12 ms·

I don’t have notifications enabled, nowhere and never

137 points by Curzel 4y ago

I never was much into notifications, and since it became possible, I have only ever allowed a selection of apps (IM, email, calendar) to send me notifications. Since 2020 I disabled notifications completely on every device I own. I'm not more focused, nor more productive, but, at least, they stopped popping up in the corner of the screen. This included browser-based notifications, which not only are the most annoying kind, as they pop up virtually on every website, but I also have to regularly disable them on phones of friends and family, as they come and ask me to "remove the notifications virus"... I can understand IM, email, calendar, even order tracking push notifications. But do you really use ANY other notifications? Do you use ANY notifications in places other than your phone?

seba_dos1 4y ago
The only notifications I ever use are IM, SMS and work e-mail (with all work-related stuff only showing up when the client is open) - and this includes my phone. I don't know why would I ever need anything else; maybe aside of calendar - that one I can understand, I just happen to not use it.
O__________O 4y ago
Related post from yesterday: >> Why I'm unreachable and maybe you should be too https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32265800 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32265800
zppln 4y ago
I've set my phone so I only receive calls and some texts from people who are close during most of the day. Between 9 and 10 pm I allow the rest, resulting in all notifications received during the day showing up at 9 pm sharp. This makes it easy and quick to just sift through them.
throwaway22032 4y ago
I barely even use them on my phone, everyone except close friends and family are muted.
wruza 4y ago
Pretty much the same. Only standard phone, IM, reminders, calendar, alarms, and also banking apps can notify me. For order tracking I manually turn it on when putting order, and off after receiving, otherwise too much spam, literally 2-3 times a day per app. Btw, what are notification places other than my phone? A desktop/browser? Always off for everything.
- Curzel 4y ago
  Desktop in particular bugs me... I would love to see usage stats of the macOS notification "area", I'm pretty sure it is only ever tapped by mistake... Well, at least I am not alone, thanks! haha
- jpl56 4y ago
  I don't even have the "notification center" icon on my Windows 10. And I removed the new email popup alert
Veen 4y ago
I use Apple's Scheduled Summary for most notifications (Android may have something similar, but I don't know the platform). Scheduled summary collects notifications and then delivers a summary at a time of my choosing. You can choose which notifications go into the summary and which are delivered immediately. I turn off notifications for most apps, put non-urgent ones in the summary, and leave only a few to be delivered immediately ( e.g. iMessages from VIP contacts). Then I glance through the summary when it arrives after work and deal with anything that needs a response. Also, I turn off all browser notifications. I never need them.
- Curzel 4y ago
  Interesting, so you also use features like focus modes?
Brajeshwar 4y ago
I have been advocating and helping many others, ever since I started the idea in 2014[1]. A few years back, in 2019, I went a tad more and went total DND[2]. The exceptions are tiny and very specific instances, and reasoning. 1. https://brajeshwar.com/2014/missing-step-productivity-activities-stop-notifications/ https://brajeshwar.com/2014/missing-step-productivity-activi... 2. https://phone.wtf https://phone.wtf
- Curzel 4y ago
  Yeah, fair and simple advice! Mine was not a complaint about productivity per se, I just can't be bothered clearning them or picking out the ones I need, but I understand where you're coming from.
kdtsh 4y ago
I use notifications almost everywhere, but I also have some variant of ‘Do Not Disturb’ enabled at all times on most of my devices. It’s handy to have a list of new information, but I don’t want it to know about it until I choose to. On my phone I only have Do Not Disturb enabled when I really don’t want to be disturbed, but otherwise I only allow audio alerts for phone calls; everything else either pops up on my Lock Screen quietly, gets a badge that I can sort out later, or doesn’t matter enough for me to spend any time on unless I open the app.
- Curzel 4y ago
  You're the first commenter how actually "likes" notifications it seems... What apps other than IM/email/calendar/... do you allow?
- mccorrinall 4y ago
  I do the same. Focus modes on iOS are a really good addition!
- soco 4y ago
  Here no sounds at all, I have instead priority settings on 4 family contacts which are the only ones which will vibrate on calls/whatsapp. All the rest will register their popup in complete silence for when I feel like checking the phone.
acutesoftware 4y ago
No notifications at all - phone is on silent at all times. Though I do have a good habit of checking messages and emails every hour, so it isn't that bad for others. (Desktop is different, teams / slack is on all the time with popups).
- Curzel 4y ago
  I do the opposite... Desktop is always muted, Slack and Email are on a second monitor, so I can check every hour. Phone slack notifications are set only for mentions
bambax 4y ago
On my phone I only have notifications for the phone app, and text. That's it. Nothing else. On my desktop I have zero notifications. It's been that way for years, it's perfect. I'm not a first responder. All things can wait.
- Curzel 4y ago
  Just reading this gives me Zen vibes :D
- was_a_dev 4y ago
  What about banking or F2A?
  - zevon 4y ago
    I'm curious: What's the use case for those two specific things? I personally don't even have a banking app installed on my phone - I use online banking and/or a desktop banking software. For 2FA, I have an OTP app installed that I simply open whenever I need to do 2FA.
    - bambax 4y ago
      I used to not have a banking app too but my bank made me ;-( They started to require to type my own account password into websites to be able to pay via credit card! Incredible but true. As this was of course completely unacceptable I resisted for as long as I could. But at some point I had to use my credit card on a website with no other option (it was for a collective present, I couldn't select another website; I could not participate but that would have been incredibly rude and unkind). It's not too horrible though. The app is much less bad than I expected.
      - zevon 4y ago
        Do you mean the confirmation window that asks you to login with your online banking credentials after after putting in your credit card details in an online shop? The first time I saw that thing, I cringed as well and decided that I didn't really need whatever I was trying to buy at the time (I was lucky that there were no social factors invoved like in your case).
the_other 4y ago
I use screen zoom, which magnifies a portion of my screen around my cursor. As a result, I miss most desktop notifications. I've turned on the thing that flashes the whole screen when they come in, but pan+scanning over to the notifications pile makes me lose context with what I was working on, so I typically ignore the flash too. I should just turn off all the notifications. There's a lot of "I turn most of them off" here. In parallel, notifications are regularly talked about as a major sticking point around web vs native apps (because Apple). If we, here, aren't using them, why are we building customer-facing tools around them?
- seba_dos1 4y ago
  Not that I'd advocate for using notifications, but the problem with screen zoom seems easily solvable by showing notifications on an overlay layer that's placed independently of the screen zoom.
- Curzel 4y ago
  Some people use them and some are very, VERY effective. Problem is, that's like for the 1% of what gets sent out. I've been working with iOS apps for 10 years or so now, I've seen apps where push notifications alone drive 20%+ of the revenue, and other projects where the opt-out rate is ~90% with an open rate of ~10% (meaning literally 99% of users ignore the notification)
dvfjsdhgfv 4y ago
Same here. A long time ago I decided I want to be the one in control of my life, not others. When I want to check my mails etc., I do it - not when someone creates a false sense of urgency. The only notifications I'm using are for phone calls from selected contacts, mainly my family.
- nvilcins 4y ago
  Less discussed but similarly controlling of your life are all the nasty visual tricks apps and services use to grab your attention (bright red notification bubbles) or to annoy you into submission (so you download their mobile app or upgrade to pro). I've gone the extra mile and set my phone to be entirely in grayscale, and have never been happier. (Doable on Android at least, look under "Developer Settings")
4ad 4y ago
I hate virtually all notifications, and go out of my way to disable as many as I can. My devices are in permanent DnD mode. Only exception is for phone, some IM (not all), and some mail.
ubercow13 4y ago
Yes, I use notifications from my bank and credit card so I know when someone is taking my money.
- Curzel 4y ago
  Ok, I guess that's another important use case! Anything else comes to your mind? I am currently working on a project where we have 90+% of opt out from push notifications with <10% open rate, and for good reasons. I am try to build an argument here for my manager haahah
- sys_64738 4y ago
  The CC company has a fraud dept for that. They can leave a message. It’s important but not critical so can wait twelve hours.
  - ubercow13 4y ago
    I am more likely to identify a fraudulent transaction than the banks fraud department. If I didn't have these notifications on, in case they don't identify a fraudulent transaction, I'd have to do so myself by reconciling everything manually at the end of the month. That's a lot more effort for me than simply responding to unexpected transaction notifications as they happen.
- nicbou 4y ago
  Same here. Those notifications are great. I just disable sounds and vibrations for them.
atemerev 4y ago
I have a severe ADHD, so nearly all notifications are disabled, except for reminders, which I use heavily. This is literally a matter of survival for me. But I don’t know anyone who doesn’t switch off most of notifications.
18dhaFijHH728 4y ago
