How many times have you hit the “Clear All” button on your phone’s notifications without even looking at them? Maybe not every day, but I’m guessing it happens from time to time. When you do that, you’re skipping over much of the hard work companies have invested in crafting those notifications — messages designed to enhance your experience or sell you something.
While some notifications you’d likely skip anyway, others might actually be helpful. But we all know the feeling when we just don’t care about that, and all we want is a clear screen, empty of all of that mess. If certain notifications are too annoying, you might even delete the app even if you use it occasionally, because clearing them every day isn’t worth the trouble. “I’ll just download it again when I need it,” we think.
This quick picture of a regular morning, sipping coffee while clearing a messy notifications screen, sums up countless customer interviews on notification blindness. I found that the more effort we put into tailoring notifications, the more frustrating it felt when the results weren’t what we expected. Over time, users tend to ignore or swipe away notifications without reading them, turn off app notifications altogether, and uninstall or disengage from apps that feel noisy, spammy, or irrelevant.
For any company aiming to make a profit, figuring out how to communicate effectively and overcome notification blindness is crucial.
While developing a service, we had to deal with multiple types of notifications: order status, send promotions, remind them about left-out orders, and more. After conducting interviews, A/B testing, and constant data analysis, we found that most customers will do anything to minimize notifications, including not using the service again.
What we thought was important — such as announcing new features or running targeted promo campaigns — actually drove people to opt out or stop using the service altogether. So, we decided to minimize notifications instead.
We implemented delayed notifications for new users, especially those still learning how to place orders, since many created multiple new orders that triggered too many alerts. We set a “1 notification per person” rule for newcomers, tracking their activity and sending a single notification after a set time following their last action. We also introduced a “no more than once per week” rule for promo campaigns. Despite pushback from sales representatives, this approach proved more profitable in the long run.
While opting out was always available, we focused on sending only the most important information, especially regarding order delivery, to minimize distractions. It took years to find the perfect balance.
At the time, there was no AI to help analyze user behavior and optimize notifications. Now, AI can be a game-changer, enabling more personalized and timely messages. Still, even with AI, companies must constantly monitor their notification strategy, since notifications remain a powerful sales tool and a key way to connect customers with support when needed.
Initiative: “Notification channels” and AI prioritization
To increase user engagement in Google apps, they introduced notification categories (channels) in Android 8.0 and later so users could choose which types of alerts they want (e.g., promotions or important updates). Gmail also uses AI-based “Smart Notifications” to notify users only for high-priority emails based on their behavior (e.g., emails from people you usually respond to). This helps prevent Gmail from feeling spammy, especially for corporate workers who receive hundreds of emails daily:
Result:
Initiative: “Daily Digest” + Notification consolidation
LinkedIn realized that users were ignoring constant pings (likes, new job updates, profile views). Many turned off notifications entirely or deleted the app. To fix this, they introduced digest-style notifications, grouped alerts like “5 people viewed your profile today” instead of sending five separate alerts.
They also reduced push frequency based on prior user interaction patterns. The idea was that if a person stopped using an app for any reason (they stopped engaging with it or had already found a job), continuing to send push notifications would likely lead users to delete the app or turn off notifications.
Result:
Initiative: Machine learning-driven relevance filters
At one point, Facebook sent dozens of daily notifications for friend updates, page invites, memories, etc. The problem arose when the number of apps people installed on their phones became overwhelming, as even restaurants and grocery stores now introduce their apps. The number of notifications became unbearable, and users started to handpick the apps that were sending too many notifications.
So, Facebook overhauled the system to personalize notifications based on the likelihood of interaction. The solution that was deemed most suitable was to reduce alerts that don’t lead to click-throughs or user action.
Result:
Initiative: Smart mute and priority control
Enterprise users suffered from alert fatigue in group chats and channels. As I mentioned before, corporate workers might receive hundreds of emails daily, depending on the occupation. So, Slack introduced:
Additionally, some organizations use Slack bots to delay or batch low-priority messages to enhance the corporate user experience further.
Result:
Initiative: Trip-relevant notifications only
Early versions of Uber sent too many generic promos and reminders, leading to uninstalls. They shifted to just-in-time notifications, e.g., “Your driver is 2 min away” or “Time to leave for your scheduled ride” and reduced general marketing pings unless highly personalized.
Result:
Initiative: Focus modes + Notification summary
In iOS 15+, Apple introduced Scheduled Notification Summaries, bundling non-urgent alerts into twice-daily digests while letting urgent messages bypass the filter. Focus Mode lets users suppress certain notifications based on time, location, or activity (work, sleep, fitness, etc.).
Result:
From both personal experience and corporate case studies, companies that successfully address notification blindness tend to:
As AI becomes more common, it may be essential for large corporations to use it to fine-tune notification strategies. But even small startups can benefit from these lessons, customizing their notification approach manually to scale effectively.
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