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I’ve never used an android phone so I’m curious… isn’t the categorization of such notifications totally up to the developer? I don’t see any other way it could

I’ve never used an android phone so I’m curious… isn’t the categorization of such notifications totally up to the developer? I don’t see any other way it could work unless the OS is doing some ML on the notifications. If I’m an app developer I could just lie and say all my marketing trash notifications are actually time sensitive/important so that you’ll still receive them. Apple has a similar thing and it’s only a soft policy (that an app reviewer would have to catch) that prevents developers from abusing it. If it really is up to the app developer to categorize their notifications so that you can disable categories, then it sounds like it’s just a simplified way of managing individual apps’ notification preferences, no? (Not that that’s a bad thing, I wish iOS had this.)

nmussy 2y ago
It is up to the developers, and most of them play ball from what I've seen. What I can tell you from a user perspective is that if they don't categorize their notifications properly, I will at the very least block all their notifications, or uninstall and look for an alternative app if possible. Maybe a developer can weigh in on the incentives this behavior creates, in terms of lost engagement or userbase
ignoramous 2y ago
> I’ve never used an android phone so I’m curious… isn’t the categorization of such notifications totally up to the developer Yes, but any popular app will have implemented it. > If I’m an app developer I could just lie and say all my marketing trash notifications are actually time sensitive/important so that you’ll still receive them In those cases, your users would come to distrust your app. I reckon, only a negligible percentage of 3b Android users ever turn any notification off. More likely that some have learnt to ignore them altogether (banner blindness); swipe left to dismiss those isn't exactly as hostile as cookie banners are. Or, worse uninstall your "misbehaving" app (some are annoyed by notifications).
bruh2 2y ago
It's up to app developers, and some of them indeed just straight up lie with their categorization. Moovit and all dating apps come to mind. They implemented _some_ categories, but none useful – nothing that lets you separate wheat from the chaff

nmussy 2y ago

It is up to the developers, and most of them play ball from what I've seen. What I can tell you from a user perspective is that if they don't categorize their notifications properly, I will at the very least block all their notifications, or uninstall and look for an alternative app if possible. Maybe a developer can weigh in on the incentives this behavior creates, in terms of lost engagement or userbase

ignoramous 2y ago

> I’ve never used an android phone so I’m curious… isn’t the categorization of such notifications totally up to the developer Yes, but any popular app will have implemented it. > If I’m an app developer I could just lie and say all my marketing trash notifications are actually time sensitive/important so that you’ll still receive them In those cases, your users would come to distrust your app. I reckon, only a negligible percentage of 3b Android users ever turn any notification off. More likely that some have learnt to ignore them altogether (banner blindness); swipe left to dismiss those isn't exactly as hostile as cookie banners are. Or, worse uninstall your "misbehaving" app (some are annoyed by notifications).

bruh2 2y ago

It's up to app developers, and some of them indeed just straight up lie with their categorization. Moovit and all dating apps come to mind. They implemented _some_ categories, but none useful – nothing that lets you separate wheat from the chaff