The modern smartphone is an incredibly useful tool and according to Deloitte, a whopping 89% of Aussies own a smartphone. With most of us using our phones every day, we’re certainly no strangers to mobile apps and the notifications that come with them.
At times, these notifications can be very useful – who among us hasn’t saved face at the last minute thanks to a handy birthday reminder for an acquaintance on Facebook? Other times, not so much. No one really needs a banner on the home screen of their phone to remind them to play more Candy Crush, or that so-and-so or such-and-such has posted on social media.
The hard truth is that most mobile apps on the market today are padding out their notifications with unnecessary information. It’s so prevalent that even satire news website, The Onion, is joking about it. These little pop-ups and badges just aren’t telling us anything important or useful; all they’re doing is trying to get your attention so you open the app again. That’s why it’s a good New Years’ resolution to nip these useless notifications in the bud so you can stay focused on the stuff that matters.
We’ve put together some handy advice on how to trim down your mobile notifications and keep the useful stuff and get rid of the junk!
Everyone uses their smartphone differently and we all have different priorities. However, there is a general approach you can use to determine whether or not you should let an app send you any notifications at all, and which types of notifications you should block and allow.
Once you’ve got an idea of how you want your notifications set up, it’s time to whip out your smartphone and start adjusting your notification settings. Here’s some basic guides for accessing these settings on iPhones and Android phones below. If your phone uses a different operating system, please check the manufacturer’s website for support information about changing these settings.
iPhone
– Sounds, which you can use to assign a particular ringtone to notifications for that app, or make them silent.
– Badge App icon, which you can use to allow or stop the red dot ‘badges’ appearing at the corner of the app’s tile on your iPhone’s home screen.
– Show on Lock Screen, which you can use to allow or stop notifications showing up on your iPhone’s screen while the handset is locked.
– Show in History, which you can use to allow or stop notifications from showing up in your notifications history record, which you can view by swiping down from the top of your iPhone’s screen.
– Show as Banners, which you can use to allow or stop notifications showing up at the top of your phone’s screen. Beneath this option, you can also choose if banners only show up briefly (Temporary) or if they should remain until you manually dismiss them (Persistent).
Android phones
– Banners, which you can use to allow or stop notifications showing up at the top of your phone’s screen.
– Lock screen notifications, which you can use to allow or stop notifications showing up on your phone’s screen while the handset is locked.
– Priority display, which you can turn on to make sure that notifications for this app are shown before all other notifications
– Ringtone, which you can use to assign a particular ringtone to notifications for that app, or make them silent.
– Vibrate, which you can use to allow or stop your phone from vibrating when a notification is received.
– Badges, which you can use to allow or stop the red dot ‘badges’ appearing at the corner of the app’s tile on your iPhone’s home screen.
Unfortunately, not every app may let you opt-out of the different types of notifications they may be serving up. Some apps may expect you to tolerate the spam in order to also receive useful notifications such as alerts for new messages.
Here’s to a more focused and less interrupted 2019!
How do you stay on top of your notifications and prioritise your alerts? Share your tips in the comments.
So you feel you’re losing face when you forget the birthday of a contact you’ve never met? Get real, and get off Facebook! Facebook is just remarketing, selling your contacts as your “friends”!
Are you suggesting to get another app to deal with unruly apps?
I’ve fixed the electronic interruptions problem.
Get a basic phone, and don’t give your phone number to every person you meet. Whoever named those internet-connected phones as “smart” phones was a marketing genius – they’re merely a very limited idiot computer with a too-small screen.
“Notification management” This does not occur within my Settings App so the rest is not available. I have a Samsung S5 running android 6.0.1
Thank you. I found this helpful and checked my notifications. Lately I’ve been receiving them from facebook. Fb notifications are “off” so why am I still receiving them? Would rather receive them as before, on my computer.