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Can we also talk about the practice of mass sending push notifications in mobile apps, and usually nonsensical cringely cute ones at that? The whole notion is

Can we also talk about the practice of mass sending push notifications in mobile apps, and usually nonsensical cringely cute ones at that? The whole notion is absurd to me. A notification is supposed to notify you that something happened. But in these cases nothing has actually happened. All these notifications are, are thinly veiled attempts to manipulate you into opening the app to then try to shove more things into you for the benefit of the company that made the app. I'm generally very stingy with notification permissions, so on the rare occasion that one of these does slip through, it makes me furious. It feels like an insult to my dignity as a human being.

urbandw311er 2y ago
Amen. What really pisses me off is that there are certain apps where I really have to enable notifications like Uber so I don’t miss my ride, but then they abuse that privilege and start pushing “special offers” etc to me with no way to selectively turn these off. Or else, if there IS a subcategory to turn off then they just invent a new subcategory a few months after I’ve opted out, and auto opt me into that instead. eg I opt out of “marketing notifications” and then “relevant suggestions” is created. I’m looking at you, Google Maps.
- grishka 2y ago
  Android has notification categories ("channels" as they're called in the API) that can be individually disabled. But it's on the app developers to assign the right one to their notifications. Many apps do honestly do it and do have separate categories for their marketing spam, but some make just one channel called something like "Miscellaneous" that includes everything all at once.
- pests 2y ago
  > Or else, if there IS a subcategory to turn off then they just invent a new subcategory a few months after I’ve opted out, and auto opt me into that instead. Nextdoor is the worst for this. Their UI to disable them also requires clicking into 15 different groupings of notification and turning off each type one by one. I always find myself getting random Nextdoor marketing spam and sure enough they've added a new category and opted me in.
- southernplaces7 2y ago
  >What really pisses me off is that there are certain apps where I really have to enable notifications like Uber Really though? I have multiple necessary apps (and some I don't really need) on my phone and universally just cut off all their notifications of all kinds, because fuck that shit. If, as per your example, I need to know in some context when a certain app is going to remind me of something genuinely necessary/ueful soon, I just check it often while waiting without enabling notifications. If we're talking about your average Uber, that's a few minutes of checking periodically until you get what you want. A bit tedious? Sure, but only for a few minutes here and there, vs letting these scummy little dark patterns hassle you all the time with their notification turds.
endemic 2y ago
IIRC it's against Apple's guidelines to use push notifications for engagement/spam; not that that ever stopped anyone. https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guidelines/managing-notifications#Sending-marketing-notifications https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guideline...
- pseudalopex 2y ago
  Apple use push notifications for spam.
  - endemic 2y ago
    Rules for thee, not for me!

urbandw311er 2y ago

Amen. What really pisses me off is that there are certain apps where I really have to enable notifications like Uber so I don’t miss my ride, but then they abuse that privilege and start pushing “special offers” etc to me with no way to selectively turn these off. Or else, if there IS a subcategory to turn off then they just invent a new subcategory a few months after I’ve opted out, and auto opt me into that instead. eg I opt out of “marketing notifications” and then “relevant suggestions” is created. I’m looking at you, Google Maps.

grishka 2y ago
Android has notification categories ("channels" as they're called in the API) that can be individually disabled. But it's on the app developers to assign the right one to their notifications. Many apps do honestly do it and do have separate categories for their marketing spam, but some make just one channel called something like "Miscellaneous" that includes everything all at once.
pests 2y ago
> Or else, if there IS a subcategory to turn off then they just invent a new subcategory a few months after I’ve opted out, and auto opt me into that instead. Nextdoor is the worst for this. Their UI to disable them also requires clicking into 15 different groupings of notification and turning off each type one by one. I always find myself getting random Nextdoor marketing spam and sure enough they've added a new category and opted me in.
southernplaces7 2y ago
>What really pisses me off is that there are certain apps where I really have to enable notifications like Uber Really though? I have multiple necessary apps (and some I don't really need) on my phone and universally just cut off all their notifications of all kinds, because fuck that shit. If, as per your example, I need to know in some context when a certain app is going to remind me of something genuinely necessary/ueful soon, I just check it often while waiting without enabling notifications. If we're talking about your average Uber, that's a few minutes of checking periodically until you get what you want. A bit tedious? Sure, but only for a few minutes here and there, vs letting these scummy little dark patterns hassle you all the time with their notification turds.

endemic 2y ago

IIRC it's against Apple's guidelines to use push notifications for engagement/spam; not that that ever stopped anyone. https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guidelines/managing-notifications#Sending-marketing-notifications https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guideline...

pseudalopex 2y ago
Apple use push notifications for spam.
- endemic 2y ago
  Rules for thee, not for me!