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I only care about the helpful notifications, not the promotional ones

alexanderell.is

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Re: I only care about the helpful notifications, not the promotional ones

#41

Post by stormbrew »

dguo wrote: post #23

My rule is: if I get a single notification that I find useless, I'll immediately disable that notification channel (I'm on Android; I'm not sure if iOS has a concept of channel-specific settings) for that app. Even if the channel can include useful notifications, as the article discusses. If the app doesn't bother to categorize its notifications into channels at all, I turn off its notifications entirely, and I won't…

> I'm on Android; I'm not sure if iOS has a concept of channel-specific settings

Sadly iOS doesn't really have this in the same way :(

Re: I only care about the helpful notifications, not the promotional ones

#42

Post by kmonsen »

b112 wrote: post #36
ianbutler wrote: post #3

I was saying this yesterday, LinkedIn, as an example, sends me the most inane notifications as do many apps trying to steal my time. I pay LinkedIn 100 dollars a month, those notifications should serve me, not the other way around. I really don't care about some low substance content written by someone who I'm neither connected with nor follow.

I was on the fence about a premium account, but thanks for this info.

What's the draw of premium? Cannot see anything there that would be more then marginal useful for me.

Re: I only care about the helpful notifications, not the promotional ones

#43

Post by kayxspre »

lostdog wrote: post #31
kayxspre wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's actually possible to fine-tune it by category of notification (Settings > Notifications, either in app or on the web). I turned off Reminder, Friend Updates, and People You May Know, leaving only the notification on things I interact with or things friends brought to my attention.

Lots of companies dump all notifications into the same bucket, either out of laziness, or purposefully to make it less likely you turn off their spam notifications (looking at you Oculus).

Facebook only appeared to divide notification into categories when its data misuse unfolds. Several years ago (if I recall correctly), turning off one broad category will indeed nuke the "nagging" notification, but also turn off legitimate ones as well.

Re: I only care about the helpful notifications, not the promotional ones

#44

Post by [deleted] »

rapind wrote: post #22
grose wrote: post #6

I've noticed this in social networks as well. If you don't get enough transactional notifications for a while they start making up fake ones like Twitter's "in case you missed this Tweet", Facebook's "[someone] posted for the first time in a while", all the while lighting up the notifications badge. Leads to a "boy who cried wolf" scenario in which I stop trusting notifications entirely and just ignore them, possibly…

Apple kept a notification badge on my settings icon for Apple Pay until I finally went in and opted out of it. Under the guise of “Finish setting up your iPhone”. It’s not a big deal I guess, but annoying and obviously promotional. Now I partially associate Apple with intentionally annoying.

[deleted]

Re: I only care about the helpful notifications, not the promotional ones

#45

Post by UkrainianJew »

grose wrote: post #6

I've noticed this in social networks as well. If you don't get enough transactional notifications for a while they start making up fake ones like Twitter's "in case you missed this Tweet", Facebook's "[someone] posted for the first time in a while", all the while lighting up the notifications badge. Leads to a "boy who cried wolf" scenario in which I stop trusting notifications entirely and just ignore them, possibly…

>I really wish companies let us turn this kind of thing off

Well, if you are not paying for the service with your money, you are paying with your attention. And this is the mechanism to extract additional attention from you, and it works very well.

Re: I only care about the helpful notifications, not the promotional ones

#46

Post by karmakaze »

xahrepap wrote: post #29
dguo wrote: post #23

My rule is: if I get a single notification that I find useless, I'll immediately disable that notification channel (I'm on Android; I'm not sure if iOS has a concept of channel-specific settings) for that app. Even if the channel can include useful notifications, as the article discusses. If the app doesn't bother to categorize its notifications into channels at all, I turn off its notifications entirely, and I won't…

I follow the same rule. But I will also then go one star review it. I will also one-star review any app that prompts me to review it by first asking me if I like it (sneaky sneaky!)

I'll go one step farther and uninstall it if I haven't used it recently or often.

Re: I only care about the helpful notifications, not the promotional ones

#48

Post by [deleted] »

theamk wrote: post #10

I have a pretty good idea on how to fix this (and many similar) problems: "hibernate app" option. Its a new app state where app icon icon has some mark (like being semi-grayed out) and all the background app services are disabled (tracking, promotional popups, periodic wakeups, etc...). The app is only un-hibernated if user explicitly clicks on it, it cannot do it by itself. The app can be hibernated by long-press me…

[deleted]

Re: I only care about the helpful notifications, not the promotional ones

#49

Post by clumpthump »

I suspect some apps go too far in the other direction on purpose, having a large list of promotional notification types amidst useful ones so that people miss opting out of some or are too overwhelmed by the list that they decide not to bother, and whenever they add a "new" type of promotional notification, it's on by default until the user goes and disables it too.

Re: I only care about the helpful notifications, not the promotional ones

#50

Post by b112 »

kmonsen wrote: post #42
b112 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was on the fence about a premium account, but thanks for this info.

What's the draw of premium? Cannot see anything there that would be more then marginal useful for me.

They claim all sorts of wondrous benefits, and have a free trial.

Figured I'd try it and see, but not if it is going to be an abusive relationship.

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