Do People Know if You Get Their Facebook Notifications

Facebook'south Notifications Are Out of Command. Here'south How to Tame Them.

Facebook already has you lot hooked, merely now it wants to proceed you engaged with dozens of notifications each day. Here's how to become a little peace and tranquillity.

Credit... Elena Xausa

May 30, 2019

Not everyone tin quit Facebook, but "not quitting" doesn't mean you lot want to spend all day on the site. Equally Facebook's notifications get increasingly ambitious, you accept to fight dorsum even harder to reclaim some peace and quiet.

With over two billion active users, it's difficult for Facebook to abound much more by adding new people. Instead, the visitor is focusing on engaging the users it already has, largely by pestering them with an endless stream of notifications. The uptick in notification spam has been well-documented. In just my ain experience, I've received notifications when:

• Someone liked ane of my posts or comments.

• Someone I know posted in a grouping I'thou in.

• Someone I don't know posted in a group I'thousand in.

• Someone is interested in an consequence I'm also interested in. We can exist noncommittal together.

• Someone I'1000 friends with confirmed that she was going to an result I am interested in. This is curiously selective. Seventeen friends said they were going to one effect, but I got notifications for but two — one from my girlfriend and another from someone I never collaborate with.

• Someone I know is live-streaming.

• Someone — anyone — is streaming a video game. This appeared to be lilliputian more than than an advertisement for Facebook Games, the visitor'southward competitor to the game-streaming service Twitch.

In isolation, none of these notifications are a problem. En masse, they become overwhelming. Thanks to the Digital Wellbeing service on my Android telephone — which collects data about how much time y'all spend in apps — I tin tell that, even on a dull day, I get at least 30 mobile push notifications from Facebook. On a busy day, that number can exceed 50. That's two or iii notifications per waking hour. And I'one thousand not a heavy Facebook user.

However, the reality is probable even worse than that. I discovered that notifications for "likes" and other reactions are frequently combined in the Digital Wellbeing count, while annotate notifications are counted individually. Yet both buzz my phone just the same. In other words, while my telephone says I get thirty to 50 notifications per twenty-four hours, the real count is probable much higher.

And that'southward just push notifications. Facebook sometimes chooses which notifications deserve your immediate attention, leaving others for the next time you open the app. A annotate on ane of your posts might become pushed to your phone, but the 20th "like" on that post might not result in a buzz in your pocket. However, if you go along the site open up in a tab on your calculator, or if you cheque the app often, these notifications can add to the racket.

Fortunately, in that location are a number of ways to clip the notification spam, each progressively more than drastic.

Clip your notifications as they come in

Every time yous get a notification on Facebook, whether on desktop or mobile, at that place's a subtle option to train Facebook to stop bothering y'all. In the feed of notifications — which you tin can see when you lot click or tap the bong icon in whatsoever version of the Facebook app — at that place'due south a 3-dot button. (Desktop users must hover over a notification with their mouse to brand this button announced.)

When you tap this button, Facebook gives you a couple of options:

• "Hibernate this notification." This will hide the individual notification in your notification feed. Information technology doesn't do anything to foreclose further notifications, but it volition at least remove this one.

• "Turn off notifications of this blazon/about this mail service." The wording on this option varies by post type, only information technology allows you to unfollow a postal service — which ways yous won't go notifications every fourth dimension someone replies just considering you lot commented in one case — or to plow off notifications from certain pages or groups.

This method requires a bit more agile direction. By design, y'all'll always get at least the first notification, just you lot can foreclose further disruptions. More than important, it requires the fewest changes in your habits. As you lot browse, take a second to tell Facebook what you lot'd similar to encounter less of, and eventually your notifications should calm down a bit.

Plough off some notifications in the app settings

Facebook's settings are notoriously cabalistic, but if you take the time to dig into them, you lot tin observe a lot of switches to plough off Facebook'south biggest annoyances. The notification settings section is in a slightly dissimilar place from platform to platform, simply here's how to discover information technology:

• On the spider web: Click the pointer at the superlative-right corner of the screen and choose "Settings." In the bar on the left side of the screen, click "Notifications."

• On Android: Tap the iii-line menu icon forth the superlative of the app, scroll down and tap "Settings & Privacy," then tap "Settings." Coil even further to find "Notification Settings."

• On the iPhone and iPad: Tap the iii-line carte du jour push at the bottom of the app, scroll down and tap "Settings & Privacy," then tap "Notification Settings."

Once yous observe this buried section, yous'll detect a number of useful toggles. You lot can plough off notifications for specific things like comments, tags and birthdays. At that place are too more than nebulous categories like "More Activity About You." This seems to include everything from likes and reactions on your posts and "On This Day" notifications to "Updates From Friends," which tells y'all when certain friends update their status or share photos. You don't get total command, but you tin at least cut off some of the more abrasive intrusions before you get them.

Y'all can also customize where you become each category of notification. Facebook tin send emails, text messages or push notifications to your phone. If yous'd prefer to get an email almost birthdays rather than an obnoxious buzz on your telephone first affair in the morning time, you can change that here.

Employ the mobile site instead of the Facebook app

You may not jump directly to "Delete Facebook," but that doesn't mean you can't delete the Facebook app. Apps on your phone have the ability to interrupt whatever you're working on, buzz your phone or brand noise, all of which is very disruptive. The mobile site has none of these issues.

Just uninstall the Facebook app and visit Facebook.com through your telephone'due south browser instead. You can even add together a shortcut to the site from your home screen so it'southward just as easy as launching the app. This way, y'all'll run across Facebook notifications only when y'all want to, rather than getting pestered throughout the day. Unfortunately, you won't be able to read Facebook messages (at that place's a separate app for Facebook Messenger if you need it), simply aside from that, everything else works the same.

Across preventing button notifications (which you can likewise turn off entirely), the mobile site has a number of advantages. It limits some of the ways Facebook tin track y'all, information technology uses less battery in the background, and information technology takes up less space on your telephone. If you're not quite ready to give upward your Facebook account, this is a good compromise.

Cutting dorsum on your Facebook fourth dimension

Like a 2-year-sometime throwing a tantrum, Facebook sends y'all notifications to get your attending. Like responding to a toddler'southward tantrum, the best way to discourage this behavior is to stop giving it attention. If you want to cut back on how much Facebook bothers y'all, one of the best means is to terminate letting information technology think that you're interested.

Most Facebook notifications tend to be a result of your ain interactions with the site. You get notifications because you comment on posts, join groups or follow pages. The less y'all practice of these things, the fewer notifications you'll receive. Screen time apps can help limit your Facebook fourth dimension and so you're less tempted to idly scan. Unfollowing pages or groups that don't serve a productive purpose can likewise reduce your notification ataxia.

Put but, the less time you spend on Facebook doing things that don't matter, the fewer notifications you'll get for things that don't matter. Facebook may keep looking for ways to tempt you back, simply if you cut off push button notifications and limit how often you open up the app, and so information technology will be a lot harder for the social media giant to reach you.

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Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/30/smarter-living/stop-facebook-notifications.html

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