5 ms·

I can't recall a time, not even once, when I found pushnotifs in a browser useful or even desirable. Even on my phone I block 99% of them because it's all just

I can't recall a time, not even once, when I found pushnotifs in a browser useful or even desirable. Even on my phone I block 99% of them because it's all just noise.

astura 4y ago
I enable them for chat apps.
shanebellone 4y ago
"I can't recall a time, not even once, when I found pushnotifs in a browser useful or even desirable." Facts! It always feels intrusive. I have them blocked by default on mobile and desktop. However, I also have all notifications on my phone disabled as well as permanent do not disturb mode. Property should not make demands for attention.
josephg 4y ago
Yeah. I set my web browsers to auto-reject requests to enable notifications from web pages. Too many random news sites and things ask, and I never want notifications from any of the websites I visit. Web notifications are a hard no for me.
tootie 4y ago
My thought would be using it for business software, not consumers. Like service desk software or anything that currently relies on app notifications or emails. This would be simpler.
andrewaylett 4y ago
You are not me, obviously -- because I do find them useful. Not as often as many sites would like me to, but Firefox won't keep interrupting me after the first time I visit a site. Most of my phone notifications come in silently, and I won't tolerate spammy notifications, but I do want notifications for low priority/async operations so that I don't need to remember to check each app for anything actionable: the SRE book talks about "page", "ticket", and "log" messages; a noisy notification is a "page", a silent one is a "ticket", and if I want to see "log"-type messages then I can check the relevant app.
HWR_14 4y ago
I do recall one time. But it was a small software project that exclusively benefited me and some friends and family and never got released to the general public. I got flak because it couldn't be run on iOS with notifications. But everyone is in front of a computer all the time anyway, so they just used a desktop browser.
rjh29 4y ago
Most of the time the app is pushing them on you for engagement (youtube: LOOK NEW VIDEO!). But for important chats with important people, I sometimes want a notification when they send me a message.
- Dalewyn 4y ago
  If someone needs to contact me urgently, they should call me. I never treat text communications as real-time communications, and I'm not about to start now.
  - dspillett 4y ago
    Same here, but we are not everybody and the world needs to implement features for people other than us as well as those we want.
    - saurik 4y ago
      Yeah: I largely think phone calls are stupid, have been using text communication since I was a kid 30 years ago--on BBS systems originally!--and you have no hope of reaching me in a timely manner if you call me... but I'm not going to use that as a reason to make it harder for other people to use phone calls if they want them, even if I see no reason for synchronous communication to exist: you do you... but you also have to let me do me or you frankly don't deserve to be able to do you. "I don't find this useful" is only a reason to prevent other people from being able to have the feature if you are an authoritarian asshole, plain and simple :/. If you don't like aspects of feature, you know what? You should get to turn it off... and, it turns out, you can.
      - EMM_386 4y ago
        > on BBS systems originally! I'll never forget being awoken because someone felt the need to page the SysOp at 2 AM on the Compaq laptop running my BBS in my closet.
  - Tepix 4y ago
corobo 4y ago
Slack and similar are the only legit use case I can think of (much prefer it in a pinned tab than separate app)
- toastal 4y ago
  I won't trust these proprietary Electron-based apps outside the browser sandbox either.
TrianguloY 4y ago
I have them for the email pinned tab...but that's basically it.
- jimmaswell 4y ago
  I found recently you can add your Google account to Windows 10/11 and get integration with the calendar and email apps. Fairly useful.
- Lex-2008 4y ago
  same here: email and chat are allowed, others are blocked.
Yoric 4y ago
If you have an IM application working in the browser, e.g. Element/Matrix.
mhitza 4y ago
For me it'd be useful if most service status pages had the option to subscribe to push notifications when a service is down.
mrtksn 4y ago
On desktop, I kind of use reddit and Twitter notifications but nothing else. The problem with notifications is the hyper competitive attention market on the web, which pushes the websites "optimize" notifications for eyeballs instead of UX. Web notifications are dead as the web itself. Thankfully, Apple sensibly implemented the notifications through requiring the website be added on home screen. Let's see if we end up with websites forcing people save it to the homescreen to "read the rest of the article". As long as the web "content" is a bait and the content is the adds there wouldn't anything new on the web. Wast majority of the mobile usage is on Android and we haven't seen the golden age of mobile web apps, I don't think it will change with Apple embracing the notifications. Could be good for non-kosher apps but the problem with that is the centralised nature of push notifications delivery. So if they want your web app killed, they can just kill it by not providing you the service.
nicoburns 4y ago
Do you find them useful for apps? Email? Messaging apps? Calendar? Taxi apps notifying you when the taxi arrives? All of those apps can now be implemented as cross-platform web apps.
- noduerme 4y ago
  No, no, no, no, no and also... no. and before you whine about taxis, it only takes a half second to open the app. If you need a ding on your phone you should probably walk home.
- JustSomeNobody 4y ago
  On my laptop? While I'm working? Hell no. No, no, no, and never. I am a little (just a little) more tolerant on my phone.
- tomjen3 4y ago
  Calendar is acceptable because I set each and every notification. An taxi app might be acceptable because it has real world usage, but I imagine it would be abused pretty heavily with "first mile is free if you take a taxi tonight". Email and messaging apps should not notify me. I will open them if/when I have the time and batch process them. My ability to concentrate is already under enough assult and doesn't need to be harmed further, and while I am in favour of each person doing what they want, from a societal point of view we need way fewer distractions, not more.
- jacquesm 4y ago
  Sure. But we all know that even if the only reason it exists is because of useful applications that the marketing departments will abuse it, because to them 'push' translates into 'your undivided attention'. That's why every fifth website wants you to enable this - and then good luck if you want to disable it again.
  - paulmeinshausen 4y ago
    I used to think this. Then I learned/realised how absolutely crappy the tooling available to those marketing departments is. The solution is for push to not be a manually run operation, it has to be run entirely by a kind of hybrid reinforcement learning system that can automatically manage the explore/exploit tradeoff in order to learn a person's preferences and then update its assessment as those preferences change over time.