I recently migrated to a degoogled ROM and since many apps use google for push notifications, I've just been going without. And JTS honestly been quite freeing. If someone needs a quick response they can reach me on signal.
- Markoff 4y ago
  That's just not truth, i use phones without gapps for 5-8 years and hardly missing any notifications, both Whatsapp and Signal can push them, same with various email clients for instance Aquamail I use Business calendar pro and various other app, though I disable most of those to not be bothered. It's actually quite difficult for me to find app which could not push notifications on my no gapps phones.
  - Curzel 4y ago
    Which rom are you using?
  - mccorrinall 4y ago
    Calendars and emails usually don’t need push to show notifications. Email clients usually use imap streaming (if supported) or just poll your inbox every x minutes. We are specifically talking about push via GCM / Apple here. Afaik signal opens a websocket in the background if GCM push is not supported. Or at least that’s how it worked a few years ago. Google Cloud Messaging features (push) only work when you have gapps installed or use an alternative implementation like microg. I assume that whatsapp also has some kind of fallback strategy built in.
- vivab0rg 4y ago
  This has been my experience as well using a degoogled ROM for the first time. I feel I got so much time back. Now I'm really using my phone and not the other way around. I prefer Session for messaging and for family I ask them to reach me on Telegram FOSS.
Markoff 4y ago
So how do you get calendar reminder about important event? Same goes, how do you figure out you have new email or IM message? Does this mean you have to open calendar, email and IM app all the time to find out there is nothing new? Seems like waste of time/energy to not use notification just to show some statement. I have 24/7 DND mode with notifications only on my watch with email, calendar and IM (and on IM i mute people who bother me too much). Well also SMS, but I'm receiving only verification codes there rarely.
- moreira 4y ago
  Not the OP, but: 1. General awareness about what's on your plate. You don't need a reminder, you just need to know that you have meeting X at Y hours, or Z appointment on this date. 2. The difference is that you check email/IMs on your terms, which means that you decide when you want to take a break from whatever you're doing to look at and respond to anything in your inbox. If you have notifications on, your focus will keep getting taken away from whatever you're doing. Depending on what you're doing, this may or may not be important to you.
  - Markoff 4y ago
    1. I can' keep general awareness with dozens of reminders each day, I'm using calendar reminders to my benefit 20+ years, so i don't have to hold these things in my head and worry about forgetting something. 2. You can check/ignore notifications on your own terms.
    - moreira 4y ago
      It sounds like your workflow works great for you, and that's great! You asked how some people to live without notifications, and I gave an example of how. That's it.
- throwaway22032 4y ago
  You may as well ask "how do you know if you have mail" e.g. physical mail. I see it when I go to leave the house. Maybe I hear the postbox ring. I don't need an immediate notification of e-mail, it's quite fine to batch it and see if anything interesting is there. Daily, or a few times a day, or maybe after a week, depending on what I'm doing.
MacsHeadroom 4y ago
No, I don't allow notifications for any app or function on any device. I'm highly technically competent. When I look at my older parents' phones and see the notification hell they're dealing with, I wonder how anyone ever thought notifications were a good idea?! Back when notifications meant email, IM, and updates they were fine. Now everything wants to grab your attention. So now none of them get my attention, not even calls or text messages.
- matheusmoreira 4y ago
  > I wonder how anyone ever thought notifications were a good idea? It is a good idea if one assumes notifications is a high signal/noise ratio communications channel where only important stuff gets sent. Of course, what happened is advertisers discovered this new exciting opportunity to spam people with their offers and drive up "engagement" so now notifications are actively hostile to users to the point they're better off disabled. Just like phone calls: there's no point in picking up the phone when 99% of all calls are automated advertiser calls.
  - xigoi 4y ago
    Why are you allowing advertisers to hijack your notifications?
    - matheusmoreira 4y ago
      I'm not. I disabled notifications for everything but WhatsApp. That's my point: I couldn't trust any other app because of their spamminess so I just took away their privilege. Had they behaved themselves, I would have allowed them to notify me, but they didn't. It got to the point my phone carrier started spamming me with ads via SMS so I rooted the phone in order to disable SMS and phone call notifications. I would have uninstalled the telephony apps if I could.
ryandrake 4y ago
Do Not Disturb mode. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. No notifications, no texts, no calls, nothing at all begging for my attention. Once you've tried it, you'll never go back. I now use my devices when I want, on my own terms, and on my own schedule, not when some app company product manager or other rando people want me to use them. To me, using a computing device should be a deliberate act, with a purpose and limited duration, not some mindless response to stimulus. I'd say my quality of life has increased since making this change--I'm no longer being trained to allow (and get anxious about) arbitrary interruptions throughout the day. I feel I have more time in the day to do what I want without my device constantly begging me to "check in". I go home and visit my parents and their devices are beeping and buzzing and vibrating every 5 seconds or so. It's like living on the Las Vegas strip. I see people out in restaurants together constantly picking up their phone over and over because it's dinging at them. I can't even imagine myself living like that anymore.
- MrBurnsKin 4y ago
  Same for me. But I end up never getting a call and needing to check cellphone every 5 mins. What is working great for me now is to turn off everything and just leave calls on loud (like phone was originally designed)
  - TacticalCoder 4y ago
    Yup that's a good solution. I want to make sure the wife can reach me or my kid's school or other parents when my kid is at a friend' place. But I hate notifications with a passion. Now I have a landline phone again (it came for free with the fiber optic plan / router so why not), so most of the time people can reach me there too.
- fenesiistvan 4y ago
  This looks too much for me. Your parents can't reach you on phone.
  - beardedetim 4y ago
    On my wife's iPhone, they have groups that allow _certain people_ to contact them with _everything else_ being disabled. I would assume there's similar settings across devices.
rmetzler 4y ago
Pagerduty is an important notification app for me. But most other, including e-mail, are disabled or just noise.
elzbardico 4y ago
Focus mode in iOS and Mac OS was a blessing for me. Easily one of the most underrated features from apple.
- Curzel 4y ago
  I use sleep mode to avoid getting any IM while falling asleep, never tried focus mode, but I think I should
  - koenvdb 4y ago
    It's literally the same except that you can name it differently with a nice icon that goes with it. You can also determine which apps should/shouldn't send you a notification and which persons can slip through. It can also be enabled automatically based on certain factors (like time for example).
  - elzbardico 4y ago
    Focus mode is more configurable by application, contacts, and so on. So, I can still be notified about slack messages and calls for some contacts while the rest is silenced.
brainwipe 4y ago
On Android I use Do Not Disturb mode but people I really need to hear from (like my elderly mum) are put on a starred list and they get through[1]. I can then turn it off, have all the cached notifications appear, deal with them and then switch on Do Not Disturb again. 1: https://support.google.com/android/answer/9069335 https://support.google.com/android/answer/9069335
hackernewds 4y ago
There is a middle ground, and understanding it requires detangling the nature of notifications by urgency and relevance: * urgent and relevant: enabled, show me this now. examples are: IM and phone calls and earthquake monitors * urgent and non-relevant: "sale ends in 5 mins!!" * non-urgent but relevant: "your package has been delivered to your mailbox". Use an app like Daywise to BATCH these notifications to arrive at X hour intervals, so you're only checking 24/x times a day * non-urgent non-relevant: disable all these
nemacol 4y ago
I started to eliminate notifications from my life when a sound enabled banner notification from a keyboard I had installed on my android phone wanted me to know about all the great features of the keyboard app going from 3.0.1 to 3.0.2 (or whatever minor version). Anyway, I disabled everywhere except calendar alerts, alarm clock app, and a "favorites" list that is exempt from DnD in my phone. My preference is for technology to be a tool that I use when I want. It is here for me not the other way around.
subliminalpanda 4y ago
Turned them all off except for a select few app - WhatsApp, messages and the like, and even then my phone is on silent mode all the time. I only noticed that i had notifications turned on for Uber, and was notification spammed by them for some sort of promotion - disabled immediately.
jzellis 4y ago
I've disabled them on everything but my phone as much as possible. My IPad Pro has none, my MacBook has the bare minimum the system will allow, and my phone only has them for messaging, email and time-sensitive stuff (like food or Amazon delivery). First thing I do whenever I'm forced to use Slack or anything like it is to disable notifications on anything but direct messages or mentions. My time is more valuable to me than other people's desire to take it up, especially for anything that isn't urgent.
the_gipsy 4y ago
I still don't know how to make my iPhone ring only on phone calls but keep notifications silent.
jzellis 4y ago
