Push Notifications From Popular Apps Are Becoming Increasingly Useless And Annoying (wired.com)

David Pierce, writing for Wired: Push notifications are ruining my life. Yours too, I bet. Download more than a few apps and the notifications become a non-stop, cacophonous waterfall of nonsense. Here's just part of an afternoon on my phone:
"Hi David! We found new Crown jewels and Bottle caps Pins for you!"
"Everyone's talking about Bill Nye's new book, Everything All at Once. Read a free sample."
"Alex just posted for the first time in a while."
I get notifications when an acquaintance comments on a stranger's Facebook posts, when shows I don't care about come to Netflix, and every single day at 6 PM when the crossword puzzle becomes available. Recently, I got a buzz from my close personal friends at Yelp. "We found a hot new business for you," it said. I opened the notification, on the off chance that Yelp had finally found the hot new business I've been waiting for. It did not. So I closed Yelp, stared into space for a second, and then opened Instagram. Productivity over. Over the last few years, there's been an increasingly loud call for a re-evaluation of the relationship between humans and smartphones. For all the good that phones do, their grip on our eyes, ears, and thoughts creates real and serious problems. "I know when I take [technology] away from my kids what happens," Tony Fadell, a former senior VP at Apple who helped invent both the iPod and the iPhone, said in a recent interview. "They literally feel like you're tearing a piece of their person away from them. They get emotional about it, very emotional. They go through withdrawal for two to three days." Smartphones aren't the problem. It's all the buzzing and dinging, endlessly calling for your attention.

Comments

Just turn that stuff off.

[Anonymous Coward]

Use your phone solely as a pull thing. Turn off auto-sync for your emails too. You don't need to respond in seconds. It's an email.

Then, your phone interrupts you only when you want it to.

first post?

Re:Just turn that stuff off.

[93 Escort Wagon]

It doesn't have to be all-or-nothing. On the iPhone you can enable or disable notifications on an app by app basis. And, for most apps, you can even control how intrusively that app will be allowed to notify you.

Heck, you even get prompted "allow notifications from xxxxxxx?" before the app is allowed to bother you. Remember - just because they want to do it doesn't mean you have to allow them to do it.

Also - if an app behaves badly, don't allow it to run in the background: Settings -> General -> Background App Refresh

Really, this seems like more of an user education problem than anything else.

Re:Just turn that stuff off.

[ctilsie242]

Android has similar, with long-pressing on an app's notifications. The ability to disable notifications was in result due to a "service", AirPush that got installed with various apps, which would spam the notification bar with crap.

Re:Just turn that stuff off.

[Lab Rat Jason]

I came here to say this! I don't use android, but I believe it works similarly... you can control notifications. Lyft lasted a whole 4 days for me before I squelched it. Email and Text are the only things that I allow popover for, and Instagram can put a badge on their icon... that's it for me and this entire story seems like a cry for help from someone with a first world problem.

Re:Just turn that stuff off.

[sabri]

Really, this seems like more of an user education problem than anything else.

This, exactly this.

And it also goes to show how bloated the TFA's phone is. All those useless apps installed, each and every one of them copying his contacts, emails and whatever. Seriously, you allow a crossword puzzle app (why the F anyone would have that on their phone goes beyond me) to send you notifications? Even Yelp is questionable.

This is a self-inflicted wound from this clueless luser.

Re:Just turn that stuff off.

[war4peace]

I believe the article, for what it's worth, was talking about default behavior for apps, and furthermore about the relevance of said push notifications.
Black or white approach works in some but not all cases. The gray range in between depends on the app itself.

Some apps have good granular control on which notifications they should push, others don't. You're left with the black or white approach which sucks.

My personal pet peeve are shopping-related apps and their notifications. For example, recently I've been looking for an air conditioning unit, and a certain online shop sent me targeted pushes of air conditioning units offers and news. All good, I was actually satisfied with that behavior, and at some point I decided to buy one. After buying one through that very same online shop, through their app, I still keep receiving push notifications on Air Conditioning units, although I definitely don't need another one. At the very least they should realize the deal was done or allow me to turn off that specific notification type.

Re:Just turn that stuff off.

[EndlessNameless]

The problem is an insecure by design phone ecosystem, which in turn is driven by greed.

Bullshit.

It's a question of survival rather than greed; if Apple or Google does not deliver functionality, they will be upstaged on features and replaced. Look at Windows, IE, Java, and Adobe as the prime examples---lots of dead tech companies in their wake, and most of their competitors were technically superior.

A notification API is essential for the platform, and the Apple/Play Store has no business dictating which developers can use it. This means all apps have access---subject to approval by the user.

It's fundamentally impossible to secure a device from an ignorant owner without greatly restricting his access to it. The author of the article pointed out how to control notifications, so right there is an OS-level mechanism that the user controls. That's the most you can ask for, really---the platform has a mechanism that lets the user decide.

