Notification fatigue

[Black_Mage]

I remember when notifications were awesome. Every notification was something I wanted to know. Recently, I turned off notifications for a lot of apps. Why? Because app notifications are being used more for advertising than for giving me any sort of status update I’m really interested in. It’s frustrating. Have any of you experienced this?

 

[DaveS86]

Nope, I just turn them off

 

[3Rock]

Yep. That’s what I did because of the amount of notifications I got. Both on my phone and my iPad/Apple Watch

 

[Mrbobb]

Third that, just say no.

I believe the only exception for me is my pharmacy and my doctors. If you fly a lot, give it to your airline also, u may want to know the last minute delays and gate changes.

 

[conmee]

Same. I only have notifications On for Authenticator, Banking, eTrade, Wallet, and Weather. And I turn on eBay notifications if I'm running/bidding on an item.

 

[Starfia]

If I'm at all in doubt about my notification setup, I'll consider just turning everything off, then just considering turning on whatever pops into mind as important. The distinction between "banner" and "Notification Center" is critical – at least with "Notification Center," I'm seeing notifications because I'm going to check for them; not so invasive but still more convenient than touring apps.

eBay is my current worst offender with notifications: they let you fine-tune what you receive, but I don't believe they've ever let you turn off "watched item reminders," which just fire at unpredictable times if you're "watching" anything. So it's always a dilemma whether to enable them to actually receive news on active auctions and stuff.

 

[conmee]

If I'm at all in doubt about my notification setup, I'll consider just turning everything off, then just considering turning on whatever pops into mind as important. The distinction between "banner" and "Notification Center" is critical – at least with "Notification Center," I'm seeing notifications because I'm going to check for them; not so invasive but still more convenient than touring apps.

eBay is my current worst offender with notifications: they let you fine-tune what you receive, but I don't believe they've ever let you turn off "watched item reminders," which just fire at unpredictable times if you're "watching" anything. So it's always a dilemma whether to enable them to actually receive news on active auctions and stuff.

Yeah I only turn on eBay if I'm running an auction or in the process of bidding on something. Otherwise I just keep them off. I don't follow anything so interesting or important that I need the "watching" updates.

 

[throAU]

I remember when notifications were awesome. Every notification was something I wanted to know. Recently, I turned off notifications for a lot of apps. Why? Because app notifications are being used more for advertising than for giving me any sort of status update I’m really interested in. It’s frustrating. Have any of you experienced this?

Yes i did and turned off notifications for everything except urgent stuff.

 

[Black_Mage]

I find it amusing that I stumbled on this article a day after I made my post.

https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-...tions-for-a-week-heres-why-im-not-going-back/

Turning off all notifications is too extreme for me. I don't use social media so that was not a problem. It's mainly the restaurant apps that I stopped notifications for. That and Amazon, Credit Karma, and eBay. I'd have no problem with turning the notifications back on if the companies didn't use them for advertising.

 

[BSDnostalgia]

Yes i did and turned off notifications for everything except urgent stuff.

That worked previously and I don't remember it being that difficult. Now, I'm finding it more difficult and time-consuming under IOS 26.

 

[NoBoMac]

I've always have had notification fatigue, even before I started to get them.

So like others, "important" Apple native apps (eg. Mail, Calendar, Reminders, Phone, etc) are immediate. Ditto financial institution alerts. Almost all 3rd party apps are off, will turn on if "important today" (eg. getting an Amazon delivery today).

And don't forget about Notification Summary. I've got mine setup to get a report four times during the day so that can leave on mid-tier important apps and not have to deal with it NOW. And I have few of these these days.

 

[ivanwi11iams]

I only have notifications for phone calls, and text messages...

 

[bjf123]

And don't forget about Notification Summary. I've got mine setup to get a report four times during the day so that can leave on mid-tier important apps and not have to deal with it NOW. And I have few of these these days.

Agreed. I have my summaries appear at 7:30 in the morning so I can check them before I head to work, 12:30 to check at lunch, and 6:00 in the evening. I have notifications from my bank, credit cards, medical providers, etc., come through immediately.

 

[BigBlur]

I haven't turned any off, but I do change the ones that I don't need distracting me to deliver silently (shopping, streaming, food apps, etc.). That way, my phone and watch aren't buzzing all the time, but they are there for me to see whenever I do go through my notifications.

 

[BigMcGuire]

Now that a lot of apps use notifications for advertisement mediums ... yeah... most notifications are turned off.

 

[bransoj]

App devs possibly do need to be careful, too much can drive folk away. For example, and i suspect it wont matter a jot to the dev of the app in the grand scheme of things, i used to use a particular app for cricket scores for my local county team and England but i was also getting pinged with notifications all the time about news for other teams, leagues, news that was of no interest to me. Had a dive into settings but no way to fine tune what notifications i get so its been binned off in favour of a different scores app that just sends me the ones i need.