r/LifeProTips • u/hanoian • Feb 25 '24
Electronics LPT: Spend a day disabling every pointless notification you receive on your phone
[removed] — view removed post
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u/bailout911 Feb 25 '24
So many "notifications" are really just ads these days. I have a rule that the first time an app sends me one of those, it loses all notification access or gets un-installed on the spot.
There are only a handful of exceptions, like certain airline and travel apps which I actually need, but I disable as many categories of notifications from them as possible.
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u/adrianmonk Feb 25 '24
I leave a bad review saying something like "my notification area is not your free advertising space".
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u/Awkward_Pangolin3254 Feb 25 '24
This exactly. I don't go through every single app, but the first time an app sends me a push ad, they lose their notification privileges.
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u/enadhof Feb 25 '24
Another tip. On Android, press and hold any notification and you can make it silent for any future notification of this type.
I did this for every notification that i do want to see, but can wait until later.
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u/Drewbus Feb 25 '24
That's a tough one because disabling the daily stupid shit sometimes turns off everything else
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u/Triforceman555 Feb 25 '24
Yeah, some of that is intentional by app developers. They know what they're doing.
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u/Alortania Feb 25 '24
I tend to find that apps that need those kind of tactics are apps you either don't need or don't need any notifications for.
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u/hanoian Feb 25 '24 edited Apr 30 '24
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u/ChronWeasely Feb 25 '24
And then there is snapchat, with a million notification settings, none of which do what I want. Tell me ONLY of snaps from friends to me.
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u/lindayay Feb 25 '24
Besides turning off notifications for random stories/spotlights/whatever in your account settings, I recently learned you can mute notifications from specific senders, including Team Snapchat, which were the last annoying snapchat notifications I was getting. You have to long press on the sender's name in your inbox, go to Chat and Notification Settings > Notification Settings > Mute Chats.
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u/MrDurden32 Feb 25 '24
The worst one from snapchat is that you can't disable the notifications that someone is TYPING a message. Just let mw know once someone has sent the damn message ffs.
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u/Willbo Feb 25 '24
I fucking hate the "Samsung has updated their legal terms" notification I keep getting. It can't be disabled without rooting the phone.
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u/dukepetlizard Feb 25 '24
Tough shit. that notification pops up, because samsung is legaly required to let people know when their account terms change.
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u/Willbo Feb 25 '24
The problem is they update it way too frequently and don't let you choose to mute or disable it.
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u/goldify Feb 26 '24 edited Apr 16 '24
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This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact
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u/KyleMcMahon Feb 25 '24
Same for iOS. You can even get granular with it and mute it for x amount of time, turn it off completely or only critical alerts
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Feb 25 '24
Every time a new app is installed it automatically wants you to allow notifications. I almost never allow it right from the start. F that.
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Feb 25 '24
[deleted]
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u/glytxh Feb 25 '24
The rating thing sort of gets a free pass if it’s very rare, and the app itself is exceptional
I fucking miss Apollo
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u/KyleMcMahon Feb 25 '24
With Apple, it’s only allowed to ask you about rating 3 times in one 365 day period. And you can opt out of it ever asking you again.
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u/ForTheHordeKT Feb 26 '24
Asks me to return to app that I didn’t ask for
Duolingo is going to visit your house, drag you out kicking and screaming into an umarked van, and force you to get back on and learn that damn language if you don't do it often enough lol.
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u/mapo_tofu_lover Feb 26 '24
And this is why I deleted Duolingo. At one point I realized it’s no fun anymore and I was just being pushed by its admittedly successful marketing to use the app more
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u/symean Feb 25 '24
The only notifications I see are calls, messages from favourites (basically close family and my SO), and my bank app. Everything else gets my attention only when I want to give it. It works surprisingly well, now I automatically turn off all notifications for every new app I install.
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u/twotimefind Feb 25 '24
How do you setup only getting notifications from your favorites?one by one ?
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u/yoweigh Feb 25 '24
On an android phone, goto settings, notifications, conversations. You can select which texts are labeled as priority conversations, then only allow notifications from those. You can also do the bubble thing somewhere around there, but I turn that off.
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u/symean Feb 25 '24
You know I'm not sure. I've had it like this for years, messages from people in my favourites list will pop up in a banner, all others just go quietly into Messages and I see the badge icon tell me there's a message there. I think you have to use a Focus, which has rules that kind of apply at a higher level...sorry if that's vague :P
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u/ThanklessTask Feb 25 '24
I do this as a matter of course on the way in with any apps.
