Feature discussion: Suppress notifications based on system filters?

[Achilleas Koutsou]

On 14/04/15 07:10, Albert Vaca wrote:
>
> On Thu, Apr 2, 2015 at 5:54 AM, Achilleas Koutsou <achilleas.k at gmail.com
> <mailto:achilleas.k at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>     I've been thinking about possible changes to the Notifications plugin
>     and I'd like to get some feedback from the devs and users here before
>     attempting anything.
>
>     I've been using the new "Interruptions" feature, introduced in Lollipop,
>     to suppress notifications (partially or completely). For those not
>     familiar, the feature allows the user to set a system-wide filter for
>     notifications. The user can specify a list of priority apps and
>     contacts, set the phone to "Priority only notifications" mode and that
>     suppresses every notification that's from an app or a contact not on the
>     priority list. Also, the user can set the notification mode to "None",
>     which ignores the priority list and suppresses all notifications. In
>     both cases ("Priority only" and "None") the system suppresses only sound
>     and vibration. On-screen notifications still appear and icons are still
>     placed in the notification area at the top of the screen for all apps
>     and contacts.
>
>     Since all apps and contacts create visible notifications, these get
>     forwarded by the Notification plugin. So, if I set notifications to
>     "None", the phone is completely silent and does not vibrate, but I still
>     receive pop-up notifications on the desktop.
>
>     My suggestion: Change the Notification plugin to only forward
>     notifications to other devices if they are on the priority list, when in
>     priority mode. In other words, suppress the forwarding of notifications
>     when the user has selected not to be notified.
>
>     API 21 of the NotificationListenerService supports checking whether a
>     notification matches the current filter settings [1], so the
>     implementation seems straightforward.
>
>     If you think this is a bad idea, or if you like receiving desktop
>     notifications from the phone when it's filtering mode, how
>     would you feel about making it an optional setting in the plugin?
>     I realise that some may want to receive desktop notifications while
>     suppressing sound & vibration on the phone as a way to keep the phone
>     silent while still being able to see notifications.
>
>     So, what do you think?
>
>     --
>     Achilleas
>
>     [1] -
>     https://developer.android.com/reference/android/service/notification/NotificationListenerService.html#getCurrentInterruptionFilter()
>
>
> Hi Achilleas,
>
> Sorry for the late reply. Even though I don't use the new priority
> notifications thingy, to me it makes sense to honor the filter and only
> forward the notifications that match it. However, changing the behaviour
> of an existing feature usually makes users unhappy, so I would say it's
> better to make it optional (ie: a checkbox in the notifications
> settings). Would you be willing to implement this change?
>
> Albert
>

I agree completely. Such subtle changes usually cause the most 
disturbance. I'd be willing to implement it, of course. I proposed it as 
a feature that I'd work on and I wouldn't expect anyone else to 
implement something that (as far as I know) only one person requested.
It would, of course, be optional, and the default would be the existing 
behaviour. I'll let you know if and when I do anything about this.