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How to Stop Advertising Notifications from the Google Photo App
- Odenwaelder 9y agoBuy an iPhone. ;-)
- scarface74 9y agoThis. I pay Apple money and they give me stuff. A very simple transaction. I don't get spammed constantly, I don't have third party crapware on my phones or computers and I don't have stickers all over my stuff that makes my electronics look like a NASCAR car.
- michaelmior 9y agoIt's funny that you say this because and anecdotally, it seems like Macbook users are the most likely to plaster their machines with stickers. Totally unscientific and possibly incorrect observation though.
- frik 9y agoI thought so too, and in case of Apple I still too. But I got bitterly disappointed by Microsoft, I pay them for Windows and Office, a very simple transaction, right? Guess what, Windows 10 not only displays ads in the startmenu and taskbar. Also it automatically installs Pay2Win gambling games littered with loot crates to the startmenu. Also it tries to upgrade itself whenever it wants (in the middle of gaming, during boot, during shutting down) and not just updates but re-installs a new copy of the whole OS in-place, loosing all customization settings. Also it collects all my keyboard inputs, all my microphone audio and webcam video, my usage patterns, my directory structure, my crashed application incl all related files, the running application list, and sends them encrypted to various cloud servers own by them or third parties (who can tell?). I thought it is a very simple transaction, but I figured out when a company gets greedy and evil, you cannot trust such a company any more. It's better part ways and to revert back to an older version (Win 7) and prepare to move to a competitor.
- iaml 9y ago>I pay them for Windows and Office, a very simple transaction, right? No, it's not, and hasn't been for a while. Office added a subscription model a few years back (obviously it's the one they are pushing), and after that stunt that MS pulled with 10 launch you might as well consider it a targeted ad platform.
- frik 9y agoLet's speak about Windows 10 and Office 2016, I have bought them, a very simple transaction. Everything I mentioned still holds. I regreted doing so. I am in the club who reverted back to good ol Win7 and Office 2010.
- zaarn 9y agoYes but I also have to necessarily buy into the Apple ecosystem and pay a lot of money compared to Android, which I can just root and remove all this crap more easily than on Apple devices. I also don't really trust Apple to keep my data secure, I'm sure they have plenty of security measures, but I feel safer putting my data on my own servers via Nextcloud and stuff.
- muninn_ 9y agoDepends on your perspective. The reason these other products are “cheap” is because you’re making up for the dollar cost with your psychological well-being and being advertised to by the world’s best psychologists and cognitive scientists. So an iPhone or whatever may be “expensive” but I’d submit it’s actually cheaper when you take other factors into account. And you can trust Apple with your data at least as much as any other provider if not more since they have a financial motivation to protect your privacy (it’s a feature). Now I think rooting your device and hosting your own servers are a good solution - but most people, even engineers such as myself - may not want to spend time doing that or deal with security concerns from rooting your device.
- zaarn 9y ago>So an iPhone or whatever may be “expensive” but I’d submit it’s actually cheaper when you take other factors into account. I keep track of my expenses and so far I have paid less for the 3 Smartphones I owned than I would have paid to own any 3 iPhones with comparable age at time of the buy. >And you can trust Apple with your data at least as much as any other provider if not more since they have a financial motivation to protect your privacy (it’s a feature). I trust OVH more than Apple since I pay for a dedicated server every month instead of paying Apple once. >Now I think rooting your device and hosting your own servers are a good solution - but most people, even engineers such as myself - may not want to spend time doing that or deal with security concerns from rooting your device. Which is why I stated that this is why I don't trust Apple.
- scarface74 9y agoI also don't really trust Apple to keep my data secure, I'm sure they have plenty of security measures, but I feel safer putting my data on my own servers via Nextcloud and stuff. So why do you think that your servers using third party software is more secure than Apple's? Have you personally audited every line of code in NextClouds software or every line of code in Android for security vulnerabilities?
- akerl_ 9y agoI got the same notification from Google Photos on my iPhone.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- teekert 9y ago"As I understand it, this is a pre-installed app. I do not want my pre-installed apps sending me advertising notifications."
- Sidnicious 9y agoThe App Store has ads now. Not quite as bad as push notifications, but it makes me uncomfortable considering it’s the only supported way to install software.
- lern_too_spel 9y agoMacOS advertises Safari in a notification when I start Firefox. Same thing. https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/153379/how-do-you-turn-off-the-try-the-new-safari-notification https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/153379/how-do-you-...
