Notices by Sam Lehman :nixos: (lehmanator@fosstodon.org)

@httpjames @dansup trippin

Android 14 changed the color of the low battery icon from red to white.

Recently, for some reason, I've stopped getting "Battery low" notifications at very low percents...but I still get them at 30% & 25% (I have it set to start at 30%).

...so now I rarely notice when my phone is about to die. This has interrupted me on so many occasions.

My hatred of Android has been growing exponentially lately.

Every app wants to notify immediately. Within 30 seconds of booting, I have 11 notifications (excluding the grouped ones).

The only stuff I actually want to alert me are: emails, SMS messages, missed calls, & direct messages.

...but half of these are so flooded with spam that anything I actually want is drowned out by noise.

This results in me just ignoring my phone.

My initial complaint is the kicker, the only thing I actually want notified by that isn't full of spam **just doesn't work**

Many versions ago, Google tried to address battery issues from each app perpetually running in the background to poll for notifications by providing its own cloud-based push notification service & blocking background services unless the app is posting an ongoing notification.

...so now, every app that needs to run in the background, *FOSS or not*, must keep a **useless** notification posted that does nothing but clutter the drawer.

I use #GrapheneOS, which does a fair amount to curb some of my biggest problems with default #Android.

...but at the end of the day, the ecosystem is built on behalf of & in service of advertisers & spyware manufacturers, so problems like every app spamming notifications persist.

Google has tried to fix the notification spam (probably to prevent competing advertisers from encroaching on their market share), but ended up exacerbating this problem.

My phone, despite my best efforts, works against my wishes on behalf of others.

This is a device society expects you to carry 24/7 & acts as your primary gateway to both digital & IRL services. i.e. mandatory.

#Google is a cartel colonizing the attention spans of billions of people. It must be broken up & the #AOSP project should be put under the control of a democratic organization

#MobileLinux cannot come fast enough. I'l tolerate **any** level of jank to never have to touch Android again.

for ref, I'm someone who has spent a HUGE amount of time/effort to avoid spammy services acting as a gateway to my brain for advertisers, self-host alt services that dont do this, & restrict notifs when I must keep a spammy service around

...and it still feels hopeless.

I feel so bad for non-technical people. I saw my grandma'a notification drawer when helping her w/ her phone, & it looked like a casino w/ 100s of attempts from various services to get her to buy or interact with their products

@inthehands

Sounds like a thought-provoking lesson!

I like to think I'm a *good* communicator, but this discussion thread makes me suspect there are things I fail to consider that might sabotage my intentions.

I'll give that podcast ep a listen.

@inthehands

Software types put way too much respect on the "super technically competent dickhead" archetype.

Yeah, they might be a beast at stomping out bugs or churning out features, but how many bugs were missed or features poorly written because no one wants to ask this guy questions. If no one wants to talk to you, your effectiveness is limited to your individual capabilities, whereas better communicators multiply their expertise, even if their individual capacity is less.

@inthehands This thread contains a lot of wisdom, especially the bit about looking for friction between teams.

Effective communication is hard, but so so so important. Failures can manifest in subtle ways & often compound.

It's easy to conceptualize the immediate effects of your speech, but much harder to understand the emergent effects brought about by communication patterns.