[bbitmaster]

I'm just going to take a moment here to vent about the nuisance it has become for me to deal with smartphone app notifications.

It isn't just facebook, although facebook is probably the worst. I live in a city and I pretty much need a smartphone to do anything, but it has become so annoying dealing with the myriad of notifications and advertisements from random apps, and trying to find settings to disable everything.

90% of the time when my phone buzzes it's because sprig is telling me I need to eat dinner. Messenger is telling me it's someone's birthday. Yelp is trying to tell me there's popular a new spot nearby. Hell, even youtube was sending me recommended videos and touching the notification caused this random video to immediately play, using mobile data.

It is getting out of hand. You have to figure out how to disable this stuff in each app independently, sometimes digging through confusing options menus looking for buried settings. Sometimes I haven't even found a way.

This has taught me to usually ignore my phone, but it's especially annoying if I'm waiting for an important e-mail or text. My smartphone has just become an advertisement line sending bullshit that I don't care about, that I have to wade through to get to important stuff.

Am I the only one? Is there a solution to this?

[Pxtl]

Uninstall the apps and give them a bad star rating. Yelp especially should be familiar with this process.

The Facebook Mobile website issues quite good. Unfortunately no messenger support, but my circle of friends aren't messenger people.

[chinathrow]

You can still send messages over https://mbasic.facebook.com.

[ysavir]

There's a very simple solution: Uninstall the apps. I promise you, it's still very easy do things without them.

But if you're looking for a way to get free services from these companies, I got bad news. Nothing is free.

[int_19h]

In Android, you can easily disable all notifications for any particular app.

Settings -> Notifications -> {app} -> Block All

[Consultant32452]

It's even easier than that. Instead of sliding the notification off the screen, slide it ever so slightly to the right. It displays this little gear thing, and you can block all notifications for that app from right there. I have a stock Nexus phone so YMMV.

[shshhdhs]

It's roughly the same in iOS. I have almost every app notification disabled. I'll just check them when I check them, rather than getting distracted.

[stevenh]

For me, it's under:

Settings -> Sound & notification -> Manage app notifications

This took me several minutes to figure out because I had a mental blind spot to "Sound & notifications" due to the fact that the option has a speaker/volume icon. I made the mistake of trusting the icon as a sincere shortcut for understanding the text it's supposed to represent.

[bbitmaster]

This is just what I was looking for, surprised I didn't find it already. Thanks.

[NoGravitas]

In Android 5 or higher, you can simply deny notification permissions to the app by long-pressing on any notification until it changes to the app icon and name of the app, then pressing again.

[StavrosK]

You can also press and hold for half a second and slowly swipe right on the notification to get a cog icon that will let you ban the app.

[sAbakumoff]

exactly. I recently switched to android phone and it's one of the most cool features.

[mattnewton]

iOS has always had this feature, in the settings > notifications menu.

[sAbakumoff]

Sure, but I switched from Windows 8 Phone, never used iOS :) Windows didn't bother me with the notification at all as far as I recall!

[ThrustVectoring]

When you get a notification, don't pause it or make it temporarily go away. Do whatever it takes to make that not happen again. It's like unsubscribing or marking emails as spam, rather than just archiving.

[tushar-r]

>Am I the only one? Is there a solution to this?

No. Disable notifications. Both iOS and Android have this configurable.

[arca_vorago]

The solution is the have a GNU phone, with open source software and firmware all the way down the stack. There it is, it's not a popular opnion around here, or especially within the government ("mah backdoors!"), but the fact of the matter is there is no reason I shouldn't be able to have full granular access control over any program on my phone or computer, down to root.

I am increasingly convinced that RMS was/is a man so far ahead of his time that he was bound to be misunderstood, misconstrued, and lambasted for it, but in the end I think he is right.

Either the user controls the program or the program controls the user. The problem here is not the app, but the platform the app is on. Android isn't much better. Google had a good chance to put linux on phones for everyone, but had to go and proprietarize and BSDize the fuck out of it until it became almost impossible to have root on some phones. I'm sure In-Q-Tel and the after-sex smoking level of coziness google has with the gov doesn't factor into that though /s.

When the totalitarian dystopia hits, people who have learned how to deal with the imperfections and quirks of FOSS ecosystems will be the new freedom fighters, ahead of the game.

[zepto]

You should also consider acquiring some off-grid land where you can build a shelter stocked with MREs, ammunition, and guns. Make sure also to keep some of your saving in physical gold that you keep in your possession, and don't wear any hats you didn't make yourself...

[brokenmasonjars]

I saw this from a mile away. Deactivated my account in 2007. Had twitter for a bit then knocked that out too, linkedin I think I had for a day before I noped out of that. Maybe it's just that I hate social media. I also generally hate apps other than browsers. I use to have an app for my brokerage and I just hated it; I like trading on my 8 screen beast. Which is one reason why after playing with Robinhood I noped out of that too since at least when I had it, it was for mobile only.

I use my iphone for reading news sites, looking at raw data while I'm out waiting for..say food or whatever. Google/duckduckgo I use for basic searches sure. I don't use weather's app, I prefer weather.gov which when accessing via iphone is a mobile site not an app.

I don't suspect people going this way in mass, but I could see it catching on so there might be a way to hedge towards that.

[fit2rule]

I agree with you, its a total and utter mess.

I am constantly picking up my phone (iOS) to make a call or look something up, placing my thumb over the home button, and realizing before its too late that there are some kind of messages/notifications on the lock screen that I wasn't alerted to, previously, while the phone was locked. Its too late because the screen unlocks, but no matter where I go I am never able to re-locate those messages. I just see them, get a clue that there are notifications, but they are nowhere to be found - not in the notifications screen (apparently designed for this purpose), nor in any app with badge indicators, or whatever. Its gotten so bad that I refer to these as 'ghost notifications', and I'll never know what they were.

So I think its just a complete cockup, UI-wise.

[sulam]

I don't give apps notification privs.

[sverige]

The solution is to delete the apps. I get enough notifications from texts and emails.

[jlarocco]

Sounds like a self-imposed problem. Why do you "need" a smart phone because you live in a city? A lot of people would disagree with you.

Anyway, I don't know about Android, but it's easy to turn off notifications in iOS, and the notification settings for every app are all in one section of the global phone settings:

https://cdn1.tekrevue.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/disable...

[atomical]

I needed a smart phone when I moved to the city for maps and train schedules. At the time I moved it was just after a snow storm and hunting for parking was very difficult. I used the maps and GPS functionality to guide me back into the area I lived when I strayed too far. It definitely helped with the stress.

[lphnull]

Long press on each notification.

This will take you to where you can disable notifications for that specific app.

[incompatible]

I'm puzzled by the idea of "I live in a city and I pretty much need a smartphone to do anything". I also live in a city (albeit a small one) and rarely even switch on my smartphone. What are some of the things that you can't do without one? The only thing I can guess offhand is Uber, but I walk everywhere.

[jacquesm]

> Am I the only one?

Definitely not.

> Is there a solution to this?

Nokia Asha.

[enjo]

I'm assuming your on an iPhone? Cause Android handles this much much much better.

[swift]

They both offer pretty much the same features for managing notifications.