- daxfohl 9y agoBeen debating between the V30 and the Pixel 2 XL. If true, this report destroys perhaps the primary reason for the Pixel.
- yellow_lead 9y agoThis is true, I also got the notification last night from the Photos app. I don't have a Pixel, but another Android phone.
- mey 9y agoI have been looking around for my next phone, most likely android. The thing I've come to realise is that I'm no longer able to buy an Android phone, instead I am buying either a Google phone or Samsung phone. Even the "pure" android experience is really a Google experience. Since I will be in the market to replace my aging phone sooner rather than later, the phones I've been eyeing are HTC U11 Unlocked Essential Phone OnePlus 5T Google Pixel 2 (not the XL to avoid screen issues, it's mfg'd by HTC and similar to the HTC U11) This list is US centric, etc. I would consider the iPhone 8, but not the X personally.
- trendia 9y agoOnePlus has spyware. https://betanews.com/2017/10/11/oneplus-telemetry/ https://betanews.com/2017/10/11/oneplus-telemetry/
- tfigment 9y agoJust listened to interview on All About Android and their explanation sounded plausible that it was done wrong and they will delete any collected data. I just bought a 5T and did not hear about this so I'm interested. Sounded like they are removing in OTA update. I'd probably have switched to iPhone if Apple didn't lock development to their OS.
- daxfohl 9y agoYeah it seems odd to me that the pixel is lauded as a "Pure Android" experience, as though that means a clean slate, when it is really a bunch of Google apps. And it's a bit befuddling how Microsoft couldn't even include a browser in their OS without massive lawsuits a few years ago.
- mey 9y agoLong press on the notification. Disable app notifications. Granted this is blunt force and is a bandaid on the bigger problem. Alternative is to Disable the preloaded app.
- tacomonstrous 9y agoOr turn off notifications just for the Assistant channel, which is most likely where this is coming from.
- corndoge 9y agoBest is root and remove
- ohazi 9y agoHe mentioned this in the letter as being overkill. He is asking for a preference to disable the notifications that a reasonable person would consider advertising, so that (e.g.) he can continue to get notifications about friends photo albums.
- Hnrobert42 9y agoI really appreciate that his/her argument is cogent, compelling, and lacking cynical sarcasm. I hope they are successful. That said, this is one of the many reasons I have been moving out of the Google ecosystem to paod services.
- semperdark 9y agoI also received this notification. I have an S8, not a Pixel. This is the kind of marketing spam done by crapware apps. Should we also expect this from Google now? I've come across too many nontechnical user's phones with hundreds of spam push notifications to have any patience for this crap.
- joosters 9y agoIs there a way to view this without having to sign in with a google account? The page seems to mostly load before it redirects to a login...
- exodust 9y agoDoesn't happen to me, page can be viewed without logging in. Maybe try again or use private browsing mode, as you may have cookie or previous login session causing issues.
- wichert 9y agoOpen it in an incognito/private window. For some reason that trick is necessary for all Google Groups content as well.
- notatoad 9y agoDoesn't this sort of notification violate the Play Store ToS?
- marksomnian 9y agoIt doesn't violate the ToS when you write the ToS.
- robin_reala 9y agoNot that I’ve read the Android ToS, but that’s presumably not true, unless Google has a clause that says “none of this applies to us”.
- ajnin 9y agoA ToS is a contract between a service provider and a user, Google doesn't need to agree to that contract to use its own services, I don't even know if it makes any sense legally. Of course ethically one would like the same rules to apply to everyone.
- Sylos 9y agoIs a violation with the Play Store ToS really necessary for Google to be allowed to throw you out? Last year, they did a witchhunt on third-party YouTube-apps capable of background playback on the basis of those supposedly violating the YouTube ToS, not the Play Store ToS.
- notatoad 9y agothe play store developer agreement says your app can't violate anybody else's ToS. A violation of the youtube ToS is an implicit violation of the Play Store ToS. Violating Facebook or Twitter's terms will get you kicked off the play store too. "4.4 Prohibited Actions. You agree that you will not engage in any activity with Google Play, including the development or distribution of Products, that interferes with, disrupts, damages, or accesses in an unauthorized manner the devices, servers, networks, or other properties or services of any third party including, but not limited to, Android users, Google or any mobile network operator." https://play.google.com/intl/ALL_us/about/developer-distribution-agreement.html https://play.google.com/intl/ALL_us/about/developer-distribu...
