Summary
I’ve lived with notification overload for as long as I can remember owning a smartphone! Given how most developers fail to make the best use of notification channels, I’ve had to resort to muting apps whenever they bombard me with too many notifications. The problem? I end up losing important ones in the process. Unfortunately, Android does little to improve this situation. Recently, though, I came across a third-party app that lets me manage Android notifications much better: BuzzKill Notification Manager. It has solved the notification overload problem for good — and more. BuzzKill lets me customize notifications instead of muting them Rules replaced the all-or-nothing toggle The problem with blocking all notifications from an app means you don’t have granular control over the process. Consider a food delivery app, for instance. These apps annoy the hell out of you with all these promotional messages, but you’d miss important notifications if you mute the entire app. For this reason, I keep all notifications active. BuzzKill allows me to solve this problem by offering fine-grained control over which app notifications actually bother me. BuzzKill works by creating rules that apply to how notifications are shown on your device. The rule creation process lets me choose the app, the criteria, and the action to be taken. For instance, with the delivery app, I can set up a rule to automatically hide notifications about offers or promotional deals. On the contrary, I can configure BuzzKill to prioritize notifications containing time-sensitive order details. I do this by setting up filters based on the notification’s content, title, or category. Now, when I see a notification from that delivery app, I know for a fact it’s important. I’d be lying if I told you there’s no learning curve, though. You need a minute to understand how the system works before you can create rules to support your workflow. On the bright side, the interface makes things easier, and you can always use presets from BuzzKill. As you’d guess, selectively muting notifications is one of the many things that BuzzKill lets you do. Controlling when and how often I get buzzed Burst notifications and missed pings both got fixed Burst notifications are something else I struggle with when dealing with Android apps. I’m sure you remember those times when your coworkers go on a rant, and your phone can’t stop buzzing. On the other end of the spectrum, I have important messages I accidentally dismiss and forget. Two features packed into BuzzKill solved both these issues for me. The Cooldown action does something impressive: it mutes subsequent notifications from an app or conversation for a specified period once triggered. Here’s an example I use it for. In our work group chat, people post about their achievements, and they’re almost always followed by congratulatory messages, which are a lot at times. So, I’ve configured BuzzKill to mute the messages from the conversation for 30 minutes from the moment the first congratulatory message arrives. It means my phone doesn’t annoy me as much as it used to, but I can still appreciate my colleagues when I feel like it. The Remind me action does the opposite, but it is quite useful if you often miss important notifications. This function ensures I read important notifications by buzzing at regular intervals. Once again, thanks to BuzzKill’s fine-tuned controls, I can decide which types of notifications from which apps qualify for this special treatment. I’ve set up a few options for Slack messages, and I’ve been catching up with time-sensitive messages sooner rather than later. It is nice to see that BuzzKill helps us focus on important notifications instead of simply getting rid of unimportant ones. Checking notifications got faster, not slower No extra friction once the rules were set Over the last few weeks, I have also experimented with other actions built into BuzzKill. Among the many features included in BuzzKill, the snooze and batch functions are truly lifesavers. Here’s how they work.
The snooze function lets you add a snooze button next to the notificationso you can be reminded later. - The batch function allows you to view all the matching notifications for a specified period. For instance, I don’t want to be notified about my work when I’m back home, so BuzzKill will ensure I see all these notifications when I start work instead of buzzing every single time. I could set it up using a super-intuitive interface as well. The app also lets you configure a system to send notifications in batches at preset intervals, say, every three hours. I can’t elaborate on all these features, but something that I really, really love is called Pocket Check. Have you ever wanted to know there was an important notification on your device, but didn’t want to open your smartphone just for that? I can enable Pocket Check for a specific notification type from a particular app, and when I press the power button, the response will help me decide whether there is such a notification. For instance, I have set it up so that if my spouse has sent a text, when I press the power button, I get a longer vibration to let me know there is a message. If you are willing to spend time exploring the app, BuzzKill offers many options across categories such as Change, Dismiss, Automation, and even System Actions. Where this setup still has real limits BuzzKill has fundamentally changed how I manage notifications on my Android device, but it has limitations! For instance, it does take a lot of time to set up. You need to purchase this app for $3.99, which isn’t a lot, but it is not free. You would also notice the lack of features like Cloud Sync, which means if you have different devices, you will have to set up these rules from scratch. In the end, though, I am happy to pay the same amount I would spend on a coffee if that gives me peace of mind, which is true in the case of BuzzKill.