[HN Gopher] Show HN: DoNotNotify - log and intelligently block n...
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Show HN: DoNotNotify - log and intelligently block notifications on
Android
Why - I got sick of apps abusing notifications on my Android phone.
While the OS does give you the ability to switch off notifications
based on channels, most apps either don't use it or abuse it
intentionally. In my case, I live in a gated society that uses an
app called MyGate to allow visitors, and the app intentionally
pushes ads through the same channels since you cannot block them.
What - DoNotNotify is an app that logs all incoming notifications,
and displays them grouped by app. It also captures the action
behind the notification, which can be triggered from the app
itself. From this log, you can create rules to whitelist/blacklist
notifications from apps depending on their notification content.
These filters can even be regex expressions, which allows for more
complicated use-cases. The app ships with some pre-defined rules
for popular apps like Facebook, Amazon, Instagram, Netflix, TikTok,
Reddit etc. Where - The website is at https://donotnotify.com/.
Would also like to call out that the app runs purely on your
device, never communicates with anything on the Internet, and only
requires notifications access to work. It is completely free, and
there is no advertising or hidden gotchas.
Author : awaaz
Score : 262 points
Date : 2026-01-05 15:10 UTC (7 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (donotnotify.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (donotnotify.com)
| Multrex wrote:
| Tried with Cloudflare's 1.1.1.1 to hide the VPN and DNS
| notification from Android System notification service but it does
| not work.
| awaaz wrote:
| Can you share a screenshot of the notification, and the rule
| that you created for it at aj@donotnotify.com please?
|
| Also, do note that if it is a persistent notification[1] then
| the Android OS does not allow it to be dismissed. In such a
| case, you will see the notification in the blocked history with
| a warning icon next to it.
|
| [1]
| https://developer.android.com/develop/ui/views/notifications...
| aliher1911 wrote:
| AutoNotification app can block persistent notifications if I
| understand correctly what it is. Hides things like "Wifi
| Calling" that you can't normally disable, swipe. Doesn't
| require root. So there might be the way. It became less
| reliable on latest samsung phones, but works on pixels afaik.
| awaaz wrote:
| Thanks for the heads up! Will take a look at it.
| Mattwmaster58 wrote:
| A couple years back I was looking for this sort of solution and
| ended up paying money to buy FilterBox which I've found to be
| good.
|
| There are certain apps that I would love to be able to uninstall
| but have to keep for one reason or another, so I really
| appreciate apps like these which prevent attention-stealing
| notifications from making it through :)
| Zigurd wrote:
| The play store should reject apps that use audible notifications
| other than those controlled by Android platform notification
| permissions. Making a user dig through an obscure multiple layer
| settings jungle to track down and kill annoying notifications is
| a dark pattern and deserves de-platforming. I'm looking at you,
| Facebook.
| drnick1 wrote:
| The Facebook app is malware. Remove it from your system and use
| better ways to communicate with people, e.g. Signal.
| Gabrys1 wrote:
| One can also use the Facebook website. It's almost usable on
| the Firefox mobile to the extent that you can check the news
| feed or notifications and reply to a comment, but anything
| more involved is very annoying (so you end up not doing this
| and long-term using Facebook less, which is a good thing)
| kevin_thibedeau wrote:
| You long press the notification and block the app. Pretty
| straightforward.
| Zigurd wrote:
| Step 1: Within the Facebook App (Most Important) Open the
| Facebook app. Tap the Menu icon (three lines/your profile
| picture) > Settings & Privacy > Settings. Scroll to
| Notifications (under "Notifications and Permissions"). Tap
| Notifications, then select Push notifications. Toggle off all
| notification types (Comments, Likes, Tags, Birthdays, etc.)
| and turn off the main Push Notifications toggle. Check Email
| & SMS Notifications and Mobile Push Notifications to disable
| any lingering alerts there. Step 2: In Android System
| Settings Open your phone's Settings app. Go to Apps, Apps &
| notifications, or Applications (depending on your Android
| version). Find and tap on Facebook. Tap Notifications. Turn
| the main All Facebook notifications toggle OFF (it should
| turn gray). Step 3: For Browser-Based Notifications (Pop-ups)
| Open your browser (Chrome, Firefox, etc.) on your phone. Go
| to Settings > Site Settings > Notifications. Find Facebook in
| the allowed list and block it, or remove it entirely. If They
| Still Persist (Advanced) Check for app updates: Sometimes
| updates reset settings; re-apply Step 1 and 2. Use a third-
| party blocker: Apps like Freedom or similar tools can block
| the app or its notifications at a system level. Restrict
| Background Data: In Android Settings > Apps > Facebook >
| Mobile data & Wi-Fi, you can restrict background data usage.