As everyone tends to use different apps for messaging, I wish there was some sort of universal way to add contacts from any app to an "Always Send Notifications When These People Contact Me But Nobody Else" list. Like, I can mute individuals in Messenger or whatever, but I want to mute everybody but my wife and my parents back in the US in case of emergencies, whether they call me or text me or use Messenger or Whatsapp. That would obviate the need for DnD or silent modes for me, at least.
- stevage 4y ago
  Do you really need to be notified when your wife likes your Twitter post or your kid posts a photo to Facebook?
  - xigoi 4y ago
    They said “for messaging”. Twitter and Facebook aren't messaging apps.
ndepoel 4y ago
Whenever an app or website asks me if I want notifications, I mentally substitute the word 'notification' with 'distraction'. "Do you want to receive distractions from this app?" Reads very differently and makes the correct answer much more obvious in pretty much every situation. No, no, no and no.
circlingthesun 4y ago
I had do not disturb on by accident the whole day yesterday. It was great, it made be wonder if I should enable it permanently. As the technical founder of a startup, I suspect it'll probably be to my detrimental when shit hits the fan.
tandav 4y ago
I unsubscribed from all youtube channels. I have a markdown list of links for some channels and check them manually if I want. I'm also trying to remove all newsfeeds/recommendations from everywhere.
- _ptf7 4y ago
  Including RSS ?
juanca 4y ago
I think the only notifications i care about are steam notifications. Otherwise, i aggressively turn them off. I expect myself to catch up on an application when I use the application. Maybe the only downside is checking my calendar, email, IM at least once a day instead of letting it inform me of events.
- shmde 4y ago
  Steam rarely sends notification, if they do its either their 2FA code or your wishlist items on sale.
  - falcolas 4y ago
    Valve has a lot of issues, but their apps are not among them. Steam can send me notifications too. They haven’t abused that trust yet.
ryanmercer 4y ago
I for one like notifications. I want to know when I get a text message, I want to know when I get pinged on work Slack or discord, I want to know when I get a call, I want to know the second I get an email from a very specific person because they are incredibly busy and sometimes I'm waiting days for that reply. Unless I'm actively texting someone, that might me a dozen notifications a day.
DarthNebo 4y ago
Not a single website is enabled for notification apart from IM like whatsapp/telegram. Only if it is needed for work but for random ones/ecommerce never
NikolaNovak 4y ago
My phone is always on silent mode, and dnd over night (ops team has standing instructions to always phone any on-call person twice successfully before going to next person). No audio notifications at all, but vibrate is on for phone calls during the day (important work calls, family emergencies etc of course still need to reach me) No notifications on desktop, ever <shudder>. Google hangouts and ams messenger can show me pull down "notifications" (message preview) on the phone. That's not to say I'm inaccessible - I have not missed a call or important message yet. But app notifications have negative use value for me.
t6jvcereio 4y ago
Can we make a clarification? Are we talking about sound notifications? First I thought we were talking about silent notifications, like a lock screen display or a display LED etc. But if that's what we're talking about, I don't understand why people here are so annoyed by notifications. My brain filters silent notifications as well as it filters ads - I don't even see them any more. The only notifications that my brain doesn't filter are the ones with sound, and only one app in my phone can produce sound, which is the alarm.
helij 4y ago
Apart from one app that I use for messaging and video calls with my family and some old friends all other apps have notifications turned off.
safety1st 4y ago
For me personally, I feel I DO become more productive when I put the phone on silent and leave it in another room. Generally in a drawer or something. After a few minutes it becomes easier to focus on the task at hand and before I know it I've been producing for an hour and have been in that "flow" state everyone wants to be in. I've been doing this for over a year now and it's like this switch in my brain flips faster and more easily every day. I have accepted that if I want to veg out and be aimless and distracted (which occasionally is ok) I should have my phone out near me. If I don't, physical distance, the more the better.
ojkelly 4y ago
I use notifications, and alarms, and timers all the time. It’s an accessibility (as in a11y) thing. Notifications are a tool that some of us depend on, and some of us will never need. Like many people with ADHD I forgot stuff. Important things, non-important things. For so many different reasons, some reasonable other just frustrating. So when I know now I need to do something in the future, say in 3 hours (like take the clothes out of the washing machine), I’m gonna set a timer. Otherwise you could place a solid bet I’ll forget. It goes for other things too. App notifications are a critical part of my ability to stay on top of things. Snoozing is one of the most consequential features to have been added. I used google inbox for this feature alone (then de-googled after they shut it down). I use Slack’s remind me more than twice a day. The ability for a different system to act as both time based memory, and an external prompt that I need to look at something takes a huge cognitive load of me. But, this only works with apps that respect notifications. Those apps (looking at you Uber), that push marketing notifications down the same channel as the critical transactional ones are nothing but enraging. I’m sure they think it’s good for their numbers, but it breeds a discontent with the brand. Because you’ve taken a communication channel I depend on and made it unreliable. If I can’t know for sure that an Uber notification is time sensitive, I’m going to mute them and stop using the app. But for Uber it’s worse, I’ve learnt they are time sensitive (car is arriving), and when I’ve gotten the marketing notification out of the blue, I’m not in a mood to receive it because I’m wondering why I have an Uber booking, because that’s what I would expect from prior usage. I do take a fully opt in approach to notifications and I think everyone should. If you’re getting interrupted by a notification it has to be more important than what your currently doing. If not, it’s going to be a negative experience. So, notifications. They’re a powerful accessibility tool. Which means we’re all gonna configure them differently, and it means abuses the trust of uses who’ve given you permission to interrupt them is something you should treat as a liability not an acceptable cost of pumping your numbers.
- pjlegato 4y ago
  Setting a timer yourself to remind you of some future important event is a very different proposition than what most people mean when they say "notifications": allowing an ever-growing constellation of commercially motivated ad sales companies to initiate pings on the phone they carry around 24 hours a day and grab at their attention at any time, for resale purposes.
knorker 4y ago
Yes. My wife and I chat basically all the time, and some of it is timely questions. If the only way to get a timely response would be to call, then she'd he to call. And i would have to pick up. And maybe she's in a meeting. Maybe she's presenting something in a meeting and asking me to check if there's any problem with our wifi. She can't call me; she's busy. But things like YouTube notifications, or "ring the little bell" calls to action. No... Just... Why in the fuck would i want to do that?
gumby 4y ago
My phone, computer, and watch are on silent; I only get notifications on my watch, and almost none: I enable certain IM senders (kids, partner) and slack (certain channels only). I have an app that reminds me to take my meds through the day. Nothing else. There are task-specific notifications I would like to enable (e.g. my car is arriving) but when you enable notifications for those apps, the apps spam me at other times. So polling it is. I never enabled browser notifications.
- muttled 4y ago
  Facebook is one of those annoying ones. You go in, change your notifications to exactly what you want, and then shortly after Facebook creates a new notification class that's set to default "on". Few rounds of that and it's lost all notification privileges.
- closetohome 4y ago
  > I only get notifications on my watch This worked really well for me. My phone is always silent/DND, but I get notifications on my watch. If I want to stop getting notifications, I just take off my watch.
sys_64738 4y ago
No, as they’re a complete distraction from what YOU actually want to do. They are your own personal time waster that FB uses to keep you engaged longer. We’re only in the planet for a finite time that gets less everyday so why would I want to waste my time. You see this most impacting insecure folk who need positive engagement or constant reinforcement of the feedback loop. It’s a complete waste of time.
sys_64738 4y ago
What I would really love is a way to disable all sound notifications on Windows 10 permanently. Right now on calls I get assaulted with sound notifications from random places every 15 minutes. How do I turn this sh!t off!
- Jaruzel 4y ago
  You need to navigate to the classic Sound control panel, and remove all the sound files for each sound event: Settings > System > Sound > Related settings > Sound control panel Then click on the Sounds tab.
- shmde 4y ago
  1. Go to windows settings by clicking the big gear icon. 2. Type "Focus Assist Settings" in the search box. 3. Click the Alarms only button.
zevon 4y ago
