Hacker News Reader

Having a home page free of little red circles changes how you look at your device. It is freeing and a breath of fresh air. It is amazing what a psychological impact these red badges have over us.

I recently turned off all notifications. Messaging apps can still have badges. As a former developer for a notification sending product I feel stunned at how much I’m preferring this setup.

Just removing my email from the home page so I have to go to a web interface instead has made me far less neurotic about checking it. Before I’d check hourly, now I check it a couple times a week. And nothing bad has happened because of it.

You can also set the phone to monochrome: the bubbles are still there, but they aren't red, which makes then much less distracting.

Thanks, I wasn’t aware that’s what a badge was!