Manage Your Notifications

Before we get into today’s main subject I just want to make a comment on last time’s subject. If you don’t get what you want from your grocer or you’re not happy with the quality and the store isn’t providing a satisfactory answer, don’t hesitate to contact their corporate customer service. They are generally motivated to keep you and will do whatever they can to make it right. Further, the store’s lack of favorable response to a cuatomer’s complaint will come back on the store and will hopefully motivate them to do better.

Too many or not enough notifications?

The apps we install on our phones and tablets just about always want our attention so they will offer to notify you of various things they think you might like or be interested in. The two most obvious examples are news apps and weather apps but most other apps will find a reason to want to notify you. From social media apps telling you about posts from friends or accounts you follow, to apps like Amazon or Walmart telling you about the latest sale. They’re called notifications. Sometimes they’re helpful but they can also be annoying. When you install a new app you will be asked if it’s OK to send you notifications but what if you change your mind? Both Apple and Android allow you to control your notifications in various ways but, of course, the means is a bit different between them.

Apple notification control

Go to Settings → Notifications and you can select one of 3 ways you want your notifications to be presented.

1. Count simply displays the count of notifications you’ve received. Click or touch the count to see the actual notifications

2. Stacked groups notifications from the same app together in a stack. You can see all the notifications in a group by tapping on the group. To see the story or item that the notification pertains to in the app, tap the notification you’re interested in.

3. List displays all the notifications in a list with the most recent at the top.

As of iOS and iPadOS 18.1 Apple allows you enable summarized notifications for individual apps or for all apps. Summarized notifications lets you set a time or times to receive a one or two line AI-generated summary of all the notifications you’ve received for that app. CNet says this may be going away in iOS and iPadOS 18.3 (https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/iphones-ai-notification-summaries-made-apple-intelligence-look-absurd-now-apple-might-kill-the-feature/)

For more detail and information, please see https://www.geeky-gadgets.com/how-to-master-your-notifications-a-guide-to-summary-customization-on-iphone-ipad/.

Android notification control

Swiping down from the top of your screen will show you, among other things, the notifications that your apps have posted for you. Android bundles notifications from the same app so you’ll see only one or two short notifications from an app that has sent you multiple notifications. You can swipe down on the group to see all the individual notifications.

By going to Settings → Notifications → App notifications you can select, by app, whether you want to see that app’s notifications on the lock screen, as a badge on the app’s icon or as a pop-up. You can select one or more of these options for each app. If you allow the app’s notifications on your lock screen then you can control whether you see the actual content of the notification on the lock screen or have the content of the notification hidden. A badge puts the number of notifications the app has posted onto the app’s icon on your home screen. Pop-up will pop the notification up on your screen as opposed to putting it in the notification shade (what you see when you swipe down from the top of your screen).

On the App notifications screen you can disable all notifications from the selected app if you like. But apps can define categories for their notifications. A weather app might, for instance, have a category for high wind or heavy rainfall. You can enable or disable those individual categories here. You can get more detail at https://lifehacker.com/tech/customize-notifications-on-android-phone

Android can also maintain a history of notifications. Go to Settings → Notifications → Notification history to turn it on or off and see your notification history. On Samsung phones go to Settings → Notifications → Advanced settings → Notification history. You can also snooze a particular notification. See https://www.androidauthority.com/3-notification-tricks-android-3507779/ for details.

That’s all for this time

I hope I’ve helped you understand how to manage your notifications on your smart devices. Don't hesitate to write to me if you have questions!

As always, my intent is to help you understand the basics and equip you to search for more detailed information.

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