| tracker1 wrote:
| I just disable notifications for Facebook on my phone
| altogether. I'll proactively check every few days.
| cocoto wrote:
| I'm now an iOS user but the problem is actually the same here :
| apps not respecting communication channels to push ads (mostly to
| their own app or service). I usually fully block notifications
| from most apps but for some apps the notifications are really
| convenient (carpooling, transport or delivery app). Yes I want to
| know if the train I booked is delayed. No I don't want to be
| notified that you are now partnering with another transport
| company and that you are sharing 5% off coupons to try it... I
| systematically give a 1 star review explaining the issue and mail
| the devs if possible. I even think that Apple Store and Play
| Store ToSs are against this practice but they are not enforcing
| it sadly...
| johnmaguire wrote:
| Worse even because iOS doesn't offer notification
| groups/channels like Android does (ignoring the fact that
| market leaders like Uber, DoorDash, etc. eschew them in favor
| of "General" channels they can pump both delivery/ride info and
| ads through.)
|
| IMO this needs to be an app guideline enforced by the iOS App
| Store and Play Store. I remember back in the day, iOS used to
| be known for having less spammy notifications.
| plagiarist wrote:
| I remember when I first started seeing obvious ads in
| notifications and assumed Apple would come down hard. I wish
| I had been right.
|
| If any app abuses the notifications at all I turn them all
| off, that's the only way to stop it. If the notifications are
| required for the app's operation, well, then I have to delete
| the app.
|
| Society has fucked itself over allowing these to exist.
| oblio wrote:
| > IMO this needs to be an app guideline enforced by the iOS
| App Store and Play Store.
|
| Yeah, but... money.
| johnmaguire wrote:
| Maybe this matters at the bottom end of the market, but
| it's mainly the top players I see take this approach to
| notifications. DoorDash, Uber, and the social media
| platforms all have incentive to stay on the official app
| stores.
|
| I expect the bottom end of the market is also dependent on
| the official app stores to make money. What real
| alternatives do users have, especially with sideloading on
| Android now requiring Google bless your APK anyway? (edit:
| Looks like Google has started to walk this back slightly.
| Even still. https://android-
| developers.googleblog.com/2025/11/android-de...)
| benterix wrote:
| I chose the hard way and disabled them anyway. If I want to
| know if a train is delayed, I check. If I wait for a driver, I
| check. Actually the latter is better as I'm not surprised by
| the guy arriving but can synchronize well. And frankly, I don't
| complain.
|
| And every evening or so I sit down on my computer and check
| WhatsApp notifications on web.whatsapp.com to catch up with
| what's going on in groups people added me to. I find this quite
| good for my well-being.
| reedf1 wrote:
| My solution to this problem was to have my phone permanently on
| silent. The logic being - there was nothing so urgent 25 years
| ago that couldn't be solved by an asynchronous answering machine
| message checked once a day; why do I need moment to moment
| updates now.
|
| Nowadays I'd probably use a tool like yours. My partner is going
| through legitimate withdrawal symptoms after two years of short-
| form content addiction. Turning off all notifications was one of
| the first things I did for them.
| shrubby wrote:
| I'm occasionally keeping my data turned off and am telling
| everyone "if urgent call me".
| swah wrote:
| (3rd world) problem: most people think calling is pressing
| the phone button inside Whatsapp.
| ivanjermakov wrote:
| At least on iOS, internet call is treated basically the
| same as cellular, showing a splash caller screen and
| ringing if not on silent. This means that it's trivial to
| setup phone in such a way that no notification gets through
| but calls do, even with sound.
| Zak wrote:
| This is also true on Android.
| rohandhruva wrote:
| The point being made above is that if data is turned off,
| you can no longer receive calls made over WhatsApp.
| blauditore wrote:
| Even when checking once a day, it's still worse with spam
| notifications. It's like getting 20 spam phone calls on your
| answering machine between the real ones.