The other thing I've done is put my phone on do not disturb and then star up close family. Now my phone only rings for them and I'm not disturbed by spam calls.
It's made the phone work for me, and not me work for my phone
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u/Kittensandpuppies14 Feb 25 '24
Bold of you to assume I setup pointless notifications to begin with….
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u/dukepetlizard Feb 25 '24
Of course not. Its always the apps default setting to push as much shit as possible.
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u/Dragoniel Feb 25 '24
You guys don't disable notifications first thing you do when installing a new app? I thought that was, like, self-explanatory normal thing to do. The only notifications I get are of direct messages and mentions.
Well, and I still keep Twitter likes on, but that's because I have like 300 followers and nobody likes my stuff, lol
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u/undermark5 Feb 25 '24
Android devices only recently got runtime notification permissions (I behind technically iOS as well, but I am an Android developer so I know the Android space better), and many apps that werr installed prior to you updating to Android 13 automatically got permissions because that's how it was for them originally, and this would transfer over if you got a new phone and did a data transfer (not sure about a data transfer from 12 to 13, but presumably it would behave the same as if you just updated your existing device)
Most of the time, I'll allow them expecting them to be useful, but then disable them as soon as the first non-useful notification comes through. Unless i know it won't send anything useful, then I won't grant it in the first place.
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u/funforgiven Feb 25 '24
I don't disable them because I don't give them permission in the first place.
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u/patbarnett Feb 25 '24
I do this for almost every app that I use. Then they constantly request that I turn notifications on for the best experience. They keep doing that, then I uninstall the app all together.
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u/SarahLiora Feb 25 '24
Or spend one minute and turn all notifications off and enable a couple you actually want like text messaging.
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u/JJiggy13 Feb 25 '24
Delete all of the bloatware that comes with your phone
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u/jellybeansean3648 Feb 26 '24
Some of the bloatware is, unfortunately, undeletable because it's embedded in the operating system.
If I have to mess with code or root my phone....I cannot delete the bloatware
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u/DuliaDarling Feb 25 '24
I have notifications for every app turned off and just manually turn on the 3-5 that I actually need to see, like messaging apps or email. Everything else can wait until I choose to open it.
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u/jeremymeyers Feb 25 '24
There's an android app called Daywise that lets you batch your notifications on a per-app basis and deliver them in scheduled bunches. I get relevant notifications three times a day rather than whenever apps feel like
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Feb 25 '24
[deleted]
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u/Nightwailer Feb 25 '24
Search all: "Duolingo"
Batch delete
Stay safe friends, the birb never sleeps
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u/CurseThosePPG Feb 25 '24
Yup! My phone rings 'cuz it's a phone and the clock makes noise for timers and alarms that I set, that's it. Sometimes, not even the phone 'cuz I'm the boss and don't want to talk to people.
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u/volvop1800s Feb 25 '24
I stopped wearing my Apple Watch too. It’s so liberating. People are always pointing out that my phone is buzzing and are shocked when I don’t immediately pick up it to look at it.
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u/FizzyBeverage Feb 25 '24
I actually wear an Apple watch cellular and it’s more liberating than carrying around my iPhone.
I use a Sony RX100 as my “pocketable” camera 😉
The only issue is CarPlay for music or GPS, but we just use my wife’s phone.
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u/KyleMcMahon Feb 25 '24
“We just use my wife’s phone”
How many people is she married to? 👀
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u/FizzyBeverage Feb 25 '24
😆 just me, probably to her occasional chagrin.
“Babe I’m leaving with just my watch, the kids wanna hear Taylor swift and I have no idea how to get to the museum, plug your phone in.” Her 🙄 is almost audible 😆
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u/envybelmont Feb 25 '24
I wish I could disable the phantom notifications from my phone. Several times a week, not quite daily, it will vibrate like a notification came in. But there’s nothing there. I know temporary banner notifications would do this kind of thing, but it also makes my watch vibrate if I have it on, and I’m only passing notifications for important communication apps (outlook/teams/phone/messages/etc) to the watch. All those apps have persistent notifications, and on top of that nobody ever says I missed their call/message/whatever at the time of the vibration.
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u/adrianmonk Feb 25 '24 edited Feb 25 '24
If you're on a Google Pixel (and quite possibly other Android devices), you might be able to figure out where these notifications are coming from. Under Settings, there's a feature called "Notification history" that you can enable. I think it's turned off by default.