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- guelo 9y agoI also got an ad for Duo in my Pixel's phone dialer http://i.cubeupload.com/7PGmMo.jpg http://i.cubeupload.com/7PGmMo.jpg
- paulie_a 9y agoWill it ever be possible that Google develops one messaging and video app instead of 9?
- Judgmentality 9y agoYou mean like Google Hangouts used to be, before they butchered it? I'm still mad about that - it actually was the reason I bought my first iPhone. I no longer have a messaging system that does everything on Android, so I switched ecosystems for iMessage.
- fermuch 9y agoOr how Google talk was before hangouts. With talk, at least, you could use any XMPP client, and the web ui was wonderful for the time.
- thisisit 9y agoAmazon sells phones "with offers and ads" for a discount on the MRP. In comparison, this phone is sold at a premium and then displaying ads? It seems Google wants to have it's cake and eat it too.
- jwfxpr 9y agoThere is, as of me writing this, only one reply to the original post in support of its complaint — mine. Perhaps those willing to post comments here should consider also posting them there.
- dingo_bat 9y ago> The reason why I bought a Pixel from Google directly is because I do not like the adware and bloatware that comes pre-installed on phones from other carriers. Bloatware mandated by google on all android phones: 1. Google+ 2. Google Duo 3. Google hangout 4. Gmail 5. Google play music 6. Google play games 7. Google play movies 8. Google play newsstand 9. Google drive 10. Google sheets 11. Google chrome 12. Google maps 13. Google assistant 14. Google app 15. Google photos 16. Youtube Seems like the author made a decision diametrically opposite to his desire. I literally use 4 of these 16 pre-installed apps. Keep in mind that these are non-removable too. You can disable them, but they will forever sit in the flash storage you paid for.
- Invictus0 9y agoIt almost feels like satire; he trusts one of the world's largest advertisers to not advertise to him?
- lern_too_spel 9y agoTo be fair to the author, the only other option (iPhone) doesn't even let you disable the bloatware or replace it with better alternatives. Recent Android phones (including the author's) install most of the bloatware from the Play Store on first use instead of storing them in the system partition with the OS, so you actually can remove them.
- aroman 9y ago
- lobster_johnson 9y agoThere are so many apps that abuse notifications. I often find that I have to turn a new app's notifications off after installing it. For example, the Kindle app (on iOS) keeps bugging me about random things that are basically ads for Kindle. The Etsy app does the same. I recently installed the AliExpress app, and it started sending me notifications daily about deals ("Still looking for wigs? Look what we found, just for you!" -- just because I was entertaining myself the other day by browsing through all the crazy crap that AliExpress sells, it now thinks I want a wig). Apple (and Google, presumably) really should penalize app creators for abusing notifications.
- geku3 9y agoAt least Aliexpress has notification settings, you can leave just messages notifications or disable them completely. With Photos there are no refined notification settings. You can obviously disable all notifications of an app in Android itself but it cripples an app if some of those notifications are actually useful.
- hutattedonmyarm 9y agoIIRC the Apple App Store even prohibits these kinds of notifications, but because the store has no button to report apps you can't do anything about it as user :/
- paulie_a 9y agoI find myself clicking terribly targeted ads just to screw the metrics and waste the advertiser's money. Targeted ads are a joke in 2017. Notification abuse is honestly worse. It is mostly stupid notifications that were clearly not written by someone with any advertising experience.
- SomeStupidPoint 9y agoTargeted ads are basically homeopathic medicine in a different market: They take a small group of people with money who don't care about the shit you sell and honestly resent seeing your beef jerky ad when trying to buy a couch, dilute it with a bunch of people who once Googled "beef jerky" to figure out that one brand or make a funny meme so as to neutralize statistical qualities about the cohort you might not like, and pretend it'll do something for your business besides act like a sinkhole for your money. But I've slowly come to think most business statistics are deeply flawed, but now we're trapped using them because there was an upward slope to the cliff and people are dumb. Even if you point out that their flawed number models caused their businesses to collapse over and over for no reason but poor optimization, most people just hear "made money for a while". C'est la vie.
- makecheck 9y agoI liked the Growl notification customizations on the Mac, where every possible notification type for an app was listed. That’s how it should be; then you know everything that the app can possibly send. You could make broad preferences where desired, and granular settings as needed. I hate that installing new apps enables every stupid notification by default, seemingly only fixable by going 3 levels deep into every app’s settings and disabling things. Designers talk about the importance of having good defaults, and notifications have really, really stupid defaults coupled with bad UI for fixing them.
