[JimDabell]

> It's like email updates from online retailers. I unsubscribe from the majority of them, but I allow a couple of retailers I like to send me promotions.

Notifications are for when you need to know about something immediately and it's okay to interrupt you for it. How many of these retailers do you want that from? What's the benefit for the end-user over an email?

[PaulRobinson]

It's Friday, it's 4pm, I'm about to wind down for the weekend.

In London the biggest private hire cab firm that isn't Uber is Addison Lee. They sometimes send out a notification along the lines of "It's the weekend, enjoy it with us: £5 off your next 4 trips". Perfect. In the past I've changed my plans around that sort of advertising.

In an email, I'd miss it. It's timely, context aware advertising from a brand I'm happy to use and hear from, particularly in that moment.

The key here is that I can opt out of them, not that they appear everywhere no matter what: I can tell companies if I want to hear more from them in this manner.

[MrGilbert]

I'm not an expert in ad affairs. With this information on the table, consider the following:

I subscribe to a "price alert" for a product in my sellers app. The price gets triggered, and because there's a lot of demand for this item, I have to be fast.

This, for me, would justify the "push notification".

But, would this also be considered an "ad"? From the definition of the word "advertisement"[1], which says it's "a notice, picture or film telling people about a product, job or service", it would qualify as an ad.

[1]: https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/englis...

[normalnorm]

If there is no way to harass people with notifications for "price alerts", there will also be no incentive to create artificial pricing systems with sudden "promotions", meant to hijack users' attention and cognitive sovereignty.

Don't fall for the tricks. Think about the systems your are engaging with all the way to the end, and consider if you are being manipulated. This is an environment where it pays to be paranoid, because big companies are devoting a huge amount of resources to trick you.

I would say, treat this stuff as one should treat nutrition. Simple is better for your health. If you don't understand how something is made, or what its purpose is, you should probably avoid it.

[jamespo]

artificial pricing systems existed before notifications

[normalnorm]

Sure, and cancer existed before cigarettes. Doesn't mean one should smoke cigarettes.

[pdpi]

That’s not an ad, it’s the core functionality of a product you use.

[Hamuko]

I don't see the drawback compared to email considering my email has push notifications.