| worksonmine wrote:
| Another option is to avoid those kinds of apps. I get 0
| notifications I would consider spam.
| blauditore wrote:
| There are e.g. banking apps doing that.
| mattbee wrote:
| I've been happy with the solution of switching off notifications
| from apps that interrupt me with promotions - one strike and
| they're out.
|
| The remaining notifications are _still_ frequent enough that no
| single app can expect to get my attention with a single buzz.
|
| It's not like apps don't upsell to when I _open_ them and have to
| swipe away ads before I can use them. So why give them another
| channel?
|
| 25-years ago me is going to roll his eyes _so_ hard, but you know
| where I don 't mind slightly-targeted ads? My email & my doormat.
| Send me a catalogue, I love a catalogue.
| awaaz wrote:
| > I've been happy with the solution of switching off
| notifications from apps that interrupt me with promotions - one
| strike and they're out.
|
| I have exactly the same policy. But in my case I am forced to
| keep notifications enabled from apps like MyGate (since nobody
| would be able to visit me without it) and I have no say in the
| matter - my gated society uses it and my only way out is to pay
| for the app itself.
| mattbee wrote:
| Ah OK - personally that would move it from an "annoying app
| with adverts" charge (that I'd resist) to a "leasehold
| bullshit" charge (that I'd pay).
|
| I am stuck similarly with the ClassDojo app that my kids
| school uses to communicate with parents. The notifications
| are just "You have a new notification!" which leads to a slow
| app load, an upsell splash, before finally having to scroll
| to find the important message from a teacher. In this case
| though, paying would not make it any less slow to use.
|
| I just check once a week instead, and the parents WhatsApp
| group fills in the gaps for me.
| Willamin wrote:
| I also do my best to stick to a "one strike and they're out"
| personal policy.
|
| But I also have apps that push marketing through notifications
| _and_ are urgent on a reoccurring basis (usually delivery or
| rideshare apps). For those, I'd love if there was a system
| notification setting (per app) for "allow notifications from
| this all for the next X hours" _and_ a simple UX to make that
| happen.
| hobofan wrote:
| This is great! Looking forward to using it. Especially the rule-
| based filtering function, as my biggest sore spot with
| notifications are the few handful of highly functional apps that
| stuff marketing notifications into notification groups that are
| not marked for marketing.
| cjbarber wrote:
| It would be neat to be able to do LLM filtered notifications.
| Perhaps with a local LLM for users that prefer.
|
| I hope that Apple does a better job of this too! I don't want
| Uber's ad notifications, but I do want their notifications about
| my vehicle status.
| stonecharioteer wrote:
| This is really great. I chuckled seeing MyGate. I hate that app.
| My society uses it and I'd need this exactly for it. I hate that
| Android doesn't force devs to use the right notification
| category. Apps need to be penalized for not adhering to that.
| awaaz wrote:
| You're welcome, friend!
| drnick1 wrote:
| If you really need an app, e.g. for work, put in a separate
| user profile (sorry iOS users, your phone is gimped).
| tisdadd wrote:
| I agree, this is an excellent idea and I am excited to try it.
| princevegeta89 wrote:
| I use an app called BuzzKill on Android for achieving this and
| many more things. I usually keep my notification bar at an
| absolute minimum when it comes to the number of notifications,
| but this app allows me to set rules for notifications based on
| their content. By default, all apps that I use have notifications
| turned off by default and they also get into deep sleep mode. So
| I'm sure they are not even running after a while. Only apps like
| WhatsApp, Slack, Signal can receive notifications. And by using
| the rules on Buzzkill, I am also able to automatically discard
| marketing notifications and useless notifications from these apps
| as well.
|
| For an app like Google Maps though, I completely turned off
| notifications because there's really no need for me to have them.
| If you go into the notification settings through the Google Maps
| app, it's a big shitshow because it has some 40 categories that
| you will have to manually manage and I'm sure this was designed
| for the very purpose of letting users become tired after looking
| at them and then leave things as is.
|
| Similarly, I do think the vast majority of the apps that we use
| don't need to send us any notifications at all. Thanks to Android
| for adding this feature to block all notifications from apps some
| four years ago, I guess.
| BeetleB wrote:
| I second Buzzkill. My comment was going to be "What does this
| do that Buzzkill doesn't?"
| awaaz wrote:
| Honestly I did not know about Buzzkill. I suppose the big
| differentiator is that DoNotNotify is absolutely free.