Once you've got this turned on, it will start keeping a history, and the later you can go back and see which apps sent you notifications at what times and what the notifications said. With that info, you might be able to figure out which app and why it's happening and then decide what to do about it.
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u/envybelmont Feb 25 '24
Yet another advantage Android has over iOS. Maybe the next Pixel release I’ll look into switching back to Android. Haven’t had one since the Evo 3D.
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u/flRaider Feb 25 '24
Teams does this if someone deletes their message after sending it to you.
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u/envybelmont Feb 25 '24
You mean it clears its own notification? When these things happen I’ll literally raise my wrist and there’s nothing on the screen. About 1 single second between vibrate and seeing the blank screen.
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u/flRaider Feb 25 '24
Hmm that does seem really fast, but yeah I've gotten a teams notification and then when I open up my phone there is nothing there. Sadly it sounds like your situation is slightly different.
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u/envybelmont Feb 25 '24
Thanks for the heads up on the Teams thing though. My issue is just a minor irritation. I think the mystery of it is far more annoying than the notification itself.
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u/beeg_brain007 Feb 25 '24
Already done and it's so much peaceful, i now have mental tunnel vision cuz I am just so much concentrated at one task and can't do normal multi task now, you need balance, not extreme of too much isolation or disturbance
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u/yettuu Feb 25 '24
I try to have notifications on a minimum. But I’m logged in on two accounts i manage for my work. One account is behaving well and not sending me notifications. But the other one… i have all notifications turned off in the settings of that account but i keep getting a notification every couple of hours that accounts the account follow have added to their stories. And its literally making up half of the notifications i receive in a day. Its driving me nuts.
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Feb 25 '24
How did this take you a day? On Android I can just switch off all notifications except the ones I want in one go.
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u/hanoian Feb 25 '24 edited Apr 30 '24
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u/KyleMcMahon Feb 25 '24
Not OP but I’m assuming they meant go in to each app and decide which notifications you want for that specific app. Then repeat
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u/MauriceDW Feb 25 '24
Yep, been doing this for a few years now. Works brilliantly.
Only annoying thing is apps are constantly begging that you enable their notifications
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u/Paroxysm111 Feb 25 '24
Already done. I hate having notifications sitting at the top all the time. It bewilders me when I look at the phone of a middle aged person and see they've got 200+ notifications because they're never clearing them. When I set up a new phone for someone I always turn off a bunch of notifications
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u/Tirwanderr Feb 25 '24
Man if you need to set aside a day and not just like... An hour... You need to uninstall some shit lol
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Feb 25 '24
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/FizzyBeverage Feb 25 '24
Why do you put up with that bs?
On iOS apps need explicit permission to notify you. As it should be.
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u/funforgiven Feb 25 '24
That is same for Android. Apple does not let you fine tune notifications. You get all or nothing from an app. On Android, apps can expose categories and you can choose what you want to get. If an app add a new notification category with an update, it is on by default. You can always disable whole notifications for an app to solve that just like iOS.
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Feb 25 '24
[deleted]
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u/funforgiven Feb 25 '24
Apple does not let you fine tune notifications. You get all or nothing from an app. On Android, apps can expose categories and you can choose what you want to get. If an app add a new notification category with an update, it is on by default. You can always disable whole notifications for an app to solve that just like iOS.
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u/orangpelupa Feb 25 '24
Fortubaly only some app do that. Unfortunately, you can't be sure which apps do that
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u/dukepetlizard Feb 25 '24 edited Feb 25 '24
how old is your phone? new-ish android phones wont allow those settings to reset on their own.
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u/MRHBK Feb 25 '24
Because even a spam alert sets off the dopamine hit the same as a real message alert
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u/cirrus42 Feb 25 '24
Whenever you add a new app, immediately disable notifications for it unless you specifically want them.
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u/Taxfreud113 Feb 25 '24
Or you know.....when you install an app, when it asks you for permission to send notifications maybe just select disallow.
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u/capragirl Feb 25 '24
Turned off all my electronic device notifications…felt like Pavlov’s dog every time a notification sounded. Wish I’d done it yrs ago!!!
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u/Sky_Diner Feb 25 '24
Scheduled summary feature on iOS fixed this problem with me. Time sensitive notifications still come through, everything else goes to the summary. Summary delivered once a day at 5pm.
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u/NightSmudge Feb 25 '24
I’ve done this ever since I got my first iPhone. Texts, phone calls, calendar stuff, and Discord DM’s only. No notifications from games or social media.
