Notifications in Android have always been a strong point, so much so that even Apple has had to "copy" the system in which the phone warns of any event resulting from some installed app, including, above all, the reception of messages. However, there are two problems with notifications on Android smartphones:
The first is that too many of them arrive, filling the top bar with icons to signal all kinds of warnings, both those of the messages and those relating to other less interesting applications.
The second is that the settings for deciding how to receive and how to display notifications are different depending on the phone used and are increasingly complex with each new version of the system.
Luckily there is a way to configure notifications in a simple way and we can therefore silence, block, limit or hide the notifications of some applications, also giving a judgment of priority or importance for each app.
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First of all, on the latest versions of Android, then on the smartphones of the last two years, it is possible to silence the audio of all the notifications temporarily, with the Do not disturb option.
Usually you can activate this option by pressing the relative button on the quick switch bar that appears by dragging down the notification bar.
Do not disturb mode is indicated by a moon icon and ensures that the phone does not ring, ring and never vibrate, even when receiving SMS and phone calls.
Do not disturb settings are under the Audio section and allow you to indicate exceptions so that some important phone numbers can still make the phone ring when they call us.
For these special numbers the restriction will therefore be ignored and the phone will ring even if put in Do not disturb mode.
On some smartphones such as Huawei and Samsung Galaxy, it is also possible to program the Do not disturb mode so that it automatically activates at night and deactivates itself in the morning.
In general, to disable notifications on Android for some applications you can do it from the Settings> Apps menu, by touching the name of the app you want to limit or block.
The notification system in Android 8 Oreo is quite complex, highly customizable, but very different than previous versions.
To disable app notifications on Android Oreo, you must then open the Settings, go to Apps and notifications, then tap on Notifications or Notifications Management and tap the individual apps for which you want to limit the notifications .
In the notification options of each application, you can either disable notifications, or keep them active without a ringtone and / or without vibration and keep them hidden from the top bar.
You can also set the notification to make it appear as a banner above the top status bar and decide whether to display the notification on the lock screen (by default notifications on Android are viewable from the lock screen).
Then there is the option to configure the notification of an app as a priority and make it ignore the " Do not disturb " mode.
In Oreo there is also the possibility to give a channel of importance to notifications, choosing from 4 categories:
- Urgent: produces a sound and opens on the screen.
- High: produces a sound and inserts a notification in the bar.
- Medium: no sound, but notification visible in the bar.
- Bass: no sound or visual notification.
NOTE 1: If you do not want to configure notifications for all apps one by one, you can touch and slightly swipe a notification to the left, only when it appears, to bring up a gear button that allows you to enter the settings of notification directly.
You can also touch and hold to see the link to the settings.
NOTE 2: In Android 8.0 boring and useless notifications may appear coming from the system that cannot be deactivated (even if this defect has been corrected in Android 8.1).
In this case, if you want to block system notifications, you need to install an app like Autonotification, which allows you to disable system notifications, adding the Android system in the " notification Blocking " section.
On smartphones with Android 7 Nougat you can disable notifications by going to Settings> Notifications, then touching each app that you don't want to see any warning about.
On smartphones and tablets with Android 6.x (Marshmallow) go to Settings > Sounds and notifications, then scroll down until you see the " App notifications " item.
Also this time you can configure the notifications of individual applications one by one and disable them by pressing the button that blocks everything.
Disable all notifications in one go
On Samsung smartphones, you can disable all notifications for all apps by going to " Settings "> " Notifications ".
The same can be done on Huawei smartphones by going to Settings> Apps and notifications> Notification management> Group management, by turning off the " All " switch.
On other models, this option may have been added.
After disabling notifications for all apps, you can simply switch and enable the apps from which you want to receive notifications.
READ ALSO: Guide to the Android notification bar
