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Show HN: DoNotNotify – Log and intelligently block notifications on Android

donotnotify.com

51–60 of 171 posts

Re: Show HN: DoNotNotify – Log and intelligently block notifications on Android

#51
post #29
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm occasionally keeping my data turned off and am telling everyone "if urgent call me".

(3rd world) problem: most people think calling is pressing the phone button inside Whatsapp.

At least on iOS, internet call is treated basically the same as cellular, showing a splash caller screen and ringing if not on silent. This means that it's trivial to setup phone in such a way that no notification gets through but calls do, even with sound.

Re: Show HN: DoNotNotify – Log and intelligently block notifications on Android

#52
post #38
post #6

I’m now an iOS user but the problem is actually the same here : apps not respecting communication channels to push ads (mostly to their own app or service). I usually fully block notifications from most apps but for some apps the notifications are really convenient (carpooling, transport or delivery app). Yes I want to know if the train I booked is delayed. No I don’t want to be notified that you are now partnering w…

Worse even because iOS doesn't offer notification groups/channels like Android does (ignoring the fact that market leaders like Uber, DoorDash, etc. eschew them in favor of "General" channels they can pump both delivery/ride info and ads through.) IMO this needs to be an app guideline enforced by the iOS App Store and Play Store. I remember back in the day, iOS used to be known for having less spammy notifications.

I remember when I first started seeing obvious ads in notifications and assumed Apple would come down hard. I wish I had been right.

If any app abuses the notifications at all I turn them all off, that's the only way to stop it. If the notifications are required for the app's operation, well, then I have to delete the app.

Society has fucked itself over allowing these to exist.

Re: Show HN: DoNotNotify – Log and intelligently block notifications on Android

#53
post #50

I would love to use this, but I don't want to allow a third party app with closed source to read all my notifications. This can read OTP passwords, full messages, etc. so it must be open source for me to consider it. I would donate/pay for this if it was open source on F-Droid. Kudos to you for building it. I put off building this exact same application so many times it's not even funny. Too bad I'm too lazy to maint…

>I would love to use this, but I don't want to allow a third party app with closed source to read all my notifications. This can read OTP passwords, full messages, etc. so it must be open source for me to consider it.

The app lacks the INTERNET permission so it can't really exfiltrate data even if it wanted to.

Re: Show HN: DoNotNotify – Log and intelligently block notifications on Android

#54
post #50

I would love to use this, but I don't want to allow a third party app with closed source to read all my notifications. This can read OTP passwords, full messages, etc. so it must be open source for me to consider it. I would donate/pay for this if it was open source on F-Droid. Kudos to you for building it. I put off building this exact same application so many times it's not even funny. Too bad I'm too lazy to maint…

Fair enough, you only have my word on it (that it doesn't send any data to the Internet). But you do have my word :)

Another person requested that the app be open-sourced as well. I will look into that.

Re: Show HN: DoNotNotify – Log and intelligently block notifications on Android

#56
post #53
post #50

I would love to use this, but I don't want to allow a third party app with closed source to read all my notifications. This can read OTP passwords, full messages, etc. so it must be open source for me to consider it. I would donate/pay for this if it was open source on F-Droid. Kudos to you for building it. I put off building this exact same application so many times it's not even funny. Too bad I'm too lazy to maint…

>I would love to use this, but I don't want to allow a third party app with closed source to read all my notifications. This can read OTP passwords, full messages, etc. so it must be open source for me to consider it. The app lacks the INTERNET permission so it can't really exfiltrate data even if it wanted to.

This is correct, but it is still a slippery slope. At some point the dev ends up adding internet permission (might be for legit reasons too), and lo and behold you are sharing your data. For something as sensitive as notifications, I really can't trust anything but open-source app which is vetted by a few seasoned people and hosted on F-droid.

Re: Show HN: DoNotNotify – Log and intelligently block notifications on Android

#57
post #53
post #50

I would love to use this, but I don't want to allow a third party app with closed source to read all my notifications. This can read OTP passwords, full messages, etc. so it must be open source for me to consider it. I would donate/pay for this if it was open source on F-Droid. Kudos to you for building it. I put off building this exact same application so many times it's not even funny. Too bad I'm too lazy to maint…

>I would love to use this, but I don't want to allow a third party app with closed source to read all my notifications. This can read OTP passwords, full messages, etc. so it must be open source for me to consider it. The app lacks the INTERNET permission so it can't really exfiltrate data even if it wanted to.

Is that actually required? I thought that was implicit

Re: Show HN: DoNotNotify – Log and intelligently block notifications on Android

#58

Love the on-device approach. The fact that it never phones home is a huge differentiator — most "utility" apps these days are just data collection with a feature attached. The regex filtering is clever. Have you thought about adding ML-based classification for notifications that are harder to catch with patterns? Something lightweight like a small on-device model could detect promotional vs. transactional notificatio…

> Have you thought about adding ML-based classification for notifications that are harder to catch with patterns?

Honestly that's a little out my league. The idea did occur to me, but I'm discouraged by the amount of compute required for most ML.

> Also curious about battery impact — how often does it process the notification stream?

The OS sends any new notification to the app (it is a push based approach) automatically. On my own phone, this app currently shows at the bottom of the list in battery usage (<1%).

Re: Show HN: DoNotNotify – Log and intelligently block notifications on Android

#59

Is there anything like this for iOS? Or is something like this impossible for a 3rd party to do on iOS?

iOS doesn't give developers access to other apps' notifications, AFAIK. I'm not an iOS developer though - maybe someone with more knowledge can chime in.

Re: Show HN: DoNotNotify – Log and intelligently block notifications on Android

#60
I guess I'm surprised that Android would allow one app to read/manage/block notifications from all other apps. I mean, I'm happy to have that kind of control over my phone, but it also seems like it could be viewed as a giant security hole? (Which would be a bit ironic given that Google is actively stamping out the ability for users to install apps that come from outside their walled garden.)
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