Android’s notification system is one of its strongest features. However, as much as I try to keep things tidy, there are a lot of settings to check. Thankfully, a recent “Notification Organizer” feature does all the hard work for me.
Notification Organizer rolled out to Google Pixel phones last December. It does exactly what the name implies, but the name also undersells how easy and effective it is. My notification tray has been noticeably cleaner ever since I set it up.
The problem with Android notifications
It’s a lot to handle
I’ve been an Android user for over a decade, and notifications are a big reason why. Every time I’ve used an iPhone for an extended period of time, it’s always notifications that eventually drive me away. Android notifications Just Work™, but I have to admit it takes effort to get the best out of them.
See, Android offers a plethora of options when it comes to notifications—it’s what makes them so great. The problem is these options are all over the place, and to truly keep things under control, you need to adjust them on an app-by-app basis.
Everything can be found under the “Notifications” section in the Settings. “App notifications” is where you can toggle them on or off, but each app has specific “Notification categories” that can be toggled as well. On top of that, you can decide how those notifications appear. They can pop up on the screen, show on the lock screen, be silent, minimized, and more.
Going through every single app on your phone and fine-tuning how it handles notifications takes time. This is the exact type of thing AI should be doing for us—Notification Organizer is that tool.
Use this Android feature to separate your work and personal life
Android has a neat built-in feature for separating your digital work life from your personal life. You can create separate profiles for work and life, isolate both spaces, and switch between them as needed. That way, you won’t get Slack notifications during dinner or family text chain notifications during your work hours. It’ll effectively turn your phone into two devices—one for work and for everything else. Let me show you how.
Notification Organizer cleans things up
Sit back and enjoy
Notification Organizer essentially does two things. First, it intelligently categorizes every notification as it comes in. You get to decide which of those categories you’d like to bundle together and silence. You can find it in Settings > Notifications > Notification Organizer. Here are the four categories and their descriptions:
- Promotions: Sales, new features, and more.
- News: Top stories, editorials, and more.
- Social: Likes, posts, and more.
- Suggested: Newsletters, recommended media, and more.
These bundles live in the “Silent” section at the bottom of the notification shade. They don’t appear as icons in the status bar. You can choose whether the bundles are always expanded, never expanded, or automatic.
When the bundle is closed, app icons give you a preview of which notifications are inside. Notifications in these bundles behave just like any other notifications. Tap one to open, swipe to dismiss, or swipe away the entire bundle at once—I love that.
The beauty of the Notification Organizer is that it’s almost entirely hands-off. All you have to do is pick which categories to use and exclude any apps that you don’t want to appear in the bundles. The bundles appear quietly, waiting for you to swipe open the notification tray.
Set it and forget it
Notification Organizer genuinely makes my phone more pleasant to use. For example, there are plenty of apps that have notifications I want to see, but also notifications I don’t care about. That’s what notification categories are intended to help with—as long as the app supports them.
A perfect example is my grocery store’s app. It doesn’t use notification categories, so my order pick-up alerts get lumped in with weekly deals. I can’t have one without the other. The Notification Organizer solves this by putting the deals notifications in the “Promotions” bundle, but lets the pick-up alerts go through normally.
Long story short, I don’t have to wade into the notification settings for each app anymore. It feels like I’m actually seeing the promised benefits of AI. While I’m not ready to let Google summarize my notifications, a more organized phone is something I can get behind.
These 5 Android Notification Features Will Make Your Day Easier
Android’s notification system is one of its most powerful features, but many users only scratch the surface of what it can do. Let’s explore five features that can make your day easier, more productive, and a lot less chaotic.
Stephan is the sports journalist for the Maple Grove Report.