- tkazec 9y agoAndroid took a big step in this direction in Oreo, with a built-in central manager of the permission and notification settings of every app on the system :)
- fermuch 9y agoAndroid 7 has that too, under the "permissions" setting for apps. It's a "I don't want any notification" or "I want all of them". Are those settings in oreo better?
- habosa 9y agoYes in Oreo every notification belongs to a named "channel" and you can customize by channel. So for example saying yes to new messages and no to promotions.
- gizmodo59 9y agoA Google Bot will reply in that forum soon.
- netsharc 9y ago"Please try this: reboot to recovery mode, and select 'clear cache'".
- grahamburger 9y agoI mean, it's 'advertising' a new feature of the photos app ... I get the frustration but it's not like it's a third party advertisement.
- draugadrotten 9y agoWhat is relevant is that it is an advertisment, not that it is "third party" or "second party". It is an ad. It wants your money.
- grahamburger 9y agoWould it be considered an ad if instead it just said 'hey new thing now you can create and print photo books right in the app!' without mentioning price?
- paulie_a 9y agoYes. Ads are distractions from things I care about. This sort of notification is an attempt to make me care about something.
- piyush_soni 9y agoThe philosophical question that arises from here, now, is that if someone really cared about that offer to be introduced through the app (like a new feature notification), would it still be called an 'advertisement'? But then, to know whether you "care about" this feature to be introduced in the app so that it wouldn't be an advertisement, they'd need to track what you care about and what you don't. But people have issues with tracking :). Not supporting or opposing anything here, just thinking aloud.
- draugadrotten 9y agoYes, because it still wants your money. Saying "Now app X has a feature to do Y" is fine, but when it requires additional purchases to "do Y", it is an ad. If Hacker News would display "did you know you can subscribe to read grahamburgers next reply", but I have to pay before I can read, it is an ad.
- Joakal 9y agoI've used a firewall on my phone: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=app.greyshirts.firewall https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=app.greyshirts... The firewall is brilliant in that it sets up a 'VPN', that all connections must go through. Bam, no more notifications from any shitty apps that got a request from a marketer to annoy you. However, it won't help with the apps that you have a love/hate relationship with (ie Viber). You will be SHOCKED at how many apps insist on a connection to the internet despite not apparently needing a connection. I even had apps I never use, still try to call home! On a sidenote, I love how the app also gives Wifi or Mobile Data option. ie, prohibited updates unless over WiFi.
- tjoff 9y agoLast updated 2014, doesn't support ipv6 so it is pretty much useless in most countries? Are there any decent no-root firewalls on android?
- ironjunkie 9y agoWhy does it feel like every choice for a phone is a losing choice nowadays: - "Pure" Android from Google (Pixels and co): You end up being controlled by Google and enclosed in their ecosystem. They manage and decide the ToS for everything and you have very little say about it (as this issue proves). - "Modified" Android from other manufacturers: Full of bloatwares and basically unusable after 6 months - iPhone: Closed source and managed by Apple. Not a lot of technical options to customize if you don't like the default behavior (An issue I have with every Apple product). For a non technical person, as a comment said above the iPhone is the best ethical solution. You get what you pay for and there are no shenanigans. As a technical user however, I feel it is kind of sad to own an iPhone as I like to go deep and being able to modify a lot of settings and behaviors. I simply don't like the overly opinionated way iOS or MacOS handles the user (Which again would be fine for 99% of normal users).
- ryukafalz 9y agoFor a technical person, you have another choice: LineageOS (optionally with microG, which is what I use). It's nearly-stock Android without the Google apps, and with a few extra features. (Privacy Guard is very nice.) microG lets you use apps that depend on Play Services without actually having Play Services - it's not complete but most of the common APIs are there. There are other ROMs, but LineageOS (formerly CyanogenMod) is the only one I personally have experience with.
- benjaminjackman 9y agoJust curious how is performance and how old is the phone you are using with it? My biggest issue with android phones, even the google flagship ones is they just fall apart after 18 months both physically and with software overwhelming them to the point of extreme lags in every interaction with the device. Does the same dividend exist here as on desktop where it’s pretty expected to be able to run a 10 year old pc by running Linux on it without much issue?
- kevin_thibedeau 9y agoIt runs great on older phones. I have a 3 year old Moto G with 1GiB RAM. It will never be a speed demon but LineageOS Nougat is much better than stock Lollipop for performance on resource constrained phones.