The reason for Android’s Notification system being better than iOS, is solely due to the ability to turn off individual aspects of an application’s notifications.
Google, the poor multi-billion dollar scrappy startup that maintains Android, made a payment app that has one notification setting, “Google Pay”. So all the ads, promotions, everything.
3rd party apps like PhonePe & Paytm have a better system.
How do you manage to maintain this OS?
@MishaalRahman @androidfaithful @[email protected] @[email protected]
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Let’s be honest though: Android’s notification system has been better than iOS’s since long before this feature was added. I’d still take Android 7’s notifications over iOS’s.
Though to be fair, my experience with iOS notifications in recent versions is on iPad, not iPhone. So it might be better than I think nowadays
Android definitely has better notifications, but iOS has better notification management. Apple integrates thing like focus mode much better than Google does. Some Android manufacturers try the same, but very few succeed for more than one or two major Android updates because porting those customisations sucks.
They’ve added a couple of channels, “Critical” and “Time Sensitive”, with some options for allowing overrides of focus modes for those channels specifically.
I also like the option for “mute notifications for 1hour /till end of day” I use it frequently when a group chat blows up and I’m not in the mood, or notifications about my server that I’m just not going to deal with rn.
But android is way ahead
This is dev dependent, meaning iOS devs can implement it just as easily, just in an app settings page instead of the systems notification section.
Would it be nice to have in iOS? Absolutely. But it’ll always come down to the devs implementing it.
It is dev dependent, but I don’t agree with “devs can implement it just as easily” at all. One only requires using a built-in API to create notification channels (which you have to call anyway), the other requires designing and programming your own page for it.
iOS has built in app settings that don’t require any more than an entry and some plumbing:
But devs would have to put a setting, then check the setting before sending notifications. On android, you just tag the channel as part of your notification call, and the OS handles it.
And well, next to no apps have the function on iOS. So, I’m guessing it’s too much extra work. Even if not much.
It’s not going to be much more effort than anything else in their app. Like, you’re essentially arguing that a variable and some strings are hard to do, and that just not the case.
Well, the difference (without looking at all the relevant docs) would appear to be an if statement around a call to trigger the notification.
But I guess, since that seems too simple for them to not do it… it’s gotta be a convention / culture thing. When it’s built in to the OS as a feature, other developers are likely to implement it, in the same way, and the users will come to expect it, ask for it. But if you, as a dev, are left to do it yourself, there’s less motivation.
Also, Android might have had some system by which they actively encouraged devs to implement.
It still requires developers to care. A bunch of apps I use only have one channel for several types of notifications.
It makes sense, in a way. Why would you give users the ability to disable your spam? Most apps with proper notification channels also have settings for what notifications to send.
I do like iOS’s integrated settings more. I think Google’s SharedPreferences model and PreferencesActivity design was designed for a similar overview of settings, but I guess they never implemented it. I wonder if this is a patent problem or just a missed opportunity on Google’s side.
Many apps do actually have those kinda of notification options. Apollo for instance let you choose what notifications you wanted to receive. I’ve seen other apps do the same. Granted, it’s usually within the apps own internal settings and not within their settings page of the Settings app, but they definitely do exist.
That said, it’s likely more that most devs want you to receive all notifications. “Want to get notified when your balance changes? You also have to see our promotions!” Sounds like a very capitalism thing to do.
Google, the poor multi-billion dollar scrappy startup that maintains Android, made a payment app that has one notification setting, “Google Pay”. So all the ads, promotions, everything.
Amazon is another poor startup that does that on their Android app.
Amazon first needs to learn how to make an android app. It’s by far the worst experience I’ve ever had using an app from a big company.
Their iOS app is equally shit as well as
Why do you need the app on your phone? Just use the website, its perfectly functional on your phone and then you’re not giving them all of the data.
If you use Amazon Pay then yeah. Otherwise the website is just a better experience overall.
That’s not an accident
@Justly0250 bro don’t get me started on the Amazon app. I cannot handle that amount of rage.
The fact that they’ve made it infinitely more difficult to find the settings in-app is just infuriating.
Good luck finding anything in the in-app settings.
Just use Alexa to find it… Now they can justify that horrible addition to the app
This made me just realize that I turned off Notifications for the Amazon app at some point and never noticed. 😂
I’ve just been relying on their emails for getting updates on my orders.
As someone with GPay installed and notify for it enabled right now:
What ads and promotions? I only ever get “you paid for this shit” notifications
For me it’s their constant Credit Card upsell notifications.
I’ve literally never had this, could be country specific? I’m in the UK.
This thread prompted me to look into the Wallet notification settings. There was a setting where Google could send you notifications. I just turned those off. I don’t want them, but I also can’t remember ever getting one.
I don’t really understand what the controversy is about. If an app abuses its notifications permissions to send me spam, I disable it. The post is right, granular notification settings in Android are great. I carry both android and iOS around every day and iOS notifications just kind of build up and periodically get cleared all at once. Too much noise in there. The android notifications are things I actually care about and want to be notified about in a timely fashion.
@Nath @gamermanh so, the thing I’m pissed about is that Google doesn’t follow their own guidelines.
These granular notification settings are implemented by every other payment app, except for GPay.
This kind of promotion. Sure, it’s not a frequent issue, but you’re telling me you (Google) maintain an OS where everyone has to follow the rules for a certain way, except you? I call bullshit.
Can also confirm I do not get ads/promotions from Google Wallet, and Google Pay isn’t an app anymore, so maybe you should make sure you have a legit version. I only get the you just paid notifications, which I would want to get.
