Ask HN: Notification Overload

my phone is on silent 24x7. it never makes a sound, ever. the only notifications I get are for email, slack dm's, bad weather, security camera, sms. no other app gets notif permissions.

i run adguard home (pihole, etc works too) for network-wide adblocking at the dns layer. this makes the internet tolerable ... without adblocking it's truly a heinous place.

on ios I use 'hush' extension to try and supress cookie popups etc but tbh I am not sure if it works that well, or maybe it is misconfigured.

these in-page nuisances are next on my list for sure: i don't ever want to see a "login with google?" context menu appear with all my listed accounts in the upper right. i never want to see another cookie popup, especially the ones that look like a raid configuration wizard from 2007 with 10 checkboxes and half the settings below the fold. in the browser you can completely disable the ability for a website to ask to send you notifications.

honestly the goal just needs to be a conscious effort to defend your attention. eliminate everything that is not serving you in that regard. go overboard, worst case you need to re-integrate some things you miss or need. but i genuinely think the #1 thing in the world right now to defend is attention and distraction.

There was a recent Show HN [0] on this for Android, showcasing DoNotNotify [1] -

[0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46499646

[1]: https://donotnotify.com/

> Leave your phone on silent permanently, setup your emergency contacts like partner and kids to ring on silent, and turn off all notifications except email and SMS/WhatsApp. That’s the key to a simple life. You won’t miss anything important and that realization is the most freeing

This is pretty similar to my setup. Always on do not disturb. Typically my family and close friends communicate through a chat app, that doesn't make sound but if it's time sensitive an sms or call will make sound for starred contacts.

Back on the day when phones had notification LEDs I'd setup apps to have specific colours. These days with always on OLED displays I use an app aodNotify to setup a a little spinning circle on the screen. Purple is family/friend chat app, blue is a call, green sms etc.

Everything else I periodically poll for information. ie I go out of my way to check emails etc

> I've spent hours and hours unsubscribing, deleting, uninstalling, toggling settings, but then I find myself reinstalling, resubscribing. It's just a mess, and exhausting to just think about.

So you subscribe to notifications you don’t want? Maybe what you need is a dumbphone instead that only has the basics like calendar reminders, calls, SMS? Though I guess 2FA anti-features might make that problematic.

I don’t think for your case the other solutions can really help when it’s you enabling the notifications. My phone only shows me notifications I do care to get.

Do NOT put your phone on permanently silent so that phone calls don't ring.

Disable most notifications altogether, especially: email and any form of group messages (like WhatsApp group).

For 1-on-1 instant messages / SMS, display a silent notification.

For specific email, create a special notify tag and sparingly assign it to urgent threads and some sent messages. You can also use filters to assign the tag automatically.

Deny notifications for most apps.

All calls should ring. It may be something urgent even if you don't recognize the number. It may be someone close to you calling with a hospital phone before heading out to emergency surgery. It may be the police. This is why you don't want to default to blocking hidden numbers unless you really have to.