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Ex-app developer here. We do it because reminder notifications boost our re-engagement by over 10%.

When an average user downloads an app, there's like a 70% chance they'll use it day 1, a 10% chance they'll use it day 7, and 1% chance they'll still be using it by day 30. A simple reminder notification after day 3 or 15 can drastically boost those numbers.

Why do we care about the numbers? Because Google and Apple care. They see higher numbers, assume it's a good app, and make it show up in the search results more frequently. This gives us more downloads.

If you're putting the time in to craft a quality app, you probably need money, which comes from ads and subscriptions, which is funneled by the number of downloads. If you don't like that as a user, stick to FDroid.

I fucking hate notifications. I either disable them entirely or delete the app. No in betweens. Remind me to use your app?...deleted.

If an app gives me more than a couple of unwanted notifications that I can't easily disable, it's uninstalled. Fuck that shit.

I believe it was SAP Concur that my last employer used for filing expenses. Every few months it popped up a notification asking me whether or not I "loved it." I always answered "no," because fucking why would I? Then it wanted to know why not. I think that's inappropriate behavior in a professional setting, and I told it so. Regardless, it kept asking the same thing, so I asked if it wanted me to speak to HR.

Nothing ever came of it.

TLDR got sexually harassed by a corpo app.

The CD-Keys website changes the tab title to "We miss you" when the tab loses focus. Pisses me off enough to close it every time.

Just like when a news website pops up a request to send notifications. Um fuck no? I'm not sitting around waiting for new propaganda to drop such that I want to know immediately when something comes out.

The answer: tech bros dictating that they need more “engagement” e.g. they need to collect more data so they can either sell said data or get acquired. I guarantee you very few mobile developers want to send you a notification of any sort, much less “why haven’t you used the app.”

I received a notification to use Door Dash yesterday, to order food... while I was cooking soup.

There's no way I'd use a grocery app. Paper and pen works well enough.

Now, if my phone had a slide-out physical keyboard like it did back in fucking 2007, I'd consider it. As it is, typing on phones is pain.

I force stop the app. I either do it manually or run the hibernator app.

Uber eats wants me to order something?? Congrats you just got yourself and all your friends shut off.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tafayor.hibernator

This is why we need better resource/battery management services with Magisk or Xposed integration. On my phone the Rom has one integrated already, lets you set apps to be prevented from running in the background completely, preventing tracking, annoying notifications, and battery usage. Though unfortunately these types of tools aren't available on all roms, and they really need root or system access to be effective.

Any man who must say "I am the king" is no true king.

That is part of modern app design to increase user interaction which increases profit. Usually it’s just annoying and invasive to the user.

By default I disable notifications for all my apps unless it is something I need notifications from. And even there I still disable notification types that I don't care about in the settings.

Can't other phones do this?