I'm on the same boat as quite a few posters: I hate notifications and have a hard time understanding how people who pick up their devices all the time get anything done and keep their sanity. My personal phone is a device with GrapheneOS (no Play Store and no Play services, so not even the temptation to install attention grabbing crap - not that I even have social media accounts anymore). It is used mostly for audiobooks, music, navigation, phone calls, as a device for notetaking, information gathering / referencing - and to have a backup of my most important data near me at all times. The only app I allow notifications on this device for is the one messenger I have installed - which I only use to chat with my partner, a group chat with some of my oldest friends and the very occasinal message to other contacts (almost exclusively to coordinate some real-world activity). At the beginning of my work day, I usually chuck the personal phone in my backpack and only remember to take it out in the evening when I usually have a call with my partner - or when I'd like to listen to some music during a break. If there is an emergency, my partner, my parents, etc. know to call me at work. My work phone is a bit different. I have it with me at all times when I'm working and have notifications enabled for Matrix/Element (which we use as our team messenger) and for the calendar. Not E-Mail, though. I check that when I'm good and ready. My partner has a permanent exception to Do Not Disturb mode on both my phones. On my computers, it's Do Not Disturb / disable notifications all the way. If I want to be informed about stuff, I'll keep the respective app open. During a normal work day, for example, I have Element, Calendar and E-Mail open on a second monitor for glanceability - and I even close those apps depending on the kind of work I'm doing. Edit: I forgot: I also have my government's disaster warning app installed on my phones and it's allowed notifications - for obvious reasons.
f0e4c2f7 4y ago
I started doing this after reading Cal Newport's Deep Work. Had a few other similar suggestions I use to this day.
ghusto 4y ago
I tell colleagues that Slack is also blocked, both on desktop and my phone. I check it periodically, about every hour or two. "But what if I need you for something important?!" There's this thing called a phone "Well, it's not _that_ important ... I guess" Amazing how rationality has time to settle in when we stop being impulsive.
Angostura 4y ago
So no notifications while you are at work, on work devices? Hmmm.
VyseofArcadia 4y ago
I _really_ wish Slack had more fine-grained notification controls. I can ignore ~90% of my Slack notifications, but I have a boss that likes to start huddles at random times with no warning. If I could either filter notifications by person or just get notifications for huddles and calls only, that would be perfect. I've got every other notification quashed. Calls, IMs from close friends and family, that's all I get on my personal devices. If only I could dial down Slack on my work machine.
flkiwi 4y ago
I just unsubscribed from Marvel Unlimited (and deleted the app) because they don't provide any mechanism for disabling marketing notifications ("Here's an issue of something you've never read!") vs. functional notifications ("Here's an issue of something you've starred!") vs. transactional notifications ("Your subscription is coming up for renewal!"). I understand that, for some people, new issue notifications are a plus, but not giving us a chance to filter out that noise is abusive. It's my phone not your billboard. Anyway, thanks to this thread I went back and checked my notifications settings and a surprising number of them were set not only to allow immediate notifications, but also to "announce" their notifications. Turned all those off.
- closetohome 4y ago
  I've uninstalled a number of apps for doing that. Once they start mixing spam with relevant notifications -- especially if it's an app that depends on relevant notifications -- I'm out.
  - r2_pilot 4y ago
    Sometimes you can't uninstall apps, like Samsung's junk and Bixby notifications that I have exactly negative-infinity use for. I recently discovered an app called Buzzkill[Android] that lets you manage notifications EXTREMELY GRANULARLY and how to (automatically) respond to them, such as dismiss them sight-unseen or perform another action. It is a paid app but cheap, does what it says on the tin, and has been a personal QoL upgrade.
jasonpeacock 4y ago
Something great I read once: Every time you see 'notifications', replace with the word 'interruptions'. It really puts it into perspective. I have notifications enabled only for a select few people (family), everything is silenced. If you need me, leave a voicemail or text, and I'll see it when I next check for it. Granted, I still check fairly often, but it's when I want to check.
jasomill 4y ago
1. Calls/FaceTime/SMS/iMessage (banners and sounds, Mac and iPhone). 2. Calendar reminders (banners only, Mac and iPhone). 3. A bespoke "hello world" iOS app I threw together and installed to enable ad hoc notifications to myself from anywhere via a similarly trivial Web API (banners and sounds, iPhone only). 4. LaunchControl[1] on the Mac has a neat feature that sends a notification whenever a launchd item is added or removed. This is nice to know, and generally only triggers when apps are installed or updated, and on app launch and quit for a few apps like VMware Fusion that only keep their related launchd items loaded while running (banners only, Mac only). Everything else gets turned off with extreme prejudice. [1] https://soma-zone.com/LaunchControl/ https://soma-zone.com/LaunchControl/
thenerdhead 4y ago
Why stop at notifications? https://jondouglas.dev/balance-your-digital-well-being/ https://jondouglas.dev/balance-your-digital-well-being/ https://jondouglas.dev/focus-is-a-superpower/ https://jondouglas.dev/focus-is-a-superpower/ https://jondouglas.dev/fast-brain-slow-mind/ https://jondouglas.dev/fast-brain-slow-mind/ I try to replace my artificial notifications with natural/organic notifications where possible. The only notifications on my phone that I allow are phone calls/texts from certain numbers. I don't want to constantly be in a state of "alertness". I seek serenity from digital devices on a daily basis.
rasse 4y ago
- I allow selective notifications, but I've disabled all sound and vibrations from them (except for a couple critical contacts on IM). - Absolutely no notifications for email. - All calls come through. Haven't gotten a spam call in years. For me, this setup allows for a good balance of instantly knowing what's up when checking the phone but without being disturbed.
RGamma 4y ago
Notifications I get: IM/SMS/Email, calendar events, train delays (when applicable), payment, catastrophe alert (most of them silent). The rest I consider spam. And notification spam is the number one issue I see with devices I manage for relatives, etc ("how do I turn this off, I don't know where that comes from, blabla"), which is an improvement over the PC era with its much more horrible phenomena.
zenwell 4y ago
Glad you posted this, it is something for me to think about. I'm building a wellness mobile app and I make use of mobile notifications for certain reminders. I am building the app using things that worked for me, and one of those things was notification reminders. I don't think I've ever set up YouTube bell, and I'm usually Do Not Disturb mode. Most of the time, I "miss" my reminders but when I pull down from the top I see what I missed and would act upon them. One of the challenges for me is that I tend to sometimes get too focused (or completely side-tracked sometimes) and during these times I miss my self-care time.
penguin_booze 4y ago
I rarely mess with notifications. Instead, I go online only when I want to, that too, for maybe 5 or 10 minutes at a stretch. I'm offline by default. Anything urgent shall reach me the old school way: either call or text. I admit disruption when I want to.
lamontcg 4y ago
I'm not quite zero notifications, but I've never installed work e-mail/calendar/slack on my phone. Work notifications are slack direct DMs on my laptop/desktop only. And I sort of condition people to understand that I'm the person who gets things done and I might not respond to you immediately. If you think you desperately need to be ADHD constantly helping people out immediately with every request they have and this is the way to get forward in your career, you might want to reconsider that. You turn into sort of the helpdesk guy. You can still be the person that does all the extraordinarily hard problems that nobody else can solve, and deliver on the big features, without being the person who is there for instantly answering questions 24/7. If you open yourself up to being ADHD constantly you'll probably never get anything done through being interrupted constantly and you may find yourself stuck at a lower technical level than you want to progress to. Although if you want a management job this is probably the path you want to take.
kradeelav 4y ago
Also zero notifications on any and all hardware platforms. All calls/texts are set on silent/Do Not Disturb, with the whitelist allowing a total of five people: my parents, grandma, boss, and one or two others of similar importance. Anything important - they'll reach one of those five people. Anything else, I'll get to within a few days via email. Cannot imagine living with more stimulation ... already feel like i have too much!
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
freedude 4y ago
I guess each of us must ask and answer. Is this a tool or a trap? A tool is used when I need it. A trap won't let go of me.
oshirisuki 4y ago
I have notifications for long(ish) tasks I run on the command line, I get an ephemeral popup dialog window saying that the task is done, other than that, only calls/texts in my phone, and even those, only from some contacts (texts, for calls I do get the sound on every call)
psyclobe 4y ago
Amen
thekingofrome 4y ago
The only notification I've been getting in the last 2+ years is calls. As for everything else, I just open the app/program when I want to check what's there. It means I check my messages when I have a moment free, not when my phone demands it. If anything is urgent then someone can call me. I always hated pop up notifications and my phone buzzing or making noise, it feels so intrusive as well as being distracting
perryizgr8 4y ago
Browser notifications are the first thing I disable on any laptop, phone or tablet. Absolutely no legitimate use for those. Abused heavily by all sorts of sites, and enabled by default on phones. It's disgusting. They are why I hate the entire Google suite of "apps" that run inside a browser tab.
tarunmuvvala 4y ago
Same here,apart from notifications I am now limiting time on Youtube, twitter and other limitless scrolling site. We need a review system for this. I check how many times I unlock my phone in a day and it ranges from 80-120.I wish to reduce this and do more deep work.
chatmasta 4y ago
Same. I also haven’t had email installed on my phone since 2012. It was such a life improvement that I can distinctly remember the day when I removed it. Related: “inbox zero” is a trap. Why would you surrender your willpower to anyone who can reach your inbox?