| princevegeta89 wrote:
| Well yeah, it's great that you made a free app that can do
| similar things, I was just pointing at an alternative that
| folks can try.
| BeetleB wrote:
| Glad there are other options! Before Buzzkill I used
| another app that stopped being maintained and then stopped
| working on newer Androids. I had to deal with notifications
| for a year before I found Buzzkill.
| weli wrote:
| For samsung users I think good lock can do something similar.
| pkulak wrote:
| Wow, I had no idea Android allowed a third party app to take over
| absolute control of all notifications. I assume you have to allow
| it somehow? It's actually very cool that this is possible. Apple
| would never even consider allowing this.
| awaaz wrote:
| Yes, it requires a special permission, which the app asks for
| when it is first launched. Thankfully no other permissions are
| required.
| Brajeshwar wrote:
| Here is a fun story. Just like you, I too live in a "gated
| community", and we also default to MyGate. We have a founders
| group in there, and the things with MyGate and its irritations
| would sometimes come up. We all would wink and go about our days.
| The founder of MyGate is in the group and is one of the
| neighbors. We sometimes teased that we would just camp out
| outside his home, asking him to fix these excessive notification
| issues and bugs, and to add/edit features. ;-)
|
| Another founder friend lives in a different mid-sized community
| and was using MyGate. He got pissed not just at the ads but at
| the massive data gathering--contacts, camera, flashlight, and
| everything. He ended up creating https://dobermanapp.com
| 0xbadcafebee wrote:
| The _Before Launcher_ for Android has a notification filter as
| well, and is a great simple launcher. It doesn 't let you create
| rules, but you can enable/disable each app's notification, choose
| what kind of notification it gives, and you can enable/disable
| categories of notifications (call, navigation, event, alarm,
| progress, system, car_emergency, stopwatch, missed_call,
| reminder). You swipe right on the launcher and it shows you the
| pending notifications.
| lukan wrote:
| The mygate app you have to use made me curious.
|
| They proudly advertise:
|
| "Capture the attention of India's most sought-after communities"
|
| https://mygate.com/ad-platform/"
|
| Faszinating, literal vendor lock in. I know that moving places
| suck (I am just doing it), but this would be unacceptable for me.
| busymom0 wrote:
| They also advertise:
|
| > 47% DAU:MAU
|
| > Build strong brand recall with high frequency on our daily-
| use app
|
| Spamming notifications is how they are getting these high
| frequency users.
| sega_sai wrote:
| I have an Android phone and it's constantly set to 'Do not
| disturb'. I only have a couple of people that are exempt (you can
| do that in the settings). Because of this I am not too fussed
| about even occasional extra notification, because I deal with all
| of them when I have time.
| awaaz wrote:
| Personally it just grates me when my notifications stack up
| (even if I wasn't disturbed when the notifications came in). My
| philosophy is - I should be able to control what I see, hence
| this app.
| modeless wrote:
| Android (at least on Pixel) recently added a notification spam
| detection system, under the name "Notification Organizer".
| Unfortunately they don't let you block the spam, only
| deprioritize it. So it won't make noise, but you still have to
| manually dismiss it from the notification drawer. The PMs
| _almost_ had the right idea...
|
| Luckily on Android you can use Tasker and the AutoNotification
| plugin to block specific notifications that bug you. And I guess
| this app is now another alternative. I don't know how iOS people
| live without the ability to do this. My wife, who uses iOS, is
| constantly complaining about annoying notifications and there's
| nothing I can do to help her.
| Pxtl wrote:
| Imho there are 3 separate classes of notifications
|
| 1) Ads - these should not exist, really, or at worst should be
| flagged in the app store as an anti-feature isolateable from
| other notifications.
|
| 2) "Recommendations" - that is, stuff you didn't subscribe to but
| are things the app offers that they "think you would like". These
| are defensible but should never ever be mixed with...
|
| 3) Stuff I actually explicitly subscribed to.
|
| Breaking these rules should be rejection from the app store.
| Especially now that Google is legally required to allow 3rd-party
| app stores, they have much greater grounds to properly curate the
| Play Store. Let the filth live on 3rd-party stores.
| benrutter wrote:
| This looks nice! I had no idea you could actually control
| notifications as an app.
|
| One thing I've always wanted is the ability to "group"
| notifications.
