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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

#71

Post by Rebelgecko »

zamadatix wrote: post #60
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…

For Android I think the only thing needed for this is for disabled apps to show as grayed out in the launcher instead of hidden. I wonder if that's information available to launchers or only available in the system app menu.

On Android, paused apps turn gray on the home screen and in the app drawer. However there's sometimes a delay of ~10 seconds before it happens

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

#72

Post by Nextgrid »

emsy wrote: post #56
tsuujin wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No? The walled garden is a safeguard against malicious apps, not against marketing shenanigans.

They explicitly state in their developer agreement not to use notifications for ads.

That rule (and plenty of other rules such as the privacy disclosures being incorrect) isn't enforced and I'm not even sure where to report such violations.

App Store rules are only enforced when it's convenient for Apple or their partners.

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

#74

Post by resters »

nomilk wrote: post #69
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…

Useless notifications is a super dangerous game to play, since one lame "McDonalds has 25% off" *cough: Uber Eats* results in notifications being turned off and poorer outcomes for all parties from that moment on.

Yes. Especially since the most useless ones seem to come when I’m driving.

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

#75

Post by Nextgrid »

p49k wrote: post #14
night-rider wrote: post #5

I only care about NO notifications. Disabling all notifications is the first step to more saner approaches to technology. I turned my digital life into a pull medium where I check SMS messages etc when I want to, and not having real-time notifications of every little event gives me more peace. It’s a form of digital veganism that I employ. Turn your digital life into pull mediums instead of push.

The subject of the article is about apps bundling time sensitive notifications that you can’t realistically disable with promotions. You can turn off most notifications for a calmer life, but when you order an Uber you need to know if it’s arriving or if the driver sent you an important message.

Keeping the app in foreground or checking it every few minutes is usually not too big of a deal in my experience.

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

#76

Post by weego »

karmakaze wrote: post #46
xahrepap wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I'll go that one step further and cast my phone into a shallow grave, having salted the earth it's buried in so that nothing may grow there again.

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

#77

Post by gnicholas »

hericium wrote: post #18

I wish iOS had some "allow notifications from this app for x minutes" option similar to "share location once". Uber is a good example of an app I would like to see notifications from, when using their service, but disabled them completely. Uber abuses this feature to show ad banners for scooters or food when I am not using their app and it's not even open (as in not present on the open applications list).

Uber is one of the worst. You can turn off all notifications unrelated to your existing rides. They hide this in the app under: Settings, Privacy, Notifications. Lyft has the same hidden structure.

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

#78

Post by Nextgrid »

night-rider wrote: post #5

I only care about NO notifications. Disabling all notifications is the first step to more saner approaches to technology. I turned my digital life into a pull medium where I check SMS messages etc when I want to, and not having real-time notifications of every little event gives me more peace. It’s a form of digital veganism that I employ. Turn your digital life into pull mediums instead of push.

A more practical solution is to only let human-generated notifications through and disable everything else. Calls & texts (if you are lucky enough to not get spam, otherwise change your number or use your spam-free third-party messenger of choice) are OK, everything else is disabled.

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

#80

Post by [deleted] »

weego wrote: post #76
karmakaze wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I'll go that one step further and cast my phone into a shallow grave, having salted the earth it's buried in so that nothing may grow there again.

[deleted]
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