137 points by Curzel 4y ago

seba_dos1 4y ago

The only notifications I ever use are IM, SMS and work e-mail (with all work-related stuff only showing up when the client is open) - and this includes my phone. I don't know why would I ever need anything else; maybe aside of calendar - that one I can understand, I just happen to not use it.

O__________O 4y ago

Related post from yesterday: >> Why I'm unreachable and maybe you should be too https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32265800 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32265800

zppln 4y ago

I've set my phone so I only receive calls and some texts from people who are close during most of the day. Between 9 and 10 pm I allow the rest, resulting in all notifications received during the day showing up at 9 pm sharp. This makes it easy and quick to just sift through them.

throwaway22032 4y ago

I barely even use them on my phone, everyone except close friends and family are muted.

wruza 4y ago

Pretty much the same. Only standard phone, IM, reminders, calendar, alarms, and also banking apps can notify me. For order tracking I manually turn it on when putting order, and off after receiving, otherwise too much spam, literally 2-3 times a day per app. Btw, what are notification places other than my phone? A desktop/browser? Always off for everything.

Curzel 4y ago
Desktop in particular bugs me... I would love to see usage stats of the macOS notification "area", I'm pretty sure it is only ever tapped by mistake... Well, at least I am not alone, thanks! haha
jpl56 4y ago
I don't even have the "notification center" icon on my Windows 10. And I removed the new email popup alert

Veen 4y ago

I use Apple's Scheduled Summary for most notifications (Android may have something similar, but I don't know the platform). Scheduled summary collects notifications and then delivers a summary at a time of my choosing. You can choose which notifications go into the summary and which are delivered immediately. I turn off notifications for most apps, put non-urgent ones in the summary, and leave only a few to be delivered immediately ( e.g. iMessages from VIP contacts). Then I glance through the summary when it arrives after work and deal with anything that needs a response. Also, I turn off all browser notifications. I never need them.

Curzel 4y ago
Interesting, so you also use features like focus modes?

Brajeshwar 4y ago

I have been advocating and helping many others, ever since I started the idea in 2014[1]. A few years back, in 2019, I went a tad more and went total DND[2]. The exceptions are tiny and very specific instances, and reasoning. 1. https://brajeshwar.com/2014/missing-step-productivity-activities-stop-notifications/ https://brajeshwar.com/2014/missing-step-productivity-activi... 2. https://phone.wtf https://phone.wtf

Curzel 4y ago
Yeah, fair and simple advice! Mine was not a complaint about productivity per se, I just can't be bothered clearning them or picking out the ones I need, but I understand where you're coming from.

kdtsh 4y ago

I use notifications almost everywhere, but I also have some variant of ‘Do Not Disturb’ enabled at all times on most of my devices. It’s handy to have a list of new information, but I don’t want it to know about it until I choose to. On my phone I only have Do Not Disturb enabled when I really don’t want to be disturbed, but otherwise I only allow audio alerts for phone calls; everything else either pops up on my Lock Screen quietly, gets a badge that I can sort out later, or doesn’t matter enough for me to spend any time on unless I open the app.

Curzel 4y ago
You're the first commenter how actually "likes" notifications it seems... What apps other than IM/email/calendar/... do you allow?
mccorrinall 4y ago
I do the same. Focus modes on iOS are a really good addition!
soco 4y ago
Here no sounds at all, I have instead priority settings on 4 family contacts which are the only ones which will vibrate on calls/whatsapp. All the rest will register their popup in complete silence for when I feel like checking the phone.

acutesoftware 4y ago

No notifications at all - phone is on silent at all times. Though I do have a good habit of checking messages and emails every hour, so it isn't that bad for others. (Desktop is different, teams / slack is on all the time with popups).

Curzel 4y ago
I do the opposite... Desktop is always muted, Slack and Email are on a second monitor, so I can check every hour. Phone slack notifications are set only for mentions

bambax 4y ago

On my phone I only have notifications for the phone app, and text. That's it. Nothing else. On my desktop I have zero notifications. It's been that way for years, it's perfect. I'm not a first responder. All things can wait.

Curzel 4y ago
Just reading this gives me Zen vibes :D
was_a_dev 4y ago
What about banking or F2A?
- zevon 4y ago
  I'm curious: What's the use case for those two specific things? I personally don't even have a banking app installed on my phone - I use online banking and/or a desktop banking software. For 2FA, I have an OTP app installed that I simply open whenever I need to do 2FA.
  - bambax 4y ago
    I used to not have a banking app too but my bank made me ;-( They started to require to type my own account password into websites to be able to pay via credit card! Incredible but true. As this was of course completely unacceptable I resisted for as long as I could. But at some point I had to use my credit card on a website with no other option (it was for a collective present, I couldn't select another website; I could not participate but that would have been incredibly rude and unkind). It's not too horrible though. The app is much less bad than I expected.
    - zevon 4y ago
      Do you mean the confirmation window that asks you to login with your online banking credentials after after putting in your credit card details in an online shop? The first time I saw that thing, I cringed as well and decided that I didn't really need whatever I was trying to buy at the time (I was lucky that there were no social factors invoved like in your case).

the_other 4y ago

I use screen zoom, which magnifies a portion of my screen around my cursor. As a result, I miss most desktop notifications. I've turned on the thing that flashes the whole screen when they come in, but pan+scanning over to the notifications pile makes me lose context with what I was working on, so I typically ignore the flash too. I should just turn off all the notifications. There's a lot of "I turn most of them off" here. In parallel, notifications are regularly talked about as a major sticking point around web vs native apps (because Apple). If we, here, aren't using them, why are we building customer-facing tools around them?

seba_dos1 4y ago
Not that I'd advocate for using notifications, but the problem with screen zoom seems easily solvable by showing notifications on an overlay layer that's placed independently of the screen zoom.
Curzel 4y ago
Some people use them and some are very, VERY effective. Problem is, that's like for the 1% of what gets sent out. I've been working with iOS apps for 10 years or so now, I've seen apps where push notifications alone drive 20%+ of the revenue, and other projects where the opt-out rate is ~90% with an open rate of ~10% (meaning literally 99% of users ignore the notification)

dvfjsdhgfv 4y ago

Same here. A long time ago I decided I want to be the one in control of my life, not others. When I want to check my mails etc., I do it - not when someone creates a false sense of urgency. The only notifications I'm using are for phone calls from selected contacts, mainly my family.

nvilcins 4y ago
Less discussed but similarly controlling of your life are all the nasty visual tricks apps and services use to grab your attention (bright red notification bubbles) or to annoy you into submission (so you download their mobile app or upgrade to pro). I've gone the extra mile and set my phone to be entirely in grayscale, and have never been happier. (Doable on Android at least, look under "Developer Settings")

4ad 4y ago

I hate virtually all notifications, and go out of my way to disable as many as I can. My devices are in permanent DnD mode. Only exception is for phone, some IM (not all), and some mail.

ubercow13 4y ago

Yes, I use notifications from my bank and credit card so I know when someone is taking my money.

Curzel 4y ago
Ok, I guess that's another important use case! Anything else comes to your mind? I am currently working on a project where we have 90+% of opt out from push notifications with <10% open rate, and for good reasons. I am try to build an argument here for my manager haahah
sys_64738 4y ago
The CC company has a fraud dept for that. They can leave a message. It’s important but not critical so can wait twelve hours.
- ubercow13 4y ago
  I am more likely to identify a fraudulent transaction than the banks fraud department. If I didn't have these notifications on, in case they don't identify a fraudulent transaction, I'd have to do so myself by reconciling everything manually at the end of the month. That's a lot more effort for me than simply responding to unexpected transaction notifications as they happen.
nicbou 4y ago
Same here. Those notifications are great. I just disable sounds and vibrations for them.

atemerev 4y ago

I have a severe ADHD, so nearly all notifications are disabled, except for reminders, which I use heavily. This is literally a matter of survival for me. But I don’t know anyone who doesn’t switch off most of notifications.

18dhaFijHH728 4y ago

I recently migrated to a degoogled ROM and since many apps use google for push notifications, I've just been going without. And JTS honestly been quite freeing. If someone needs a quick response they can reach me on signal.

