Jeremy TiceJul 6, 2023
Sean Coates

A really annoying dark pattern I see over and over:

- start using an app or service
- agree to receive notifications such as “your car is here” or “someone replied to you”
- time passes
- app or service starts abusing notifications to get me to engage via promotions or even plain advertising

Often my easiest recourse there is to turn off the app’s notification privileges.

Abusive, short-sighted, and dumb. You’re never getting that permission back.

Jul 4, 2023 at 6:33pmWeb
Show threadAndrew WatermanJul 4, 2023
@sean This!
Show threadFrancis 🏴‍☠️ GulottaJul 4, 2023
@sean I’m looking at you Uber
Show threadDerick RethansJul 4, 2023
@sean Our online supermarket app does that. Pita, as I really do want to know when they're nearly here.
Show threadJos Jul 4, 2023
@sean I really really want one of the mobile platforms to force apps to separate promotional notifications from service notifications. So tired of having to leave Doordash or Lyft or Wegmans (or, or, or… list goes on and on) notifications on in order to receive the ones I need about things arriving or problems with an order, only to be buried by stupid promotional notifications the other 98% of the time.
Show threadSean CoatesJul 4, 2023
@castillar Yep. I’ve thought about exactly this. Punishment for abusing the separation: global notification ban for your app for 1 day, doubles on every infraction.
Show threadDaphne🏳️‍⚧️Jul 6, 2023
@castillar @sean I know iOS has per app options to still receive "time sensitive" notifications even when rest of the notifications are disabled or sent to a digest. Not sure how strong they are enforcing the guidelines on them, but seems to have cleaned up the notification spam I used to see a lot after I switched the noisy apps to digest / time sensitive only.
Show threadJos Jul 6, 2023
@clawswords I should give that a shot and see how much difference it makes!
Show thread(((Jann Gobble)))🏳️‍🌈Jul 5, 2023
@sean 🎶 Yoo-hoo #Uber... 🎶
Show threadEdvin MalinovskisJul 5, 2023
@sean most of the time I stop using it altogether. I lived long enough without it, I can continue to do so 🤷‍♂️
Show threadcharlesesmithJul 6, 2023
@sean Unless there is a reason I 10000% need notifications, I say no by default now.
Show threadNick's worldJul 6, 2023
@lisamelton @sean It depends on the application for me. As long as they don't over advertise me, I'm okay but some advertising is alright. I mean, they gotta make cash somehow right? that's how apps survive.
Show threadAnguaDelphine   Jul 6, 2023
@sean

If I can't use it on a browser I don't want to know.

Dump The Chump - not just the app.
Show threadChad GeidelJul 6, 2023
@sean I've gone through this cycle enough times to say "nope" to notifications the first time the app installs. Because why should I trust the app maker for NOT abusing that when that's literally what every single app made does.
Show threadNicolas Ward Jul 6, 2023
@sean @lisamelton Meetup broke this badly today. Previously it's only been reminders of events in select groups; now promoting some ChatGPT class??
Show threadKim Spence-Jones 🇬🇧😷Jul 6, 2023

@sean So many businesses lose sight of their reason to exist, which should be to provide goods or services that consumers need. (I avoid saying ‘customers’, because there are so many businesses whose customers are advertisers, not consumers.)

Short-term greed inevitably destroys reputation and long-term viability. Often this is driven by investors who don’t understand and don’t care, as long as they get a quick, profitable exit.

Show threadSteve BennettJul 6, 2023

@sean I really want the option to enable a specified apps notifications but only for a limited period of time.

For example, I’ve ordered from a takeaway app and only want notifications for the next hour.
Or I’m travelling today, so my airline can send me notifications for 24 hours before the flight.