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Comment by cj | Hacker News Reader

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.

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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 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.

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 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.

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.

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