|
| Apps like WhatsApp can be really bad for pinging lots of times
| within a minute for individual messages. I really don't need my
| phone to buzz more than once every five minutes, and wish I could
| set rules like "don't buzz for x minutes after a notification".
| tracker1 wrote:
| That would be nice.. or at least, don't buzz unless it's after
| I've activated and interacted with the phone/app in question.
| awaaz wrote:
| That's a great suggestion. Perhaps in the next version!
| emilburzo wrote:
| Since Android 15, Google Pixel phones have a "notification
| cooldown" that sort of fixes this. Hopefully it makes it's way
| to all Android phones at some point.
|
| https://www.androidauthority.com/android-15-notification-coo...
| tracker1 wrote:
| Nice to see something like this... I've gotten to where I simply
| have most app notifications disabled altogether. Pretty much only
| phone calls and text messages get through, and my text message
| notification sound is pretty subtle at that.
|
| If I go a few days without going into a given social media app to
| see the notifications in the app, so be it. For that matter, I'm
| relatively selective about the apps I even install in the first
| place.
| ChrisbyMe wrote:
| yes! I looked into implementing adblock on the iPhone
| notification tray and it didn't look like it was possible. Glad
| someone is working on it for android.
|
| Apps shouldn't be allowed to send notifications for Ads! I give
| any app on my phone one chance to be annoying and then turn them
| off.
|
| This feels like something where we should be able to use an on
| device classifier or even LLM to bucket notifications, similar to
| a spam inbox.
|
| Even better if they can pull any potential coupons out for use
| later without flavor text from the notification itself.
| thecosmicfrog wrote:
| Looks interesting. Good work. Do you have plans to open source
| the code?
| drewg123 wrote:
| Is there anything like this for iOS? Or is something like this
| impossible for a 3rd party to do on iOS?
| awaaz wrote:
| iOS doesn't give developers access to other apps'
| notifications, AFAIK. I'm not an iOS developer though - maybe
| someone with more knowledge can chime in.
| aydin212 wrote:
| Love the on-device approach. The fact that it never phones home
| is a huge differentiator -- most "utility" apps these days are
| just data collection with a feature attached. The regex filtering
| is clever. Have you thought about adding ML-based classification
| for notifications that are harder to catch with patterns?
| Something lightweight like a small on-device model could detect
| promotional vs. transactional notifications without needing
| manual rules. Also curious about battery impact -- how often does
| it process the notification stream?
| awaaz wrote:
| > Have you thought about adding ML-based classification for
| notifications that are harder to catch with patterns?
|
| Honestly that's a little out my league. The idea did occur to
| me, but I'm discouraged by the amount of compute required for
| most ML.
|
| > Also curious about battery impact -- how often does it
| process the notification stream?
|
| The OS sends any new notification to the app (it is a push
| based approach) automatically. On my own phone, this app
| currently shows at the bottom of the list in battery usage
| (<1%).
| Draiken wrote:
| I would love to use this, but I don't want to allow a third party
| app with closed source to read all my notifications. This can
| read OTP passwords, full messages, etc. so it must be open source
| for me to consider it.
|
| I would donate/pay for this if it was open source on F-Droid.
|
| Kudos to you for building it. I put off building this exact same
| application so many times it's not even funny. Too bad I'm too
| lazy to maintain something like this.
| gruez wrote:
| >I would love to use this, but I don't want to allow a third
| party app with closed source to read all my notifications. This
| can read OTP passwords, full messages, etc. so it must be open
| source for me to consider it.
|
| The app lacks the INTERNET permission so it can't really
| exfiltrate data even if it wanted to.
| nelblu wrote:
| This is correct, but it is still a slippery slope. At some
| point the dev ends up adding internet permission (might be
| for legit reasons too), and lo and behold you are sharing
| your data. For something as sensitive as notifications, I
| really can't trust anything but open-source app which is
| vetted by a few seasoned people and hosted on F-droid.
| gassi wrote:
| Related, GrapheneOS has a handy feature to disable network
| access for individual apps.
| yonatan8070 wrote:
| Also non-GrapheneOS Android. I'm on CrDroid (Android 16),
| ans if I go into "Settings -> Apps -> Some App -> Mobile
| data usage", there's a toggle for "Allow internet
| access", and a few more to control network access on Wi-
| Fi, cellular, background, and VPN.