Markoff 4y ago
That's just not truth, i use phones without gapps for 5-8 years and hardly missing any notifications, both Whatsapp and Signal can push them, same with various email clients for instance Aquamail I use Business calendar pro and various other app, though I disable most of those to not be bothered. It's actually quite difficult for me to find app which could not push notifications on my no gapps phones.
- Curzel 4y ago
  Which rom are you using?
- mccorrinall 4y ago
  Calendars and emails usually don’t need push to show notifications. Email clients usually use imap streaming (if supported) or just poll your inbox every x minutes. We are specifically talking about push via GCM / Apple here. Afaik signal opens a websocket in the background if GCM push is not supported. Or at least that’s how it worked a few years ago. Google Cloud Messaging features (push) only work when you have gapps installed or use an alternative implementation like microg. I assume that whatsapp also has some kind of fallback strategy built in.
vivab0rg 4y ago
This has been my experience as well using a degoogled ROM for the first time. I feel I got so much time back. Now I'm really using my phone and not the other way around. I prefer Session for messaging and for family I ask them to reach me on Telegram FOSS.

Markoff 4y ago

So how do you get calendar reminder about important event? Same goes, how do you figure out you have new email or IM message? Does this mean you have to open calendar, email and IM app all the time to find out there is nothing new? Seems like waste of time/energy to not use notification just to show some statement. I have 24/7 DND mode with notifications only on my watch with email, calendar and IM (and on IM i mute people who bother me too much). Well also SMS, but I'm receiving only verification codes there rarely.

moreira 4y ago
Not the OP, but: 1. General awareness about what's on your plate. You don't need a reminder, you just need to know that you have meeting X at Y hours, or Z appointment on this date. 2. The difference is that you check email/IMs on your terms, which means that you decide when you want to take a break from whatever you're doing to look at and respond to anything in your inbox. If you have notifications on, your focus will keep getting taken away from whatever you're doing. Depending on what you're doing, this may or may not be important to you.
- Markoff 4y ago
  1. I can' keep general awareness with dozens of reminders each day, I'm using calendar reminders to my benefit 20+ years, so i don't have to hold these things in my head and worry about forgetting something. 2. You can check/ignore notifications on your own terms.
  - moreira 4y ago
    It sounds like your workflow works great for you, and that's great! You asked how some people to live without notifications, and I gave an example of how. That's it.
throwaway22032 4y ago
You may as well ask "how do you know if you have mail" e.g. physical mail. I see it when I go to leave the house. Maybe I hear the postbox ring. I don't need an immediate notification of e-mail, it's quite fine to batch it and see if anything interesting is there. Daily, or a few times a day, or maybe after a week, depending on what I'm doing.

MacsHeadroom 4y ago

No, I don't allow notifications for any app or function on any device. I'm highly technically competent. When I look at my older parents' phones and see the notification hell they're dealing with, I wonder how anyone ever thought notifications were a good idea?! Back when notifications meant email, IM, and updates they were fine. Now everything wants to grab your attention. So now none of them get my attention, not even calls or text messages.

matheusmoreira 4y ago
> I wonder how anyone ever thought notifications were a good idea? It is a good idea if one assumes notifications is a high signal/noise ratio communications channel where only important stuff gets sent. Of course, what happened is advertisers discovered this new exciting opportunity to spam people with their offers and drive up "engagement" so now notifications are actively hostile to users to the point they're better off disabled. Just like phone calls: there's no point in picking up the phone when 99% of all calls are automated advertiser calls.
- xigoi 4y ago
  Why are you allowing advertisers to hijack your notifications?
  - matheusmoreira 4y ago
    I'm not. I disabled notifications for everything but WhatsApp. That's my point: I couldn't trust any other app because of their spamminess so I just took away their privilege. Had they behaved themselves, I would have allowed them to notify me, but they didn't. It got to the point my phone carrier started spamming me with ads via SMS so I rooted the phone in order to disable SMS and phone call notifications. I would have uninstalled the telephony apps if I could.

ryandrake 4y ago

Do Not Disturb mode. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. No notifications, no texts, no calls, nothing at all begging for my attention. Once you've tried it, you'll never go back. I now use my devices when I want, on my own terms, and on my own schedule, not when some app company product manager or other rando people want me to use them. To me, using a computing device should be a deliberate act, with a purpose and limited duration, not some mindless response to stimulus. I'd say my quality of life has increased since making this change--I'm no longer being trained to allow (and get anxious about) arbitrary interruptions throughout the day. I feel I have more time in the day to do what I want without my device constantly begging me to "check in". I go home and visit my parents and their devices are beeping and buzzing and vibrating every 5 seconds or so. It's like living on the Las Vegas strip. I see people out in restaurants together constantly picking up their phone over and over because it's dinging at them. I can't even imagine myself living like that anymore.

MrBurnsKin 4y ago
Same for me. But I end up never getting a call and needing to check cellphone every 5 mins. What is working great for me now is to turn off everything and just leave calls on loud (like phone was originally designed)
- TacticalCoder 4y ago
  Yup that's a good solution. I want to make sure the wife can reach me or my kid's school or other parents when my kid is at a friend' place. But I hate notifications with a passion. Now I have a landline phone again (it came for free with the fiber optic plan / router so why not), so most of the time people can reach me there too.
fenesiistvan 4y ago
This looks too much for me. Your parents can't reach you on phone.
- beardedetim 4y ago
  On my wife's iPhone, they have groups that allow _certain people_ to contact them with _everything else_ being disabled. I would assume there's similar settings across devices.

rmetzler 4y ago

Pagerduty is an important notification app for me. But most other, including e-mail, are disabled or just noise.

elzbardico 4y ago

Focus mode in iOS and Mac OS was a blessing for me. Easily one of the most underrated features from apple.

Curzel 4y ago
I use sleep mode to avoid getting any IM while falling asleep, never tried focus mode, but I think I should
- koenvdb 4y ago
  It's literally the same except that you can name it differently with a nice icon that goes with it. You can also determine which apps should/shouldn't send you a notification and which persons can slip through. It can also be enabled automatically based on certain factors (like time for example).
- elzbardico 4y ago
  Focus mode is more configurable by application, contacts, and so on. So, I can still be notified about slack messages and calls for some contacts while the rest is silenced.

brainwipe 4y ago

On Android I use Do Not Disturb mode but people I really need to hear from (like my elderly mum) are put on a starred list and they get through[1]. I can then turn it off, have all the cached notifications appear, deal with them and then switch on Do Not Disturb again. 1: https://support.google.com/android/answer/9069335 https://support.google.com/android/answer/9069335

hackernewds 4y ago

There is a middle ground, and understanding it requires detangling the nature of notifications by urgency and relevance: * urgent and relevant: enabled, show me this now. examples are: IM and phone calls and earthquake monitors * urgent and non-relevant: "sale ends in 5 mins!!" * non-urgent but relevant: "your package has been delivered to your mailbox". Use an app like Daywise to BATCH these notifications to arrive at X hour intervals, so you're only checking 24/x times a day * non-urgent non-relevant: disable all these

nemacol 4y ago

I started to eliminate notifications from my life when a sound enabled banner notification from a keyboard I had installed on my android phone wanted me to know about all the great features of the keyboard app going from 3.0.1 to 3.0.2 (or whatever minor version). Anyway, I disabled everywhere except calendar alerts, alarm clock app, and a "favorites" list that is exempt from DnD in my phone. My preference is for technology to be a tool that I use when I want. It is here for me not the other way around.

subliminalpanda 4y ago

Turned them all off except for a select few app - WhatsApp, messages and the like, and even then my phone is on silent mode all the time. I only noticed that i had notifications turned on for Uber, and was notification spammed by them for some sort of promotion - disabled immediately.

jzellis 4y ago

I've disabled them on everything but my phone as much as possible. My IPad Pro has none, my MacBook has the bare minimum the system will allow, and my phone only has them for messaging, email and time-sensitive stuff (like food or Amazon delivery). First thing I do whenever I'm forced to use Slack or anything like it is to disable notifications on anything but direct messages or mentions. My time is more valuable to me than other people's desire to take it up, especially for anything that isn't urgent.

the_gipsy 4y ago

I still don't know how to make my iPhone ring only on phone calls but keep notifications silent.

jzellis 4y ago

As everyone tends to use different apps for messaging, I wish there was some sort of universal way to add contacts from any app to an "Always Send Notifications When These People Contact Me But Nobody Else" list. Like, I can mute individuals in Messenger or whatever, but I want to mute everybody but my wife and my parents back in the US in case of emergencies, whether they call me or text me or use Messenger or Whatsapp. That would obviate the need for DnD or silent modes for me, at least.

stevage 4y ago
Do you really need to be notified when your wife likes your Twitter post or your kid posts a photo to Facebook?
- xigoi 4y ago
  They said “for messaging”. Twitter and Facebook aren't messaging apps.

ndepoel 4y ago

Whenever an app or website asks me if I want notifications, I mentally substitute the word 'notification' with 'distraction'. "Do you want to receive distractions from this app?" Reads very differently and makes the correct answer much more obvious in pretty much every situation. No, no, no and no.

circlingthesun 4y ago

I had do not disturb on by accident the whole day yesterday. It was great, it made be wonder if I should enable it permanently. As the technical founder of a startup, I suspect it'll probably be to my detrimental when shit hits the fan.

tandav 4y ago

I unsubscribed from all youtube channels. I have a markdown list of links for some channels and check them manually if I want. I'm also trying to remove all newsfeeds/recommendations from everywhere.

