[r00fus]

> Actually, to be fair, Android may be worse these days, I've had to start turning off all notifications for apps like Facebook

Either I'm some sort of privacy nut, completely boring or my macOS/iOS combo works out well but I simply get so few alerts that I just use my devices less than a couple of years ago.

Both Apple platforms allow you to essentially go into "silence" mode. Android/Windows seem to be built to spam you (hey you can opt out! but we'll reset those options on updates - for you who FOMO).

[csydas]

Honestly, the control over how everything is show with macOS is a lot better than it is in Windows (imo). Control over where the notifications are, very clear and easy "on/off" for each application (I would prefer the default was off, but no matter), and decent controls over the DnD mode.

The only complaint I have with the Notification settings on macOS is that you have to use a terminal command to alter the length of time a notification is present, which should be a slider in the preference pane as well.

Compared to the current Windows option and Android, it's fairly obnoxious, with notification settings being across different Control Panels (Windows and the Application's own) and the notifications often obscuring parts of the system. Similar to macOS, there isn't a clear way of giving granular control over the time a notification is live (I'm sure it's there, but it's also frustrating this isn't just a slider or a place to enter a value) Too much of the Windows and Android control seems to just be "on/off", with little granularity, and at least with my Android phone, the granularity doesn't seem to work right when you do use it. (Setting up a "Favorites" group of people and adding them to the exceptions for DnD mode doesn't seem to matter for any non-core applications on the phone, even though these applications pull from the same contact list)

The difference for me is just the care and attention on the macOS side of things. Part of me wonders if Apple didn't just watch what Growl did right and then implement it, but regardless some of the design guides are clear: Control over each application, the system's UI space is sacrosanct, respect user privacy in situations where their screen might be exposed, etc.

On Windows, it just seems to be another afterthought to the system.

[hungerstrike]

> Control over where the notifications are, very clear and easy "on/off" for each application...

This is literally the same exact control that Windows gives you. You can turn off all notifications or each app individually.

Are you sure you know what you're talking about?

[SwellJoe]

Android has a "Do Not Disturb" mode, and it works well enough, but it is all or nothing. There are notifications I want. I want to know when one of my co-workers needs my involvement, for example, and I want to know when a friend is trying to reach me on facebook messenger. I don't want to know when 13 of my friends are "interested in events in your area", which facebook has decided is worthy of my notifications bar.

So, the apps I don't absolutely need to hear from get disabled completely, even though there are notifications I would welcome from those apps. facebook is perhaps the most annoying because I know they have the ability in-house to get this right. They're choosing not to, and they're choosing to ramp up the user-hostile behavior, because having people constantly engaged with facebook is profitable.

[qplex]

On my Android there is an option to configure notifications on per app basis. It works very well.

Filtering different types of FB notifications is really a problem that needs to be solved in their app, not in Android.

[SwellJoe]

You're not wrong. The OS does make it possible for the app to do things that are problematic, though (the facebook messenger head bubbles, whatever they're called, that can obstruct other apps, for example). Gnome notifications are relatively unobtrusive, they can only appear in one place (though I don't like that they can obstruct other apps), and there isn't a culture of every app thinking they have to interrupt you multiple times a day.

It's a team effort, I'd say, though facebook is where I lay most of the blame. I'm just ranting in general about the state of notifications and how insistent and entitled so many apps have become on many platforms, not really calling out specific operating systems or developers (though all the notifications I was complaining about in Windows were from Windows itself and not facebook or the like, so we have to lay all the blame on Microsoft in that case).

Edit: after thinking about it, I don't think the OS should impose good taste (eg to prevent Facebook messenger head bubbles from being really annoying and obstructing other apps), since that would mean apps that legitimately need that ability wouldn't be able to do so. I'd guess Twilight, a blue screen filter app I use and like, wouldn't be able to do it's thing if Android didn't allow apps to operate on other apps display. Facebook just needs to stop being so obnoxious.