| sallveburrpi wrote:
| If the permission is added in retrospect wouldn't you still
| need to opt in?
|
| fwiw i completely agree that oss is the way to go here
| malfist wrote:
| Is that actually required? I thought that was implicit
| wiseowise wrote:
| Yes. Without the permission all network requests will just
| fail.
| IshKebab wrote:
| You can silently add the permission in an update though.
| It's safe if you don't auto-update it I guess.
| hn8726 wrote:
| It's automatically granted but the app needs to declare it
| in order to access internet. Because of that it's not
| enough that the app _currently_ doesn't request internet
| permissions, because if it ever starts, it would be mostly
| transparent to a user
| blauditore wrote:
| That's another pet peeve of mine: Why the hell can't we block
| internet access for apps in (native) Android? Everything else
| is a permission, but this is not, somehow.
| hexyl_C_gut wrote:
| Maybe Google doesn't want users blocking ads from getting
| loaded.
| pava0 wrote:
| Wait, we can in Android. In my OnePlus 12 in the app
| settings under "data usage" there are two toggles for
| "disable mobile data" / "disable wifi"
| wafflemaker wrote:
| Wow, thought it was GrapheneOS only, but no.
|
| Confirmed these settings on One+15 on OOS16 (based on
| Android 16).
|
| Is it also the case for other Android brands?
|
| P.S. I did use it before to turn off ads.
| blauditore wrote:
| Google's Pixel phones (near stock Android) famously do
| NOT have the option.
| fa3556 wrote:
| Xiaomi phones also have it but you can block Wi-Fi only
| for user (non system) apps. However you can block mobile
| data access to all apps.
|
| None of the Samsungs I have owned so far had this feature
| and neither did my last Pixel.
| stronglikedan wrote:
| I have an S25 Ultra with the latest version of Android,
| and these options don't seem to be there at all. I don't
| have a "data usage" under Permissions for any apps. I do
| have a Mobile Data section under App Info for any given
| app, but there's no way to toggle the options you
| mentioned.
| indolering wrote:
| It's hard to rule out intentional side channels without
| access to source.
| awaaz wrote:
| Fair enough, you only have my word on it (that it doesn't send
| any data to the Internet). But you do have my word :)
|
| Another person requested that the app be open-sourced as well.
| I will look into that.
| Zak wrote:
| I'm going to join the list of voices requesting open source
| here. If you're not planning to charge money for this, there
| are several benefits starting with increased trust.
|
| Mobile apps are a cesspool of user-hostile behavior, and I
| have a strong preference for not giving closed source apps
| access to sensitive data.
| positive-spite wrote:
| I would greatly appreciate it, if this was open source :)
| Especially since this will be able to read 2FA codes sent by
| SMS. (I get that SMS 2FA codes are not perfectly safe to
| begin with, I personally don't love them either, but they are
| still used on a bunch of services)
|
| Just makes me sleep a little better.
| JazCE wrote:
| It's something i've also vaguely thought about building myself,
| because god damn uber, how many times do you need to send me an
| advert for uber one? just tell me when my car is here.
|
| so congrats to the author of this. I do agree that I'd prefer
| it open sourced too, it feels a bit risky it having access to
| all your notifications.
| princevegeta89 wrote:
| If you're feeling skeptical and just want to be sure, you can
| use this NetGuard https://github.com/M66B/NetGuard to block
| internet access for any app.
| Draiken wrote:
| TIL! What a find. Thanks mate!
|
| I might actually try this now.
| princevegeta89 wrote:
| You're welcome
| Defolter wrote:
| Great tool. Additionally, some Android forks (ColorOS) allow
| you to do this without apps, directly in the system settings
| of the app
| psittacus wrote:
| It took me a moment to find, but Alertly claims to do something
| similar while being open-source. Last commit was made two years
| ago though.
|
| https://f-droid.org/packages/com.example.notificationalerter
|
| https://github.com/lightningcpu/Alertly
| bembo wrote:
| What about this?
| https://f-droid.org/packages/co.adityarajput.notifilter
| myworkaccount2 wrote:
| when will it be available through fdroid?
| bityard wrote:
| I guess I'm surprised that Android would allow one app to
| read/manage/block notifications from all other apps. I mean, I'm
| happy to have that kind of control over my phone, but it also
| seems like it could be viewed as a giant security hole? (Which
| would be a bit ironic given that Google is actively stamping out
| the ability for users to install apps that come from outside
| their walled garden.)