Security always involves a trade-off with convenience and usability. E.g., the same mechanism that allows Dropbox to access local photos will allow nefarious apps to do nefarious things if the user installs them. You either run each app in a silo, or you accept the risk of data exfiltration by a bad app.

The market demands functionality over security---not for the first time, either. They cannot sell a secure product that doesn't do what people want. In the consumer space, the market has repeatedly chosen insecure solutions because regular users do not care or understand.

Notifications are more of an annoyance than a security issue, and there is a setting to eliminate them. If a user does not want to do that, then he needs to make a choice: look at the app's internal notification settings, contact the developer, or find a replacement app.

When I punch myself in the balls....

[avandesande]

It hurts!

Simple solution

[geek]

Turn them the fuck off and stop whining about it.

I automatically disable them

[HalAtWork]

The only ones I need are messaging and email. Everything else is on pull.

Sigh

[ledow]

Android phone.

Hold on the notification.
Block all notifications.
Never hear from that program again.

I haven't yet allowed one app except those that actually NEED to inform me (e.g. a mail app) and even there, I paid for TouchDown so I could put on working-hours to turn off work-email notifications when I just don't care about them (i.e. outside of work days/hours) - maybe the default mail app does it now, but it didn't years ago when I bought TouchDown.

And if a program doesn't allow me to fine-tune notifications so I get spammed with "product updates" when all I want is the message my friend sent me? I just uninstall the app and - usually - use their website instead.

In the same way that the telephone is the rudest device known to man (ANSWER ME NOW, ANSWER ME NOW, I'M GOING TO KEEP RINGING, ANSWER ME NOW), notifications are the spam of the modern era.

Turn them off. How to do so on an iPhone/iPad? Don't ask me but surely there's a was as simple as the above.

"UNWANTED NOTIFICATION!" - hold finger on it, say "Fuck off" (purely for frustration venting), turn off app's permission to ever post a notification again.

Oh, and stop installing dozens of apps for unnecessary shit that you could just use the website (again - same thing, never allowed a "desktop notification" in my life on a browser).

Only LUDDITES use push notifications.

[Anonymous Coward]

Modern app appers use app appifications!

Apps!

Got that right...

[Bodhammer]

Bill Nye - "Useless and Annoying" - Fo' sure!. Alton Brown is a better scientist than he is.

This guy was a douche in Seattle 20 years ago and now he a useless tool nationwide. ESAD!

Complaining vs. doing

[QuietLagoon]

I get zero push notifications from apps. Zero. None. It was not that difficult to turn them all off. You probably could have done it in the same amount of time you took to write about them. Just another instance of complaining vs doing.

Re: First! disabled

[cayenne8]

my rotary phone does not push does not pull

And if you have a modern smart phone, Einstein.....you can switch the permissions to annoy you with push notifications OFF.

In fact, pretty much every app I've ever installed right off to bat, asked if I would allow push permissions, to which I clicked NO....

How did the guy that submitted this story MISS such a trivial thing...?

Why do people install these stupid apps?

[Kludge]

Yelp app? WTF? Are you serious? Why would anyone install such a thing on his computer? (Yes, your phone is a computer.)
If I want to find a restaurant, I just open my web browser, type "ye", it fills the rest, and I am at the yelp web site where I can search for restaurants all I want.
I do not want your crappy app.

Re:Why do people install these stupid apps?

[green1]

Then tell their site that you're using a computer instead of a phone.

Having my phone's browser claim to be on a computer instead of a phone has actually made the web usable again. It's gotten rid of all the horrible "mobile optimized" websites (Slashdot being among them), it's gotten rid of all the pop-up prompts to download the app for each website (I don't need your app to view your webpage, I have a browser for that! 90% of all apps seem to just be browsers pointing to specific webpages) And it allows me to see all the content on sites instead of just a small fraction of it.

Good solution to wrong problem

[Roger W Moore]

That's a great solution if you are a smart user with a dumbphone. However, the problem we have here is a smartphone with a dumb user.

Re:Protip

[farble1670]

Protip #2: Nothing involving money enters my phone. No banking apps, no credit card apps, no NFC payments, nothing. Saves a whole lot of hassle if my phone ever decides to disappear, fail or explode (not necessarily in that order).

Protip #4: No money enters my wallet. No cash. No credit cards. No blank checks. Nothing. Saves a whole lot of hassle if my wallet ever decides to disappear, get lost, or stolen.

Protip #5: No person ever enters my car. No friends. No family. Not even myself. Nobody. Saves a whole lot of hassle if my car ever breaks down.

Re: First! disabled

[ArmoredDragon]

I don't know about iphone, but for Android this is dead simple to do: Long press on the notification, tap block, tap done. The app still works as normal, just no notifications.