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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

#301

Post by karolzlot »

"Notification Remover" Android app allows to automatically dismiss some notifications but not others, based on user-defined filters. I use it and it works really well.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31636602

From app description:

"Notifications will be cleaned automatically based on your input. Select the package name of an app and enter the message text (regular expression) of the annoying notification and you'll never see it again."

It however lacks ability to export / import filters so they need to be created manually.

Also the app is not longer updated. I hope at some point somebody will create open-source clone of it with more features.

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

#302

Post by aaaaaaaaata »

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 assumes they don't do anything mefarious on first install.

m.uber.com

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

#303

Post by thewebcount »

Kiro wrote: post #262
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!)

That sounds harsh. I kindly ask if they want to leave a review to support me in my app. What's wrong with that? Haven't received any complaints and I got a lot of nice reviews I presume I wouldn't have gotten otherwise.

What’s wrong with that? It’s fucking irritating. It’s not my job to do marketing for them, and frankly I resent constantly being asked for feedback on every interaction. I bought a lightbulb. Please rate it! I bought toilet paper. Please rate it! It’s like being around a really insecure person who’s constantly trying to win your favor. Just be a good person and it will happen, but try to do it and you make it way worse.

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

#305

Post by diebeforei485 »

Apple has lost the moral high ground because they decided to spam everyone with notifications for revenue-generating services like Apple Pay, Apple Music, Apple TV+ etc in order to increase their services revenue.

This also means they can't effectively enforce App Store guideline 4.5.4, which says: ... Push Notifications should not be used for promotions or direct marketing purposes unless customers have explicitly opted in to receive them via consent language displayed in your app’s UI...

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

#306

Post by diebeforei485 »

technothrasher wrote: post #11
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 don't know if Facebook still does this, as I've completely nuked it from my life, but when I had an account I asked it to turn off all email notifications. But if I didn't log on to Facebook after about two weeks I would get an email saying they were concerned I would miss out and so they helpfully turned email notifications back on for me.

Sometimes when they created a new feature (eg. Groups), they would email everyone about activity on it even if email notifications were off.

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

#307

Post by gnicholas »

mikestew wrote: post #286
gnicholas wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah very cool, thanks! But it looks like this turns off notifications for 'Transactions'. Does that disable the next-day notification to tell you that you saved 57¢ yesterday?

No, that is in the Apple Cash card settings, similar to where it is for Apple Card. Wallet/Apple Cash/three dots/Notifications.

Oh wow...amazing. Never would have thought to look in the Apple Cash card settings, since that's merely the place the Apple Card reward cash are deposited.

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

#309

Post by wutbrodo »

bonniemuffin wrote: post #252
gpt5 wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been struggling with the Uber app and Uber Eats who has been sending me ads which I found no way to disable. My problem is that I do want notifications for when my driver has arrived.

I deleted the Uber app and stopped using their service specifically because there was no way to turn off only their spammy marketing push notifications, and I didn't want to turn off all push and miss a ride, so there was no way for me to meaningfully use their service. It's ok, I have other options to get a ride.

Are you in iOS? I see a pretty detailed breakdown of notification categories that I can disable.

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

#310

Post by Dwedit »

I think there's a possible solution. Something like "Hide all notifications 5 hours after you last used the app". 5 hours could be enough time to do anything that the app needs to notify you for, then the marketing notifications come out of the blue 2 weeks later.
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