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by davidkatz 4769 days ago
Author here. Of course it occurred to me, but the problem is that users often can't predict if they want notifications or not, or how critical notifications are to the product. I'll give you a real world example from another permissions process - location.

One of the apps I work on is a neighborhood market place. It's all about seeing what people are selling around you, and requires location. The name of the app is roughly 'neighborhood', the marketing materials call it out in big letters, the permissions message clearly explains why the app needs location access. Still, people reflexively see a permissions dialogue and deny. Then the app doesn't work, and they contact support asking why.
2 comments
coldtea 4769 days ago
>Then the app doesn't work, and they contact support asking why.

Then the app, when loaded, should nag them to re-enable location permissions for it to work.

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davidkatz 4769 days ago
Yeah, I did that. You need to tell users to navigate several levels of their settings app, which is a pain. Most people never touch their settings are and are put off by having to deal with it.
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tombell 4769 days ago
If you built an app knowing it NEEDS push notifications on a platform where it's optional for the user to enable/disable, you failed as a developer. The application should be able to function either way. Users deny getting their location? Ask them to input a location instead.
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macavity23 4769 days ago
It's also very easy to look up the user's rough location by asking a server and doing a geoip lookup for the client ip. Much less precise (city-level accuracy), but more privacy-friendly and usually good enough to base location-aware functionality on. Works well as a fallback - which as a dev you need anyway as GPS is often not available, even with the player's permission.
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portmanteaufu 4768 days ago
An interesting drawback to the location-by-IP-address approach is that for cellular devices, IP addresses can be supremely inaccurate. For example, I have a Verizon device whose IP address places me way off in the West coast of the US even though I purchased it and reside on the East coast, 3000 miles away. The approach is pretty solid for LAN/WiFi, though.
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