_ptf7 4y ago
Including RSS ?

juanca 4y ago

I think the only notifications i care about are steam notifications. Otherwise, i aggressively turn them off. I expect myself to catch up on an application when I use the application. Maybe the only downside is checking my calendar, email, IM at least once a day instead of letting it inform me of events.

shmde 4y ago
Steam rarely sends notification, if they do its either their 2FA code or your wishlist items on sale.
- falcolas 4y ago
  Valve has a lot of issues, but their apps are not among them. Steam can send me notifications too. They haven’t abused that trust yet.

ryanmercer 4y ago

I for one like notifications. I want to know when I get a text message, I want to know when I get pinged on work Slack or discord, I want to know when I get a call, I want to know the second I get an email from a very specific person because they are incredibly busy and sometimes I'm waiting days for that reply. Unless I'm actively texting someone, that might me a dozen notifications a day.

DarthNebo 4y ago

Not a single website is enabled for notification apart from IM like whatsapp/telegram. Only if it is needed for work but for random ones/ecommerce never

NikolaNovak 4y ago

My phone is always on silent mode, and dnd over night (ops team has standing instructions to always phone any on-call person twice successfully before going to next person). No audio notifications at all, but vibrate is on for phone calls during the day (important work calls, family emergencies etc of course still need to reach me) No notifications on desktop, ever <shudder>. Google hangouts and ams messenger can show me pull down "notifications" (message preview) on the phone. That's not to say I'm inaccessible - I have not missed a call or important message yet. But app notifications have negative use value for me.

t6jvcereio 4y ago

Can we make a clarification? Are we talking about sound notifications? First I thought we were talking about silent notifications, like a lock screen display or a display LED etc. But if that's what we're talking about, I don't understand why people here are so annoyed by notifications. My brain filters silent notifications as well as it filters ads - I don't even see them any more. The only notifications that my brain doesn't filter are the ones with sound, and only one app in my phone can produce sound, which is the alarm.

helij 4y ago

Apart from one app that I use for messaging and video calls with my family and some old friends all other apps have notifications turned off.

safety1st 4y ago

For me personally, I feel I DO become more productive when I put the phone on silent and leave it in another room. Generally in a drawer or something. After a few minutes it becomes easier to focus on the task at hand and before I know it I've been producing for an hour and have been in that "flow" state everyone wants to be in. I've been doing this for over a year now and it's like this switch in my brain flips faster and more easily every day. I have accepted that if I want to veg out and be aimless and distracted (which occasionally is ok) I should have my phone out near me. If I don't, physical distance, the more the better.

ojkelly 4y ago

I use notifications, and alarms, and timers all the time. It’s an accessibility (as in a11y) thing. Notifications are a tool that some of us depend on, and some of us will never need. Like many people with ADHD I forgot stuff. Important things, non-important things. For so many different reasons, some reasonable other just frustrating. So when I know now I need to do something in the future, say in 3 hours (like take the clothes out of the washing machine), I’m gonna set a timer. Otherwise you could place a solid bet I’ll forget. It goes for other things too. App notifications are a critical part of my ability to stay on top of things. Snoozing is one of the most consequential features to have been added. I used google inbox for this feature alone (then de-googled after they shut it down). I use Slack’s remind me more than twice a day. The ability for a different system to act as both time based memory, and an external prompt that I need to look at something takes a huge cognitive load of me. But, this only works with apps that respect notifications. Those apps (looking at you Uber), that push marketing notifications down the same channel as the critical transactional ones are nothing but enraging. I’m sure they think it’s good for their numbers, but it breeds a discontent with the brand. Because you’ve taken a communication channel I depend on and made it unreliable. If I can’t know for sure that an Uber notification is time sensitive, I’m going to mute them and stop using the app. But for Uber it’s worse, I’ve learnt they are time sensitive (car is arriving), and when I’ve gotten the marketing notification out of the blue, I’m not in a mood to receive it because I’m wondering why I have an Uber booking, because that’s what I would expect from prior usage. I do take a fully opt in approach to notifications and I think everyone should. If you’re getting interrupted by a notification it has to be more important than what your currently doing. If not, it’s going to be a negative experience. So, notifications. They’re a powerful accessibility tool. Which means we’re all gonna configure them differently, and it means abuses the trust of uses who’ve given you permission to interrupt them is something you should treat as a liability not an acceptable cost of pumping your numbers.

pjlegato 4y ago
Setting a timer yourself to remind you of some future important event is a very different proposition than what most people mean when they say "notifications": allowing an ever-growing constellation of commercially motivated ad sales companies to initiate pings on the phone they carry around 24 hours a day and grab at their attention at any time, for resale purposes.

knorker 4y ago

Yes. My wife and I chat basically all the time, and some of it is timely questions. If the only way to get a timely response would be to call, then she'd he to call. And i would have to pick up. And maybe she's in a meeting. Maybe she's presenting something in a meeting and asking me to check if there's any problem with our wifi. She can't call me; she's busy. But things like YouTube notifications, or "ring the little bell" calls to action. No... Just... Why in the fuck would i want to do that?

gumby 4y ago

My phone, computer, and watch are on silent; I only get notifications on my watch, and almost none: I enable certain IM senders (kids, partner) and slack (certain channels only). I have an app that reminds me to take my meds through the day. Nothing else. There are task-specific notifications I would like to enable (e.g. my car is arriving) but when you enable notifications for those apps, the apps spam me at other times. So polling it is. I never enabled browser notifications.

muttled 4y ago
Facebook is one of those annoying ones. You go in, change your notifications to exactly what you want, and then shortly after Facebook creates a new notification class that's set to default "on". Few rounds of that and it's lost all notification privileges.
closetohome 4y ago
> I only get notifications on my watch This worked really well for me. My phone is always silent/DND, but I get notifications on my watch. If I want to stop getting notifications, I just take off my watch.

sys_64738 4y ago

No, as they’re a complete distraction from what YOU actually want to do. They are your own personal time waster that FB uses to keep you engaged longer. We’re only in the planet for a finite time that gets less everyday so why would I want to waste my time. You see this most impacting insecure folk who need positive engagement or constant reinforcement of the feedback loop. It’s a complete waste of time.

sys_64738 4y ago

What I would really love is a way to disable all sound notifications on Windows 10 permanently. Right now on calls I get assaulted with sound notifications from random places every 15 minutes. How do I turn this sh!t off!

Jaruzel 4y ago
You need to navigate to the classic Sound control panel, and remove all the sound files for each sound event: Settings > System > Sound > Related settings > Sound control panel Then click on the Sounds tab.
shmde 4y ago
1. Go to windows settings by clicking the big gear icon. 2. Type "Focus Assist Settings" in the search box. 3. Click the Alarms only button.

zevon 4y ago

I'm on the same boat as quite a few posters: I hate notifications and have a hard time understanding how people who pick up their devices all the time get anything done and keep their sanity. My personal phone is a device with GrapheneOS (no Play Store and no Play services, so not even the temptation to install attention grabbing crap - not that I even have social media accounts anymore). It is used mostly for audiobooks, music, navigation, phone calls, as a device for notetaking, information gathering / referencing - and to have a backup of my most important data near me at all times. The only app I allow notifications on this device for is the one messenger I have installed - which I only use to chat with my partner, a group chat with some of my oldest friends and the very occasinal message to other contacts (almost exclusively to coordinate some real-world activity). At the beginning of my work day, I usually chuck the personal phone in my backpack and only remember to take it out in the evening when I usually have a call with my partner - or when I'd like to listen to some music during a break. If there is an emergency, my partner, my parents, etc. know to call me at work. My work phone is a bit different. I have it with me at all times when I'm working and have notifications enabled for Matrix/Element (which we use as our team messenger) and for the calendar. Not E-Mail, though. I check that when I'm good and ready. My partner has a permanent exception to Do Not Disturb mode on both my phones. On my computers, it's Do Not Disturb / disable notifications all the way. If I want to be informed about stuff, I'll keep the respective app open. During a normal work day, for example, I have Element, Calendar and E-Mail open on a second monitor for glanceability - and I even close those apps depending on the kind of work I'm doing. Edit: I forgot: I also have my government's disaster warning app installed on my phones and it's allowed notifications - for obvious reasons.

f0e4c2f7 4y ago

I started doing this after reading Cal Newport's Deep Work. Had a few other similar suggestions I use to this day.

ghusto 4y ago

I tell colleagues that Slack is also blocked, both on desktop and my phone. I check it periodically, about every hour or two. "But what if I need you for something important?!" There's this thing called a phone "Well, it's not _that_ important ... I guess" Amazing how rationality has time to settle in when we stop being impulsive.

