Push notifications – What to push, what not to push, and how often • Hacker News Board

Re: Push notifications – What to push, what not to push, and how often

#31

Post by londons_explore » Tue, Jan 02, 2024, 9:44 AM UTC

I'd much rather the OS have a "report spam" button on notifications, and if more than 5% of app users report spam then the whole app gets all notifications blocked by default.

Both Apple and Google have strong controls on the apps identity, so it won't be like email spam where the sender can just send from a new email address to get around the filter.

Re: Push notifications – What to push, what not to push, and how often

#32

Post by TylerE » Tue, Jan 02, 2024, 9:46 AM UTC

sakjur wrote: post #30

Something I wish Apple and Google would support is notifications that are only delivered if you’ve opened the app during the last 2 hours. Taxi and food delivery services for example have a reasonable usecase for push notifications, but only around the time when I’ve opened the apps. I think adding such dials to the operating system could help align the user interest of not being spammed with the engagement metrics u…

I just wish they added (and enforced!) a distinction between transactional notifications and everything else.

Re: Push notifications – What to push, what not to push, and how often

#33

Post by TylerE » Tue, Jan 02, 2024, 9:46 AM UTC

londons_explore wrote: post #31

I'd much rather the OS have a "report spam" button on notifications, and if more than 5% of app users report spam then the whole app gets all notifications blocked by default. Both Apple and Google have strong controls on the apps identity, so it won't be like email spam where the sender can just send from a new email address to get around the filter.

Seems like that would be a cheap way to destroy a competitor. Pay a bunch of people on some sketchy freelancer site to install the app, do whatever easily trigger notications.. and then report every single one.

Sort of a spin in the concept that it’s much easier to create bullshit than debunk it.

Re: Push notifications – What to push, what not to push, and how often

#34

Post by cypressious » Tue, Jan 02, 2024, 9:55 AM UTC

TylerE wrote: post #32

sakjur wrote: post #30

Something I wish Apple and Google would support is notifications that are only delivered if you’ve opened the app during the last 2 hours. Taxi and food delivery services for example have a reasonable usecase for push notifications, but only around the time when I’ve opened the apps. I think adding such dials to the operating system could help align the user interest of not being spammed with the engagement metrics u…

I just wish they added (and enforced!) a distinction between transactional notifications and everything else.

Android forces app developers to categorize notifications (the API is called notification channels). Each channel can be muted individually in the system settings. Though it's up to the app makers to correctly categorize their notifications, in my experience most apps do this.

Whenever I see a spam notification, I immediatelly go mute the channel and the problem never repeats itself.

Re: Push notifications – What to push, what not to push, and how often

#35

Post by janalsncm » Tue, Jan 02, 2024, 9:57 AM UTC

forgingahead wrote: post #7

Banking apps are the worst. They make us switch on notifications, else we can't get any confirmation notices for us to confirm transactions, then they proceed to spam me with credit card offers and other rubbish I'm not interested in receiving.

What bank does this? I’m not getting any marketing spam from Chase or C1.

Re: Push notifications – What to push, what not to push, and how often

#36

Post by saagarjha » Tue, Jan 02, 2024, 9:58 AM UTC

rochak wrote: post #19

saagarjha wrote: post #2

If you send me a push and I can’t explain why I’m seeing it (for example, if it’s not time-sensitive or I haven’t done anything to indicate I want it) then I consider it spam. This is doubly so if you’re using it to send me an advertisement. That’s the easiest way to ensure your app is going in the trash.

Uber's Apps are so shit when it comes to that. I can rarely recall a time when I opened the app and closed it without finding anything useful and it didn't send me a notification within minutes.

I install it when necessary on trips and once I land at SFO I just delete it. During that time it generally sends me 2-3 unwanted notifications but there's not much I can do about that except grumble.

Re: Push notifications – What to push, what not to push, and how often

#37

Post by janalsncm » Tue, Jan 02, 2024, 10:00 AM UTC

The model for me is duolingo. They gamified a thing I wanted to learn so I mostly didn’t mind the notifications. It’s still important to have timely and relevant information though.

Re: Push notifications – What to push, what not to push, and how often

#38

Post by ShadowBanThis01 » Tue, Jan 02, 2024, 10:00 AM UTC

I was just pondering what kind of push notifications I’ll need for an app I’m writing, so I was pretty psyched to see this title.

How disappointing to find that the title is BS, applied to an article that’s focused entirely on spamming.

Push notifications might never even be shown to the user. They may be for the application’s consumption, to avoid polling a remote server.

Re: Push notifications – What to push, what not to push, and how often

#39

Post by 082349872349872 » Tue, Jan 02, 2024, 10:02 AM UTC

Even The Onion was not willing to go so far in their satire as to suggest that someone might be interested in pushes: https://www.theonion.com/man-creates-account-on-ghostbusterb...

Re: Push notifications – What to push, what not to push, and how often

#40

Post by ShadowBanThis01 » Tue, Jan 02, 2024, 10:06 AM UTC

sakjur wrote: post #30

Something I wish Apple and Google would support is notifications that are only delivered if you’ve opened the app during the last 2 hours. Taxi and food delivery services for example have a reasonable usecase for push notifications, but only around the time when I’ve opened the apps. I think adding such dials to the operating system could help align the user interest of not being spammed with the engagement metrics u…

Don’t assume that a push notification is going to be shown to the user. It may be for consumption only by the app, to avoid the need for polling a remote server.

I expected this article to discuss push-notification payloads and use cases, but no… it’s about spamming the user about products. It’s as if the author doesn’t even understand what push notifications are.