Can you show an example of the notifications you’re getting?
I have GPay and I frequently get notifications telling me to claim their reward points. Those notifications aren’t configurable separately from the payment notifications at the OS level. Super annoying.
Gpay is still a thing, possibly what he is referring to.
Curious: do OEM Android users also get granular app permissions? (Like turning sensors off at the app level)
@hiramfromthechi I’m not entirely sure… I remembered seeing something like that in the Developer options menu, but there isn’t anything there…
If you’re on Android 12, you do get to add a Camera and Microphone Quick Setting (QS) tile in the notification shade. You were already able to control the Location and NFC sensors through here…
Edit the QS layout and look for the Camera and Mic tile. They let you turn off the Camera and Mic access for apps. Same for the Location and NFC tiles.
Hmm … Not sure we’re referring to the same thing. Perhaps I can clear it up:
When you long press an app icon, there’s an option labeled “App info.”
Jump into it, and it should show options to open the app, uninstall it, force stop, and disable. There’s other app settings listed as well.
Then, if you jump into Permissions, does it have the option for you to toggle the network access, sensor access, etc.?
Sensors and Network access aren’t on Stock Android unfortunately (though they should be!), only on other OSes like GrapheneOS and DivestOS atm. Everything else besides those 2 however is present on Stock.
Good to know, thanks
And in contrast to iOS there’s eg. AutoNotification. So even with some very bad and intrusive apps, like my App tracking me driving and giving discounts if I’m good, that don’t allow such fine settings and refuse to work without all notifications on, you can just block specific ones. In my case it’s things like status information, reminders etc.
Only to find out that it creates new channel each time the old one is unavailable.
Yes, Viber?! F it - I disabled calls channel so I don’t receive scam calls in it - why would it recreate it?
@snowadv because fuck you, that’s why.
Fucking cancerous, I’d immediately delete an app that behaves that way. It’s malware.
I would too but gotta get these “good morning” and “celebrate the day of lightly salted cucumbers” pictures/post cards from my grandparents somehow haha
Some channels are dynamic, so theoretically it could be a calls channel for each different person calling.
That said I feel like I have seen an issue similar to yours for many different apps which use dynamic channels so I think this is due to poor coding and not malicious behaviour.
Good point about dynamic channels (even though it sounds bad if you consider the notification channel’s purpose) but not true in that particular case: I’ve talked to a bunch of people using Viber and it still has only one active “call” channel
Probably bad coding - should create notification channel when there’s no existing one atm somehow. Probably disabling notification channel also triggers recreation
I always scratch my head at people griping about too many notifications. When I install an app, if it doesn’t immediately ask for the ability to send them, I proactively disable them. And if it does, I deny the. Mobile games are the worst about it, for sure I only allow badges for some apps, and even fewer get real notifications, and still fewer can break trough Focus Mode.
iOS “could” allow more granularity, but in reality, spammy apps have a solution (disable them), and apps that want to send both “real” notifications and spam/ads/marketing indiscriminately have another (uninstall or yell at the company that made it by way of lousy app store reviews).
For Android, having apps ask for permission for notifications is a very new feature (debut in Android 13 I think) so by default apps notifications were collectively permitted. It would be up to the user to explicitly go in and disable notifications after the fact. I think many people either didn’t know how to access the notification settings or just didn’t care enough to disable them.
Ah, didn’t know that.
Yeah works well until I have like 6 undismissable notifications that clutter my shit :(
@pico you can control whether or not persistent notifications remain.
Is it possible in older version ? Since I’m rooted I can block then but I believe it wasn’t possible before. I had an app in android 8 I think that did that without root access, but it doesn’t work anymore in android 10.
I’m talking about notifications like low battery, do not disturb, keyboard open, connected to a vpn …
You do realize Google Pay is not maintained by the same set of people who maintain android. The 1 notification option is pathetic, but you get what you get. The android apps are not maintained, so they fit and follow all of android’s guidelines. If they were. You would be seeing material you theming in most of them where applicable.
Doesn’t the fact that it says “All Paytem Notifications” supercede the individual selections though? I figured that’s how companies were getting around the individual toggles, you either take them all, or you reject them and they’ll pester you to enable them literally every time you open the app.
I don’t think it does, it’s just a quick toggle to disable everything at once. If a category is disabled it gets prioritised.
Awesome! Thanks for that. Now maybe I can turn push notifications back on for Uber Eats and get a notice when they deliver the food, since only about 5% of the drivers will ring the bell. I turned the notifications off because I kept getting advertising pushed to my phone.
Just turn off offers and rewards:
I did that in the past and they reactivated it, or added a new category, or something, because I started getting spam again. I’m trying it out again now. So far, so good.
It’s awesome how in the modern world we have to maintain an antagonistic relationship with the things we pay for because they constantly try to goad us into paying for more things.
Not solely for that reason. The notifications are rich, you can reply from the notification and the notification icons in the top bar tell you what’s going on without even opening the shade
@danielfgom true that.
Android’s status bar is actually functional.The reason why Dynamic Island is so exciting to people is that finally, something informative is happening in the status bar 😂.
You said it better than me. 100% 👍
@danielfgom 😁🫡
Until you want to use anything AOSP. They you get to use UnifiedPush with apps like ntfy
Android notifications are definitely nice. I just hope they eventually get the focus functions from iOS. I know Samsung already has it but still would be nice to have a built-in version
No way, Samsung already supports it?! Do you know what version of Android or OneUI supports it?
@soulfirethewolf I would actually love that.
The focus mode feature is the closest I’ve gotten to actually enjoying something similar. But it’s barely anything.
