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Apple News has a notification spam problem

matthewcassinelli.com

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Re: Apple News has a notification spam problem

#61

Post by solarkraft »

newsroll wrote: post #46
joelthelion wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In an ideal world, you might want to get notifications once or twice a year for major events. And daily or weekly digests for the rest.

Ideally I’d like to subscribe to a curated actually “breaking news” feed that doesn’t spam me. Terrorist attack? Yes please. Plane crashed? Yes please. Rumors of Megan/Harry moving to Africa? Who the fuck cares?

Welp, for some people it's "Who the fuck cares?" about the former 2 categories as well. It'd be great to have notification settings separated by categories, but I imagine it being dificult, having so many different news vendors (then again, if anyone can do it it's Apple).

Re: Apple News has a notification spam problem

#62

Post by enumjorge »

jakobegger wrote: post #26
tomduncalf wrote: post #21

It’s a shame Apple have not been as strict about spammy notifications as they have about other aspects of iOS. I realised the other day that I automatically don’t allow notifications for virtually any app, primarily because I expect it’s going to spam me. Some apps would actually be enhanced by notifications but I never allow it. The default notifications allowed for any app should be only relevant, action-based ones…

Usually when an app sends a spam notification, I just delete the entire app. For many apps getting push notifications would be the only reason that I install them. But if they then go on to send me spam instead of helpful notification, I don't see the point in using their service.

Could you share some examples of apps that you’d install mainly for their push notifications?

Re: Apple News has a notification spam problem

#63

Post by oarsinsync »

newsroll wrote: post #46
joelthelion wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In an ideal world, you might want to get notifications once or twice a year for major events. And daily or weekly digests for the rest.

Ideally I’d like to subscribe to a curated actually “breaking news” feed that doesn’t spam me. Terrorist attack? Yes please. Plane crashed? Yes please. Rumors of Megan/Harry moving to Africa? Who the fuck cares?

> Rumors of Megan/Harry moving to Africa? Who the fuck cares?

"Top videos" and "Trending Stories" in my view suggest I'm definitely an outlier (as are you, by the sounds of things), as it's always full of items like that which you've mentioned you have no interest in.

You probably either need to suck it up, or pay for a service that caters to your (our?) needs. I've opted to suck it up.

Re: Apple News has a notification spam problem

#65

Post by speg »

enumjorge wrote: post #62
jakobegger wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Usually when an app sends a spam notification, I just delete the entire app. For many apps getting push notifications would be the only reason that I install them. But if they then go on to send me spam instead of helpful notification, I don't see the point in using their service.

Could you share some examples of apps that you’d install mainly for their push notifications?

One example I have is Environment Canada’s weather app. It is a laughably poor excuse for an app, so I never open it. but it does send me push notifications as soon as they issue a special weather statement.

Re: Apple News has a notification spam problem

#66

Post by SyneRyder »

There is a really, really good article from NiemanLab interviewing the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) about their use of Apple News notifications. This notification spam is exactly what they/publishers want. The Apple News notifications are used to A/B test what gets clicks against all their competitors running the same story, and they use that Apple News notification clickthru data to tweak which headlines & notifications they send via their own app and on their own website - the platforms they really want you to use.

Stat from the article: nearly 5% of the Australian population have opted in to the ABC's Apple News push notifications.

Australia’s Public Broadcaster Is Using Apple News Push Alerts To Reach New, Younger Audiences

http://www.niemanlab.org/2017/03/australias-public-broadcast...

The full article is really worth the read - especially the part about the notifications the ABC were going to send to target female runners at sunset.

Re: Apple News has a notification spam problem

#67

Post by [deleted] »

newsroll wrote: post #45

This is a problem even without Apple News+. When Apple News came out I really liked the idea of having a single place to get pushed real breaking news as they happened. But sadly Apple News (and News+) is not that. Some of it is on the publishers and media (ie everything is considered "breaking" these days) but I think Apple is also part of the problem by pushing out stories on their official[1] breaking news channel…

[deleted]

Re: Apple News has a notification spam problem

#69

Post by jakobegger »

enumjorge wrote: post #62
jakobegger wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Usually when an app sends a spam notification, I just delete the entire app. For many apps getting push notifications would be the only reason that I install them. But if they then go on to send me spam instead of helpful notification, I don't see the point in using their service.

Could you share some examples of apps that you’d install mainly for their push notifications?

A recent example is "willhaben", it's an Austrian classifieds website (like craigslist), and you can use it to message sellers/buyers. It would be useful to get push notifications on my phone when someone replies to my messages, but since they send spam, I deleted the app.

Re: Apple News has a notification spam problem

#70

Post by adnanazadsg »

hutattedonmyarm wrote: post #18
adnanazadsg wrote: post #3

This is something I had noticed as well. Its really surprising that Apple would allow this, since they usually care a lot about user experience. And judging by the amount of notifications - I'd be very surprised if there's anyone left who hasn't turned on notifications for the news app. I wonder why they wouldn't just compile a Morning and Evening digest and send notifications only then (even that would be aggressive…

I still and happily get most of my news from my RSS feed

What RSS reader do you use?
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