I can't recall a time, not even once, when I found pushnotifs in a browser useful or even desirable. Even on my phone I block 99% of them because it's all just noise.

astura 4y ago

I enable them for chat apps.

shanebellone 4y ago

"I can't recall a time, not even once, when I found pushnotifs in a browser useful or even desirable." Facts! It always feels intrusive. I have them blocked by default on mobile and desktop. However, I also have all notifications on my phone disabled as well as permanent do not disturb mode. Property should not make demands for attention.

josephg 4y ago

Yeah. I set my web browsers to auto-reject requests to enable notifications from web pages. Too many random news sites and things ask, and I never want notifications from any of the websites I visit. Web notifications are a hard no for me.

tootie 4y ago

My thought would be using it for business software, not consumers. Like service desk software or anything that currently relies on app notifications or emails. This would be simpler.

andrewaylett 4y ago

You are not me, obviously -- because I do find them useful. Not as often as many sites would like me to, but Firefox won't keep interrupting me after the first time I visit a site. Most of my phone notifications come in silently, and I won't tolerate spammy notifications, but I do want notifications for low priority/async operations so that I don't need to remember to check each app for anything actionable: the SRE book talks about "page", "ticket", and "log" messages; a noisy notification is a "page", a silent one is a "ticket", and if I want to see "log"-type messages then I can check the relevant app.

HWR_14 4y ago

I do recall one time. But it was a small software project that exclusively benefited me and some friends and family and never got released to the general public. I got flak because it couldn't be run on iOS with notifications. But everyone is in front of a computer all the time anyway, so they just used a desktop browser.

rjh29 4y ago

Most of the time the app is pushing them on you for engagement (youtube: LOOK NEW VIDEO!). But for important chats with important people, I sometimes want a notification when they send me a message.