| awaaz wrote:
| The app requires a very specific permission for this, which it
| asks for on first launch. It's not even just a popup on which
| you can tap "Ok" - Android will take you to a special screen
| from where you need to manually switch on the notifications
| access for it to work.
| throw-12-16 wrote:
| this isn't a native feature?
| bpavuk wrote:
| there is a very similar app with much bigger history and
| (obviously) greater reputation: BuzzKill. [0] it's paid,
| available on Google Play, has tons of features and then some.
|
| also, I bet that Android platform forbids you from requesting the
| internet permission if you use some "dangerous" permissions, e.g.
| reading notifications.
|
| EDIT: added link.
|
| [0]:
| https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.samruston....
| Zak wrote:
| My approach to this problem is to not install apps that could be
| websites, and to remove apps that send me useless notifications.
| Some apps use notification categories, which gives the user some
| control.
|
| A feature that _would_ make this app useful to me is a
| notification digest as a third option in addition to allow and
| deny. The digest would hold certain notifications and show them
| to me all at once on a schedule I set.
|
| For a concrete use case, I have low-priority group chats and
| high-priority direct messages in the same messaging app. I want
| the direct messages to interrupt me at any time, and I want to be
| told I have unread group chats a couple times a day without
| having to poll them manually.
| blauditore wrote:
| This has been a huge pet peeve of mine. I generally leave bad
| Play store reviews with a note, because that's usually the only
| thing they care about.
| naimurhasanrwd wrote:
| Does the app has any country wise template rule collections? I
| would love to have the feature but not willing to write rule 100
| rules for 30 apps by my own.
| Gabrys1 wrote:
| LLM would help with this immensely, if only it was allowed (not
| sure how though... make the ruleset available as a single text
| field for export/import, maybe?)
| awaaz wrote:
| It does have rules for about 25 common apps already built in. I
| had considered making a feature to 'share' rules with other
| users of the app, but that would've required Internet access.
| And as you can see from the comments on this thread, nobody
| wants an app like this to send data :(
| rockskon wrote:
| However bad you think you have it with phone notifications - it
| is ten-times worse for the elderly.
|
| The enormity of the garbage spam they get from phone app
| notifications and text messages is breathtaking.
| oezi wrote:
| I am surprised that nobody seems to have the opposite problem:
| Modern Android just no longer delivers notifications in realtime
| but bunches them and delays them to a degree that you can't rely
| on them anymore for synchronous communication. Whatsapp and Gmail
| messages often trigger notifications up to 15 minutes after being
| received for me. Infuriating.
| bgbntty2 wrote:
| With apps like Signal, installed via apk, without going through
| Google on a de-Googled phone, I receive notifications in real
| time. What's the point of having all notifications go through
| Google, except to save some battery life and data?
|
| Also, can Google read push notifications going through FCM?
| metalman wrote:
| Having never had a google account or used the "play" store, but
| having only used android phones(so far) I would try this from
| fdroid, etc. I have a workarounds that dissables all
| notifications except for pm's, the trickiest ones bieng for the
| varios google (dis)services. The other main workaround is to use
| webpage sign ins rather than apps through an oddball browser that
| breaks anything........hmmmm, too agressive, which luckily comes
| in another flavor that I have set up for banking, and certain
| other sign ins. But what I would realy realy like a cache cleaner
| that would wipe EVERYTHING , or better yet a detailed list of all
| running services and cached data AND bieng able to see the
| network. could be called WTFIGO, or FIGO for short
| dorianmariecom wrote:
| ad block for android notifications (maybe for ios notifications
| too?)
| tangoalpha wrote:
| I used to use Spren app. It later disappeared. I still use an old
| apk that I preserved. Works great! This app looks great. Will
| try!
| dmitrygr wrote:
| This problem was _supposed to be_ solved by app stores filtering
| these apps out. Sadly this does not work 100%. Some apps do this
| but are too-big-to-ban-from-the-appstore and others point to the
| first group and scream about selective enforcement. Thank you for
| providing this extra layer of protection!
| jFriedensreich wrote:
| As others pointed out: This >needs< to be open source, no way i
| touch another abandonware/ adware android project.
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