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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

#171

Post by mynameisvlad »

lrem wrote: post #124
gnicholas wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a similar rule, but sometimes it's really hard to figure out (1) whether the app distinguishes between different types of notifications, and (2) where the setting is to turn off the new nuisance notification type. IME, Lyft and Uber are the worst. For Lyft, their notification preferences are buried under "Privacy: Choose what data you share with us". Not the first place anyone would look!

That's why Android has the system-wide pane for those. No space for (most of) dark patterns. And if someone goes out of their way to "accidentally" mess with that system (oops, this promotion went into the navigation category, silly me), they deserve to go all out silenced.

That’s entirely developer decided. Most are starting to recombine channels to get around the feature.

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

#172

Post by abruzzi »

robocat wrote: post #148
Larrikin wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've found that apps that properly set up channels on Android where your can easily block promotional notifications, don't abuse their notifications, and ones that don't put all their notifications through a couple different channels making it impossible to turn off only the ones you don't want. Amazon and Uber are examples of apps that abuse this.

I install Uber when I need to use it, then deinstall it after pickup. If I forget to deinstall it, Uber kindly send me a notification reminder (random text with with a percent symbol within it), to remind me to deinstall it.

this is exactly what I do for most apps-install to use, remove after use. For Uber its easy since I only use Uber when I'm traveling in a country where I don't speak the language (Uber makes hailing rides in a foriegn country easy, though we used Yandex in Russia since Uber wasn't as common.) In some cases, I keep the app, but completely silence it.

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

#173

Post by justsomehnguy »

ComputerGuru wrote: post #162
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…

This is also my policy - except: Uber just sent me a notification to celebrate pride month with Uber (by booking a car??). I don’t see how to turn off these promotional notifications but I need my Uber notifications so I’m aware when my driver is outside. I’m still not sure if I should block all Uber notifications.

> by booking a car??

by hooking a car, of course

*agressive eyebrow movements*

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

#174

Post by scarface74 »

anticristi wrote: post #160
izacus wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've spent plenty of time working on GDPR compliance in EU and I can directly tell you there's nothing in GDPR that would say anything like that. GDPR talks about data collection and says nothing about having your own business spam you with advertisement (as long as they don't collect data outside their GDPR restrictions).

> Consent is presumed not to be freely given if it does not allow separate consent to be given to different personal data processing operations despite it being appropriate in the individual case [...] https://gdpr-info.eu/recitals/no-43/

That has absolutely nothing to do with notifications and pop ups.

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

#175

Post by scarface74 »

cuu508 wrote: post #153
gnicholas wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a similar rule, but sometimes it's really hard to figure out (1) whether the app distinguishes between different types of notifications, and (2) where the setting is to turn off the new nuisance notification type. IME, Lyft and Uber are the worst. For Lyft, their notification preferences are buried under "Privacy: Choose what data you share with us". Not the first place anyone would look!

On Android, long-press a notification, then tap on a gear icon. You will see a list of notification categories for that app.

You’re assuming that the developer makes such a distinction when they send you a notification

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

#176

Post by stjohnswarts »

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!)

Oh yeah I definitely do that with the "rate our app" if I've not so much as done more than open it up lol

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

#177

Post by shostack »

davidjfelix wrote: post #165
ComputerGuru wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is also my policy - except: Uber just sent me a notification to celebrate pride month with Uber (by booking a car??). I don’t see how to turn off these promotional notifications but I need my Uber notifications so I’m aware when my driver is outside. I’m still not sure if I should block all Uber notifications.

Spoiler - they probably know and don't want to destroy their reliable spam channel. I turn them off and either keep the app open when I've ordered a car, or temporarily turn them back on while ubering and turn them back off when I get a trash notification. This definitely strikes me as one of those comments you see on HN that is wildly impractical at scale, but it's what I do.

Which is why strict app store policy enforcement is the only way to really end this.

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

#178

Post by stjohnswarts »

gnicholas wrote: post #61
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 have a similar rule, but sometimes it's really hard to figure out (1) whether the app distinguishes between different types of notifications, and (2) where the setting is to turn off the new nuisance notification type. IME, Lyft and Uber are the worst. For Lyft, their notification preferences are buried under "Privacy: Choose what data you share with us". Not the first place anyone would look!

Lots of apps make you opt out, but it really isn't that hard to find. Most apps on my phone don't even get the right to notify me. I prefer pull rather than push as far as notices go, unless they're critical like from my bank/CC/gf :)

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

#179

Post by tgsovlerkhgsel »

izacus wrote: post #131
distances wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I usually simply uninstall the app on the first clearly spammy notification. Why wouldn't I? It immediately sours the app image. If it's borderline I will first try silencing the channel like the parent commenter.

Those rules only work until you're required to have such app installed to do, for example, credit card payments.

Which can be solved by finding a competitor with less abusive practices.

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

#180

Post by forgotmypw17 »

I faced this issue while writing my application for online spaces...

I noticed that I had written a feature called server notification, and was about to start using it to notify users of things which the server wanted them to know, but which they had not asked for.

I decided to rename the feature internally to "server response notification", which implies that all of the notifications are in response to a user query. This helped me focus on what the feature should be used for.

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