Dalewyn 4y ago
If someone needs to contact me urgently, they should call me. I never treat text communications as real-time communications, and I'm not about to start now.
- dspillett 4y ago
  Same here, but we are not everybody and the world needs to implement features for people other than us as well as those we want.
  - saurik 4y ago
    Yeah: I largely think phone calls are stupid, have been using text communication since I was a kid 30 years ago--on BBS systems originally!--and you have no hope of reaching me in a timely manner if you call me... but I'm not going to use that as a reason to make it harder for other people to use phone calls if they want them, even if I see no reason for synchronous communication to exist: you do you... but you also have to let me do me or you frankly don't deserve to be able to do you. "I don't find this useful" is only a reason to prevent other people from being able to have the feature if you are an authoritarian asshole, plain and simple :/. If you don't like aspects of feature, you know what? You should get to turn it off... and, it turns out, you can.
    - EMM_386 4y ago
      > on BBS systems originally! I'll never forget being awoken because someone felt the need to page the SysOp at 2 AM on the Compaq laptop running my BBS in my closet.
- Tepix 4y ago

corobo 4y ago

Slack and similar are the only legit use case I can think of (much prefer it in a pinned tab than separate app)

toastal 4y ago
I won't trust these proprietary Electron-based apps outside the browser sandbox either.

TrianguloY 4y ago

I have them for the email pinned tab...but that's basically it.

jimmaswell 4y ago
I found recently you can add your Google account to Windows 10/11 and get integration with the calendar and email apps. Fairly useful.
Lex-2008 4y ago
same here: email and chat are allowed, others are blocked.

Yoric 4y ago

If you have an IM application working in the browser, e.g. Element/Matrix.

mhitza 4y ago

For me it'd be useful if most service status pages had the option to subscribe to push notifications when a service is down.

mrtksn 4y ago

On desktop, I kind of use reddit and Twitter notifications but nothing else. The problem with notifications is the hyper competitive attention market on the web, which pushes the websites "optimize" notifications for eyeballs instead of UX. Web notifications are dead as the web itself. Thankfully, Apple sensibly implemented the notifications through requiring the website be added on home screen. Let's see if we end up with websites forcing people save it to the homescreen to "read the rest of the article". As long as the web "content" is a bait and the content is the adds there wouldn't anything new on the web. Wast majority of the mobile usage is on Android and we haven't seen the golden age of mobile web apps, I don't think it will change with Apple embracing the notifications. Could be good for non-kosher apps but the problem with that is the centralised nature of push notifications delivery. So if they want your web app killed, they can just kill it by not providing you the service.

nicoburns 4y ago

Do you find them useful for apps? Email? Messaging apps? Calendar? Taxi apps notifying you when the taxi arrives? All of those apps can now be implemented as cross-platform web apps.

noduerme 4y ago
No, no, no, no, no and also... no. and before you whine about taxis, it only takes a half second to open the app. If you need a ding on your phone you should probably walk home.
JustSomeNobody 4y ago
On my laptop? While I'm working? Hell no. No, no, no, and never. I am a little (just a little) more tolerant on my phone.
tomjen3 4y ago
Calendar is acceptable because I set each and every notification. An taxi app might be acceptable because it has real world usage, but I imagine it would be abused pretty heavily with "first mile is free if you take a taxi tonight". Email and messaging apps should not notify me. I will open them if/when I have the time and batch process them. My ability to concentrate is already under enough assult and doesn't need to be harmed further, and while I am in favour of each person doing what they want, from a societal point of view we need way fewer distractions, not more.
jacquesm 4y ago
Sure. But we all know that even if the only reason it exists is because of useful applications that the marketing departments will abuse it, because to them 'push' translates into 'your undivided attention'. That's why every fifth website wants you to enable this - and then good luck if you want to disable it again.
- paulmeinshausen 4y ago
  I used to think this. Then I learned/realised how absolutely crappy the tooling available to those marketing departments is. The solution is for push to not be a manually run operation, it has to be run entirely by a kind of hybrid reinforcement learning system that can automatically manage the explore/exploit tradeoff in order to learn a person's preferences and then update its assessment as those preferences change over time.