Angostura 4y ago

So no notifications while you are at work, on work devices? Hmmm.

VyseofArcadia 4y ago

I _really_ wish Slack had more fine-grained notification controls. I can ignore ~90% of my Slack notifications, but I have a boss that likes to start huddles at random times with no warning. If I could either filter notifications by person or just get notifications for huddles and calls only, that would be perfect. I've got every other notification quashed. Calls, IMs from close friends and family, that's all I get on my personal devices. If only I could dial down Slack on my work machine.

flkiwi 4y ago

I just unsubscribed from Marvel Unlimited (and deleted the app) because they don't provide any mechanism for disabling marketing notifications ("Here's an issue of something you've never read!") vs. functional notifications ("Here's an issue of something you've starred!") vs. transactional notifications ("Your subscription is coming up for renewal!"). I understand that, for some people, new issue notifications are a plus, but not giving us a chance to filter out that noise is abusive. It's my phone not your billboard. Anyway, thanks to this thread I went back and checked my notifications settings and a surprising number of them were set not only to allow immediate notifications, but also to "announce" their notifications. Turned all those off.

closetohome 4y ago
I've uninstalled a number of apps for doing that. Once they start mixing spam with relevant notifications -- especially if it's an app that depends on relevant notifications -- I'm out.
- r2_pilot 4y ago
  Sometimes you can't uninstall apps, like Samsung's junk and Bixby notifications that I have exactly negative-infinity use for. I recently discovered an app called Buzzkill[Android] that lets you manage notifications EXTREMELY GRANULARLY and how to (automatically) respond to them, such as dismiss them sight-unseen or perform another action. It is a paid app but cheap, does what it says on the tin, and has been a personal QoL upgrade.

jasonpeacock 4y ago

Something great I read once: Every time you see 'notifications', replace with the word 'interruptions'. It really puts it into perspective. I have notifications enabled only for a select few people (family), everything is silenced. If you need me, leave a voicemail or text, and I'll see it when I next check for it. Granted, I still check fairly often, but it's when I want to check.

jasomill 4y ago

1. Calls/FaceTime/SMS/iMessage (banners and sounds, Mac and iPhone). 2. Calendar reminders (banners only, Mac and iPhone). 3. A bespoke "hello world" iOS app I threw together and installed to enable ad hoc notifications to myself from anywhere via a similarly trivial Web API (banners and sounds, iPhone only). 4. LaunchControl[1] on the Mac has a neat feature that sends a notification whenever a launchd item is added or removed. This is nice to know, and generally only triggers when apps are installed or updated, and on app launch and quit for a few apps like VMware Fusion that only keep their related launchd items loaded while running (banners only, Mac only). Everything else gets turned off with extreme prejudice. [1] https://soma-zone.com/LaunchControl/ https://soma-zone.com/LaunchControl/

thenerdhead 4y ago

Why stop at notifications? https://jondouglas.dev/balance-your-digital-well-being/ https://jondouglas.dev/balance-your-digital-well-being/ https://jondouglas.dev/focus-is-a-superpower/ https://jondouglas.dev/focus-is-a-superpower/ https://jondouglas.dev/fast-brain-slow-mind/ https://jondouglas.dev/fast-brain-slow-mind/ I try to replace my artificial notifications with natural/organic notifications where possible. The only notifications on my phone that I allow are phone calls/texts from certain numbers. I don't want to constantly be in a state of "alertness". I seek serenity from digital devices on a daily basis.

rasse 4y ago

- I allow selective notifications, but I've disabled all sound and vibrations from them (except for a couple critical contacts on IM). - Absolutely no notifications for email. - All calls come through. Haven't gotten a spam call in years. For me, this setup allows for a good balance of instantly knowing what's up when checking the phone but without being disturbed.

RGamma 4y ago

Notifications I get: IM/SMS/Email, calendar events, train delays (when applicable), payment, catastrophe alert (most of them silent). The rest I consider spam. And notification spam is the number one issue I see with devices I manage for relatives, etc ("how do I turn this off, I don't know where that comes from, blabla"), which is an improvement over the PC era with its much more horrible phenomena.

zenwell 4y ago

Glad you posted this, it is something for me to think about. I'm building a wellness mobile app and I make use of mobile notifications for certain reminders. I am building the app using things that worked for me, and one of those things was notification reminders. I don't think I've ever set up YouTube bell, and I'm usually Do Not Disturb mode. Most of the time, I "miss" my reminders but when I pull down from the top I see what I missed and would act upon them. One of the challenges for me is that I tend to sometimes get too focused (or completely side-tracked sometimes) and during these times I miss my self-care time.

penguin_booze 4y ago

I rarely mess with notifications. Instead, I go online only when I want to, that too, for maybe 5 or 10 minutes at a stretch. I'm offline by default. Anything urgent shall reach me the old school way: either call or text. I admit disruption when I want to.

lamontcg 4y ago

I'm not quite zero notifications, but I've never installed work e-mail/calendar/slack on my phone. Work notifications are slack direct DMs on my laptop/desktop only. And I sort of condition people to understand that I'm the person who gets things done and I might not respond to you immediately. If you think you desperately need to be ADHD constantly helping people out immediately with every request they have and this is the way to get forward in your career, you might want to reconsider that. You turn into sort of the helpdesk guy. You can still be the person that does all the extraordinarily hard problems that nobody else can solve, and deliver on the big features, without being the person who is there for instantly answering questions 24/7. If you open yourself up to being ADHD constantly you'll probably never get anything done through being interrupted constantly and you may find yourself stuck at a lower technical level than you want to progress to. Although if you want a management job this is probably the path you want to take.

kradeelav 4y ago

Also zero notifications on any and all hardware platforms. All calls/texts are set on silent/Do Not Disturb, with the whitelist allowing a total of five people: my parents, grandma, boss, and one or two others of similar importance. Anything important - they'll reach one of those five people. Anything else, I'll get to within a few days via email. Cannot imagine living with more stimulation ... already feel like i have too much!

deleted 4y ago

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freedude 4y ago

I guess each of us must ask and answer. Is this a tool or a trap? A tool is used when I need it. A trap won't let go of me.

oshirisuki 4y ago

I have notifications for long(ish) tasks I run on the command line, I get an ephemeral popup dialog window saying that the task is done, other than that, only calls/texts in my phone, and even those, only from some contacts (texts, for calls I do get the sound on every call)

psyclobe 4y ago

Amen

thekingofrome 4y ago

The only notification I've been getting in the last 2+ years is calls. As for everything else, I just open the app/program when I want to check what's there. It means I check my messages when I have a moment free, not when my phone demands it. If anything is urgent then someone can call me. I always hated pop up notifications and my phone buzzing or making noise, it feels so intrusive as well as being distracting

perryizgr8 4y ago

Browser notifications are the first thing I disable on any laptop, phone or tablet. Absolutely no legitimate use for those. Abused heavily by all sorts of sites, and enabled by default on phones. It's disgusting. They are why I hate the entire Google suite of "apps" that run inside a browser tab.

tarunmuvvala 4y ago

Same here,apart from notifications I am now limiting time on Youtube, twitter and other limitless scrolling site. We need a review system for this. I check how many times I unlock my phone in a day and it ranges from 80-120.I wish to reduce this and do more deep work.

chatmasta 4y ago

Same. I also haven’t had email installed on my phone since 2012. It was such a life improvement that I can distinctly remember the day when I removed it. Related: “inbox zero” is a trap. Why would you surrender your willpower to anyone who can reach your inbox?