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Comment by tlug | Hacker News Reader

I find it awkward how Apple is now bravely fighting problems that it has (co-)created in the first place. They invent all the clever ways how to limit the number of notifications and disturbances on the phone. But that's just attacking the problem from the wrong side. If you don't want notifications, just don't enable them! It's that simple.

I may be old (42) but the only notifications that exist on my phone are from SMS and WhatsApp (which I occassionally use). I intentionally don't enable notifications about emails, as this communication medium is by definition not realtime. Of course I'm not on Facebook either, but even if I were, I don't see the point of having to check all the time what fresh pics of cats are other people sharing.

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Such a binary approach is probably too extreme for many people. I think it increases the overall usability of the device if you are able to more granularly define when to and when not to receive notifications.

Even better would be to adjust the expectation (or resignation) that an app/company has to send so many notifications in the first place, whether it's through push notifications, email, or some other channel, and has to constantly try to keep you 'engaged' in order to satisfy their metrics. I'm not sure that would change any time soon so the only easy way forward is to build software that mitigates it.

I'll happily welcome any small step to improving this situation, whether or not Apple shares its responsibility in causing it. It's better than the alternative.

Google has also introduced similar features at I/O last month. This is the industry as a whole trying to fix problems it originally created.

Why is this a bad thing? They’ve might have started something but grant them they ability to change. Their intentions now matter.

I agree and on a similar note get a weird feeling every time I price a car and come to the options or packages that have side airbags or emergency breaking as add-on option choices.

At least Apple (so far) isn't selling these features or limiting them to the newest phones.

Presumably they will work on all phones that can run iOS 12.

Regarding notifications, the real benefit to me of what apple is doing is being able shut off notifications in the heat of the moment instead of digging through the settings menu.

Yep, completely agree.

I've been using the do not disturb feature for a while now (2 years?), gets switched on an hour before I usually go to bed. As you mention, only calls, SMS and whatsapp is enabled for notifications, everything else is switched off. DnD stops these coming through late at night.

I've got nothing against adding extra functionality though. Perhaps being able to tell the phone do not disturb me for the 2 hours might be useful.

I wholeheartedly agree. while I'm not as sparse as you my default response to the "grant notification" request is "no". I rarely if ever change that later, I end up feeling a lot more free than when I was getting notifications from every app all the time.

I'm in my twenties, and this is basically my approach to notifications as well.

My phone and the apps on it exist to serve me, not the other way around.

Your anecdote on notification use cases has been noted by the Ministry of Statistics. Thank you for your participation.

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