
I’m sorry, was my answer to the question that was directly asked too long for you?
I was just thinking while writing that message how I usually have such good, productive discussions on the Fediverse as compared to Reddit or Twitter or whatever.
I allow notifications on everything but games unless they have ruined it for themselves otherwise or have a valid reason to exist such as a war game that is alerting you you are being attacked.
I’m not as strict as some people here but I rarely blanket allow notifications and I aggressively manage the settings. Like I allow some apps to show temporary banners if I’m using the phone but don’t allow badges or access to the Notification Center or Lock Screen (or my watch). And I’ll occasionally allow an app like DoorDash that has in-app notification settings where you can turn off non-essential ones.
Basically, I treat my Notification Center as a place for time-sensitive, actionable alerts. If an app can’t stick to that, I’ll either kill notifications for it or dive into the settings.
I also use Focuses (foci?) to limit things to just essentials (like messaging, phone, etc.) further if I’m working or at dinner or something. Like my “At Work” focus lets through work emails and essential Teams chats.
It’s on for Messaging apps, email, and specific apps I with want or need notifications for. I don’t have it on for any social media apps, I check those on my own time when I please. All sounds are off thanks to my Apple Watch that vibrates.
Yes, and UberEats in particular is big mad about it. It brings me joy to tap “Deny” everytime it asks me to turn them back on.
The only notifications I get are texts/calls, and a couple smart-home things that are set to warn me about temps or when a light-timer turns on or off. Not even social media, especially not social media, get to interrupt my day.
Add comment