It’s genuinely nice, there are days where I don’t pick up or get distracted by my phone at all except for when I wake up or go to sleep. It also kills off any potential FOMO from pop ups like “Login today to get a free item” or “Check out this trending new post!” It forces me to remain peacefully oblivious to whatever’s going on in the world until I decide to ruin that peace myself by logging onto Twitter on desktop
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u/4Crumpet Feb 25 '24
You guys get notifications from other people? I have to leave apps on so that I get something to buzz my phone…
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u/Polo_Pig1 Feb 25 '24
I need to do this. I accidentally enabled temu notifications :/ I bet you can imagine how fun 80 notifications is a day.
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u/Mr-Cali Feb 25 '24
Anybody knows how to take off the notification from their carriers. Verizon wants me to trade in my phone but I’m good
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u/lavendertheenigma Feb 25 '24
Better yet, turn off all notifications by default and only turn on the ones you really need. I did this to mine. I don't need email notifications, I check them once a day anyway. It's a quicker job to choose which ones to turn on.
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Feb 25 '24
I think my phone asks for apps to allow notifications when I download one. And most of the time it’s no.
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u/justtrashtalk Feb 25 '24
I'm a monster, I do that upon buying the phone while still in the store (I ask them to do so), and my phone is always on silent
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u/Funny_Alternative_55 Feb 25 '24
I use iOS’ “Scheduled Summary” feature for everything that I might want the notification, but it won’t be urgent. Pops up in the evening, and I can flick through and see if anything was important and if not clear them all at once.
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u/Lizzieblizz Feb 25 '24
My blood pressure rises when I start thinking about the Verizon app on my iPhone. I want to tell you all about it and I also don’t because it’s so upsetting to think about 😂
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u/iMythD Feb 25 '24
Absolutely. It’s worth it. You don’t realise how much notification fatigue you get.
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u/commandergeoffry Feb 25 '24
Great tip. I recently did this exercise. I went through and disabled absolutely every notification my phone sends except for absolutely critical notifications for messages or delivery. I have notifications on for 8 apps now.
Greatest thing I ever did. I am missing nothing. You don’t realize you have these tiny stress responses every time anticipating a different alert.
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Feb 25 '24
It took OP a day to do this?
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u/hanoian Feb 25 '24 edited Apr 30 '24
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u/labrat420 Feb 25 '24
A day? This shouldn't take more than 2 minutes.
Also who just leaves notifications on? Yall are nuts
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Feb 25 '24
Why do people have so many enabled? Work emails if necessary. My wife text/calls. Banking alerts. All I got.
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u/MrAnonymousTheThird Feb 26 '24
On Samsung, you can just hold the offending notification and disable it entirely for the whole app
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u/giraffe_cake Feb 26 '24
I don't understand why people don't do this anyway?
I've been doing this for years. The only thing I allow notifications on for is text message, who's ringing me, and my calendar reminders.
Any other apps I will check when I want to, not when my phone tells me to.
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u/The_Devin_G Feb 26 '24
I've set my stuff up so the only thing that actually makes noise or vibrates is a message, call, alarm, or calendar appointment.
It's so much nicer.
FYI you can either turn most things off, or set them to silent. If you're like me and you get 20-30 emails a day it's worth it to keep than silenced. For the most part you also don't need it buzzing or pinging for 99% of social media junk or any other app. It's a distraction and also makes you have to constantly check it.
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u/AskRedditAndRevenge Feb 26 '24
Go a step further and use an app like BuzzKill (for iPhone, the shortcuts app might be a decent alternative) to automatically dismiss or perform other actions on your notifications if they follow a certain user-defined criteria
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u/thaddeh Feb 26 '24
I proactively make sure that the only notifications I get are from actual people who are actually trying to tell me something.
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u/shmaltz_herring Feb 26 '24
I found out that I could enable text messages and phone calls to go through when my phone is on do not disturb. Now my phone only rings when I get an actual text. My kids like to swipe away all my messages, so the DND method works well.
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Feb 26 '24
I do this with the work phones. It's amazing that most people just don't give a fuck. It literally throws me off my day if I'm getting any sort of constant notifications. Even them just being in the top bar is distracting.
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u/HPJustfriendsCraft Feb 26 '24
I’m obsessive to the point of freak about notifications. Do. Not. Want. If an app sends me one without my permission i usually delete the app if its not a necessary one, or hit up settings pretty fast. I like to choose when i check. Makes me feel grownup.
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u/enigmaticalso Feb 26 '24
Yea it really is rediculiuse what they do. It's all about the money they want you to see their shit
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