This is a smart way to always know when your favorite creators (ahem, me!) have a new video live.
Money move: Sign up for text and email alerts from your bank. Yes, it’s a bit annoying to approve purchases, but this has notified me a few times someone got their hands on my card. In your banking app, go into Settings and look for Alerts or Notifications. Smart move, for sure.
Notifications are out of control
How many of them do you get in a day? The answer will suprise you.
🖤 “You’ve got mail!” The voice behind the famous AOL message, Elwood Edwards, passed away this week at 74. He recorded it back in 1989 for just $200. He definitely should’ve asked for more. Here he is with Jimmy Fallon in 2015, reading those famous lines. Ahh, I miss the ‘90s.
Torque of the town: In the EU, all new cars are required to alert drivers when they’re driving too fast. If a bill passes in California, every 2030 and later model would need GPS or a front-facing cam, along with a function to deliver notifications to drivers exceeding the speed limit by more than 10 mph. Wonder where all that data will end up …
You can set Do Not Disturb to automatically turn on an hour before bedtime and turn off when you usually wake up. It’s how I get my beauty sleep. 💅
- On an iPhone: Open Settings > Focus > Do Not Disturb. Scroll to the Set a Schedule section and tap Add Schedule. Here, select Time and set the From and To times you want your phone to be in this zen-like state.
- On an Android: Swipe down from the top of your screen and hit that gear icon. Find Do Not Disturb. Different Androids have this in slightly different places, but it’s often under Sound or Notifications. Tap Do Not Disturb. Look for an option like Turn on automatically or Schedule. Set your start and end times there.
🌞 Smile for the camera: The sweet spot to mount your video doorbell is 48 inches from the ground. Most doorbell cams have a wide scope, so you don’t need to put them any higher. If you do, you might get notifications every time the sun crosses your porch.
Ultimate power move? Using a dumbphone like the Punkt MP02. Some bosses are switching to old-school tech to cut out distractions and constant notifications. Snap’s Chairman swears by fax machines, saying they’re more secure than email and grab others’ attention because they’re so rare (paywall link).
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Stop embarrassing yourself: My friend’s phone was sitting in the kitchen. I looked over, and her boyfriend was sending some spicy messages. Notifications like those can be tempting for others to read and can reveal a whole lot about you that you may not want to share. Fortunately, you can hide them from your lock screen. Here’s how:
- For Android: Head to Settings > Notifications, tap on the gear icon and select On the lock screen. You’ll have options here to not show any notifications, show all notifications or hide just sensitive notifications.
- For iPhone: Open Settings > Notifications and select Show Previews. Here, you can choose to show them always, when the phone is unlocked or never.
Forced advertising: Soon, you’ll see ads on Snapchat next to messages from your friends. Sponsored snaps will show as unread messages in the main chat tab, but they won’t trigger push notifications, at least. Snap’s stock price is hovering near an all-time low. This is def not a coincidence.
Alerts that matter: You don‘t want Gmail informing you of every single email — only the ones you care about. Set it up that way. Open the Gmail app, tap Menu > Settings, and select your account. Tap Email notifications > High priority only. To set an email (and sender) as high priority, star a message or hit Mark as important.
Airplane mode for the movies: Wear an Apple Watch? Theater mode silences your notifications when you don’t want your watch to light up or make a sound. Swipe up from your control center and tap on the Theater mode button (it looks like a happy face and a sad face side by side).
Wait, what? You can reread that Android notification you didn’t fully look at the first time. Head to your Settings and tap Notifications > Notification History to view that push alert on whatever wild thing Elon Musk said this time.
Ad detour: Google Maps is pushing pop-up ads to drivers that appear as notifications, covering the bottom half of the screen. Google says the ads only expand when tapped on and disappear quickly. Still, talk about a distraction.
📧 Mark Cuban scammed: The billionaire received strange notifications in Gmail before answering a phone call from someone ready to fix his account. He bought it, hook, line and sinker. Reminder: Google will never ask for passwords or verification codes over the phone, email or messages.
Peace among us: Windows 11’s Phone Link lets iPhone users send and receive messages via iMessage, make and receive calls, and see any app notifications on a PC or laptop.
Leave me alone: You’re trying to get something done on your PC and the notifications won’t stop. Click on the Start menu > Settings > System > Focus assist. You’ll see options for customizing the notifications you receive — including one to make them all silent.
Ding-ding-ding! Sign up for text and email alerts from your bank. I do, and, yes, it’s a bit annoying to approve purchases I’ve made, but it’s also notified me a few times someone got their hands on my card. In your banking app, go into Settings and look for Alerts or Notifications.
Search warning: Google’s new AI-generated answers can lead to sketchy sites that trick you into subscribing to browser notifications. Seeing these annoying pop-ups? In Chrome, go to Settings > Content > Notifications, and under Allowed to send notifications, click Remove next to any site you don’t want to hear from.