[gdeglin]

One detail not covered as much in this article is that many options are now available to users and apps to control the push notifications they send and receive.

For example, on iOS, when prompted for notification permission, users are now asked to choose if they want the notifications sent to a summary view. iOS will also invite users to disable notifications from apps they haven't interacted with recently.

Here are a few of the options available for each operating system. Many of these were introduced within the last 1 to 3 years.

iOS & Android:

  * Apps can choose to send notifications without sound/vibration. These are less disruptive and less likely to result in an uninstall or disabling of push.
  * Apps can customize which sound is sent with the notification, if any. On Android, the vibration pattern can also be customized. 
  * Apps can choose to replace an old notification with a new one. This helps prevent multiple updates from crowding a user's notification center (e.g. Order received, Order Arriving, Order Delivered)
  * Apps can send notifications at different priority levels. On iOS, apps can even send notifications that break through a user's focus mode settings (e.g. for emergency alerts), but this requires special permission.
  * Apps can group multiple notifications for easier readability (e.g. chat  messages from different contacts)
  * Apps can set a visual badge on their application icon, indicating the presence of new content, with or without also sending a push notification.

iOS

  * Apps can choose between sending a push notification or starting a Live Activity. Live Activities have more visual customization and can show real-time updates such as sports scores or the status of a food delivery order. Starting with iOS 17.2, released in Dec 2023, Live Activities can be started remotely, just like push notifications. Prior to 17.2, users had to open the app to start them.

Android

  * Apps can implement Notification Channels, a way to categorize different types of notifications so that users can enable some but not others.

[the_gipsy]

Permissions don't matter much. Of course you need to be able to disable permissions for specific apps, but if you want to receive e.g. user messages but not promotional spam, there is nothing you can do.

[L3viathan]

Unless the developers used notification channels (on Android) correctly, then I can disable only the "spam" channel, and not the "messages" channel.

Granted, an app sending spam notifications often doesn't want to make this distinction..

[ytch]

https://support.apple.com/en-ke/108302

iOS has a "Time Sensitive notifications" type that will popup immediately, even when user assign the app to summary view. But the type is assigned by sender alone. It is still possible to spam it.

[kijin]

There's a problem with the current status quo, at least on Android.

Apps can tell that you have disabled notifications, and nag you to re-enable them.

Back when I used cyanogen, I could deny permissions to an app while tricking the app into believing that those permissions were granted. The app would just get an empty contact list, no GPS signal, etc. Even with recent improvements, stock Android still falls short in this regard.

[brazzy]

That just seems like the strongest possible encouragement to uninstall the app entirely.

[JohnFen]

> Apps can tell that you have disabled notifications, and nag you to re-enable them.

The first time an app does this, that app gets uninstalled. No exceptions.

[david_allison]

* On Android, Notification Channels are immutable to developers once created (besides the name and description)

[inquirerGeneral]

> * Apps can implement Notification Channels, a way to categorize different types of notifications so that users can enable some but not others.

This is something that is underutilized by non power users on Android, and makes it FAR better than iOS on top of the already better notification delivery system

recently got an iPhone 15 Pro and man, iOS sucks