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What Apple and Google are doing to push notifications

jacquescorbytuech.com

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Re: What Apple and Google are doing to push notifications

#171

Post by Gigachad »

array_key_first wrote: post #158
Esophagus4 wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes… seeing my wife’s email inbox is mind blowing. Maybe she didn’t opt in, but she will never unsubscribe from anything. Emails from every site she’s ever shopped at.

I mean, it's kind of an insurmountable obstacle. Why bother trying to unsubscribe when you're always gonna get spam anyway? It's just gonna come back. Also, websites are shady. If you put in a required email, they'll usually automatically check a little box for you that says "allow us to ruin your inbox?" How helpful of them. And, I'm not even convinced that checkbox does anything.

I just flag every marketing email as spam. It's much more effective than unsubscribing since it tells your email provider to just redirect everything from them to spam, and it causes trouble for the sender.

Re: What Apple and Google are doing to push notifications

#172

Post by Gigachad »

Analemma_ wrote: post #40
pants2 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The biggest problem are apps that do both. For example, I want Uber to notify me when my driver has arrived, but I don't want it to notify me when they have a special 10% discount on my next 5 rides. It's not straightforward to block one but not the other.

And the worst part is that Apple could fix this in a heartbeat. Uber is straightforwardly in violation of App Store policies about "no advertising in push notifications", but a) they're too big to fail and b) Apple advertises via push notifications all the fucking time, so they have no leg to stand on here. It's infuriating that the one thing the App Store monopoly could be useful for isn't even actually used in prac…

Presumably enforcing this would trigger an immediate legal response where Uber claims Apple is using their monopolistic control over the App Store.

Re: What Apple and Google are doing to push notifications

#173

Post by [deleted] »

_carbyau_ wrote: post #150
0cf8612b2e1e wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recently had to setup Microsoft Authenticator. It refused to register a code unless I enabled notifications. You are a two factor app. I should never be in a situation where there is an unexpected login I need to verify.

> I should never be in a situation where there is an unexpected login I need to verify. Isn't that kind of the point? If someone else is trying to login somewhere with your credentials, your two factor will ping up?

[deleted]

Re: What Apple and Google are doing to push notifications

#174

Post by lathiat »

mmoskal wrote: post #94
Analemma_ wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And the worst part is that Apple could fix this in a heartbeat. Uber is straightforwardly in violation of App Store policies about "no advertising in push notifications", but a) they're too big to fail and b) Apple advertises via push notifications all the fucking time, so they have no leg to stand on here. It's infuriating that the one thing the App Store monopoly could be useful for isn't even actually used in prac…

I believe the App Store policy is you have to have a setting to disable ads. And Uber actually has it (though it has 8 different channels or so, apparently "Uber teen accounts" marketing was added recently). I used the setting and am not getting Uber ads (only Uber ride notifications).

Currently my biggest problem isn't ads, it's all the apps now will find ANY excuse to send you a notification in order to keep their "Daily Active User" count high.

You turn off more and more categories and they'll still find a reason.

Re: What Apple and Google are doing to push notifications

#175

Post by no-name-here »

baxtr wrote: post #21
nateguchi wrote: post #3

I feel like this article reads like the author is upset that Apple + Google prevent / control certain types of notifications (read: spam) > Cross-sell, upsell, education and discovery can work on push Push notifications should only be for transactional notifications. I don't want another inbox for junk.

Agreed. I have a doc appointment app, where I like the notifications to be on for reminders etc. Lately they started sending marketing messages through that channel. Now I’m sure it’s possible to turn off the marketing messages. But I bet most people don’t know and won’t change that. It’s super annoying.

> I’m sure it’s possible to turn off the marketing messages.

Uber may have that functionality, but a surprising number of other apps don't - for example Makro, Tops, and 7/11 Thailand, three very popular Thailand retailers, use notifications for when an order is out for delivery, about to arrive, etc. But they also send constant promotion notifications every day, even with audio alerts enabled.

Re: What Apple and Google are doing to push notifications

#176

Post by matheusmoreira »

nathanmills wrote: post #73
unglaublich wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No one willingly says "yes" to advertisements, but people will say "yes" to important-updates(-and-advertisements).

Then why is it whenever I watch someone use their computer they always accept cookies?

Because people don't actually read what they are clicking on or even understand what they're doing. They just want to make the annoying banner go away. Same reason why people mash the next button when installing software.

Re: What Apple and Google are doing to push notifications

#177

Post by xboxnolifes »

array_key_first wrote: post #158
Esophagus4 wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes… seeing my wife’s email inbox is mind blowing. Maybe she didn’t opt in, but she will never unsubscribe from anything. Emails from every site she’s ever shopped at.

I mean, it's kind of an insurmountable obstacle. Why bother trying to unsubscribe when you're always gonna get spam anyway? It's just gonna come back. Also, websites are shady. If you put in a required email, they'll usually automatically check a little box for you that says "allow us to ruin your inbox?" How helpful of them. And, I'm not even convinced that checkbox does anything.

It's definitely not insurmountable. It just takes a little bit of inbox maintenance. Pressing unsubscribe and report when I have spam in the inbox, 5 seconds here, 5 seconds there. I still get spam, but it's minuscule compared to not doing this.

Re: What Apple and Google are doing to push notifications

#178

Post by sroussey »

LtWorf wrote: post #92
nurumaik wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple should add "promotional notifications" section to iOS, then ban everyone who don't put their marketing bs into that category

Apple isn't your friend though. edit: downvote all you want. Fact remains that there is no way currently to block advertisement notifications and no disincentives for those who use them.

Send everything to the iOS notification summary which you then don’t look at. Uber and others can send time sensitive notifications and those don’t go in the summary. It’s basically a junk notification folder.

Works well.

Re: What Apple and Google are doing to push notifications

#179

Post by brk »

slater wrote: post #124
al_borland wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me the worst is NextDoor. I don’t have the app installed, but they also have email notifications. There are seemingly 100 options and I turned them all off when I first made the account. Periodically they add new ones and auto-enable them for everyone. There is not universal way to shut them off, short of blocking them all together or deleting my account. The account was such a pain to setup that I’m hesitant to…

Even worse with ND e-mails are how they've absolutely perfected the cut-off character limit for what's being posted in your area. So my inbox is just perma-barraged with click-bait-y "This place on Smith Street has the best...", "Health officials are investigating an outbreak of...", etc.

That is why I just filter ND emails to spam. Those patterns just reaffirm I don’t want the kind of content they offer.

Re: What Apple and Google are doing to push notifications

#180

Post by dexterdog »

_carbyau_ wrote: post #162
0cf8612b2e1e wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would I want that? If it is not me, I am not going to allow the login. Making it a notification makes it more likely I could fat finger an approval. I guess you can make the argument that you are then made aware of login attempts, but that feels more like something the host service should control.

> Why would I want that? Because to get that far they entered your password? Which you might like to change? You did mention: "You are a two factor app." If they've got past your first factor, you might want to know.

I would, but I don't need to know immediately. Plus you have the other vector of my phone sitting on a table and showing the notification to a person who can see it when they are trying to login as me.
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