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My strategy here is to default notifications off for everything other than calls and texts.

And then manually open Gmail to check mail, manually open Instagram when I feel like checking notifications, etc.

It’s such a better experience when you’re opening an app because you want to, and not because a notification is baiting you.

I actually have an Apple Watch that I mostly use for hiking. I just use a $30 Timex most of the time that I don't need to charge.

there's a big yellow clock up in the sky and if there isn't - you should be sleeping anyway

The yellow clock in the sky doesn't have GPS/mileage indicators :-)

iOS or Android?

Can you default it to off and not have any popups (during run/install) asking you to enable permissions to notify? Or do you have to decline once per app?

iOS. Do a 1 time clean up by manually turning everything off. And then decline for every app you install after that.

I can’t believe I used to be one of those people who got every single email delivered to their smart watch.

> And then decline for every app you install after that.

That's what I already have. And that's what I find painful. I don't want to have to decline at every install. I want a setting that is the default, and no prompts to grant permissions when I install.

How often are you installing apps that it's that frustrating?

It's the principle.

I get that you think it's not a major inconvenience, but if I now throw yet another (pointless) popup for you each time you install an app, are you OK with it?

When I install something on my PC (Linux), I never get such a prompt. If any Linux distribution started giving a prompt on each install, power users will stop using it.

If I installed apps on linux at the frequency I installed apps on my phone, which is a few apps per year, I wouldn't care at all. That being said, I get fewer interruptions installing apps on my phone than I do on most linux CLIs, since on my phone I just press install and it installs, no question. The real problem is first-launch pop-ups/notifications/settings, and linux apps can have as many first launch popups as my phone does.

> if I now throw yet another (pointless) popup for you each time you install an app, are you OK with it?

It would be an extremely minor issue, definitely not rise to the level of having multiple phones being easier. It’d be a few button presses per year.

Allowing GMail to only show a notification when an email is categorized as "important" is an acceptable compromise. (Setting up a bunch of filters to manually control the "importance" helps a lot, too.)

Slippery slope there... just turn them all off.

If it's a real emergency you'll get a voice call.

I feel like a lot of people that are looking for a nostalgic device can get the experience they need by uninstalling most applications and then turning off all notifications first. In doing so, you don't end up with a device that is much different than an old Treo 650 - PIM functionality, messaging, and no growth-hacking loops.

I agree. I see a lot of comments here and articles out on the web where it seems like people don't realize you can turn notifications off. A large portion of the distraction problem of tech is really a notification problem. Push notifications are the scourge of our era. The only things that I get notifications for on my phone are messaging things that I use for personal messaging (text messages, calls, etc.). If I want to check my email I open up an email program and check it. It's mindblowing to me when I look at someone else's phone and see the constant stream of notifications that are nothing more than ads from various apps.

I take a different approach, I use an email client called Shortwave and configured it to deliver most messages on schedules - once a day, once a week, all at once. And then whitelist certain senders and keywords to deliver immediately. That way I don’t feel overwhelmed but I also don’t feel like I’m missing out on important things.

Adding on to this I think it's bizarre how you need to have a phone to navigate life now and corporations just assume you have one. So for example, using QR codes to gain entry to things. It's weird to think about how we all carry around this expensive computer and think nothing of it. It's like when we laugh about how people in the Middle Ages carried a personal knife for eating because hosts wouldn't supply you with a knife. The knives even came in more fancy and expensive versions for the rich kind of like the Android/iPhone divide. I wonder if historians will talk about these phones in the future.

> Adding on to this I think it's bizarre how you need to have a phone to navigate life now and corporations just assume you have one.

I have a VoIP phone line from 2004. I was told yesterday that it was showing up as "Spam" on someone's phone. Sigh.

Also, for 2FA, some services allow phone calls. So I put in the VoIP line and not my cell phone. At some point, any given service switches to text-only for 2FA - but they don't notify me in advance and I'm locked out for good.

Even worse, some 2FA that allow phone calls just will not call my VoIP line. No warnings, etc. But if I put my mobile number it calls.

And QR codes for menus? I try not to eat at such establishments. Paper is cheap. I don't need a fancy menu. If you change your prices, just print new ones.

Android makes it really easy to disable notifications from any app. Pull down the notifications list, long press, select "Turn off" (or "Settings" if you want more details).

It's also possible to make an Android device ask for every permission, including notifications, when a new app is installed. So it's also easy to deny most apps access to notifications, address book, camera, etc. I think it's the default on current Samsung phones, for instance.

Yes, and this is a headache for me.

What I want: In global settings, say "No notifications." Then I don't want to be prompted when I install an app.

> I really like some of the health features on Apple Watch. But I won't buy it because I don't want it to be my watch, and I don't want to pair my Apple account with it. I just want the health features and nothing else.

I use an Oura ring because of this. I want 1) no notifications 2) passive health monitoring 3) no subscription

I was early enough to be grandfathered into no subscription. The app itself gets worse all the time as they try to do provide higher level guidance and make the data harder to see. But it still serves its purpose.

If I had to pay the monthly subscription I might would probably forgo the category altogether.

> You never had to worry about some update changing the behavior on you.

The most WTF thing was when Airpods got a firmware update that worsened the noise cancellation, because some patent troll sued them saying it violated some patent...

> One thing I really miss from the 80's and 90's: When you buy a product (hardware or software), its features and capabilities were stable

The complete opposite to this is Apple’s new UI for the iPhone. It’s so damn buggy I thought I accidentally clicked on Beta Testing!

… this has to be THE worst update thing they’ve pushed since forcing everyone to listen to U2

> I really like some of the health features on Apple Watch. But I won't buy it because I don't want it to be my watch, and I don't want to pair my Apple account with it. I just want the health features and nothing else.

I agree with a lot of what you said, but isn't it wild to think that such a limited device would likely be more expensive than the do-everything Apple Watch that includes the health features among a myriad of others? Selling perhaps in the thousands instead of the zillions, the development costs would be amortized over such a small user base it would be an incredibly niche product. It often falls to us techies to figure out if we can hack an acceptable solution out of the affordable mainstream product.

> Having to micromanage notifications is why I have two phones - one without a SIM card. It's nice to be able to do stuff on the phone and know it won't bug you. I simply put the one with the SIM card elsewhere (other room, leave in car, etc).

A lot of the Graphene/modscene folks use two phones (one cert and with minimal apps and the modded phone). I think it will become more popular with techies unless google goes fully closed source

The refurbished pebble has been perfect for my iPhone. The more limited functionality is exactly what I want. It tells me if someone is calling, but I can’t answer on it. It displays calendar notifications/reminders. It doesn’t do social media, it doesn’t text, it is just a glorified beeper and fun little gadget basically.

Yeah that ship has sailed. A colleague recently reverted back to physical watches, dissing apple's watches as annoying cheap bit of plastics. He prefers his timex, rolex etc. which give you feeling on wrist no smart watch will ever do. He is an extreme minority in current world.

Ironically, or not. I bought an apple watch so that I could ignore my phone.

It works for me. I know whatever is on my phone will be there when I get back to it and in the meantime I know if I'm getting an urgent message or not.