Samsung Accused of Disabling Key Android Notification Features

Samsung’s Android customizations are drawing criticism for disabling useful notification features found on stock Android, potentially hindering user experience and control.

Users are reporting that Samsung, by default, turns off features like notification snoozing, notification categories, and a functional notification history. The snooze function, standard on many Android phones, allows users to temporarily dismiss notifications and have them reappear later. Similarly, notification categories enable granular control over alerts from individual apps – for example, receiving direct message notifications from Instagram while silencing like notifications. A fully functioning notification history, allowing users to revisit and interact with past alerts, is also reportedly hampered by Samsung’s software.

The issue stems from Samsung’s modifications to the Android operating system, which override default settings. While these features are often still present within the software, they require users to navigate multiple settings menus to re-enable them, a process many users are unaware of. This can lead to a less efficient and customizable notification experience. Effective notification management is crucial for users seeking to minimize distractions and stay informed.

Concerns about Samsung’s approach to Android customization extend to lock screen notifications, which were recently found to be disabled by default, requiring users to adjust settings for visibility. For more information on Android customization, see Android’s official customization page. The debate over OEM customization versus stock Android is ongoing, with some arguing that manufacturer tweaks enhance the user experience while others prioritize the simplicity and features of the base operating system, as discussed by 9to5Google.

Samsung has not yet publicly responded to the criticism, but the company is expected to address these concerns in future software updates.

In my switch to the Galaxy Z Fold 7 as my main phone in recent months, there’s just one thing that continues to annoy me. Samsung seemingly feels the need to ruin Android notifications, and it’s the most bizarre self-sabotage.

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Notifications on Android are one of the platform’s main highlights, especially compared to iOS where notifications are simply bad – I will not be taking arguments on that today.

But, for some reason, Samsung is actively choosing to sabotage some of the best parts of Android notifications, and there are several examples.

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The most recent one I was reminded of is that, by default, Samsung turns off the ability to snooze notifications. On Pixel phones and many other Android phones, there’s a little alarm clock button to the bottom right of any notification which, when pressed, reveals a menu with preset times. Tapping any of those will dismiss the notification and resurface it at a later time. It’s super useful! But, for reasons I can’t fathom, Samsung disables that by default.

Similarly, Samsung disables Android’s notification categories by default. This feature allows users to turn off select notifications from an app based on how the app defines that notification. So, instead of an all or nothing approach, you can choose what you get. One example of how this can be used is with Instagram. Don’t want to get notified of comments, likes, followers, etc, but still get notified when a message arrives? You can do that! But, again for reasons I don’t understand, Samsung doesn’t let users do that by default. Instead, they’re left to dig through Settings to turn it back on.

There’s also the whole notification history debacle.

I’ve said my piece on how Android OEMs, especially Samsung, have thrown this feature under the bus. Samsung not only makes you dig through multiple Settings menus to find notification history, but the feature is also completely broken. If you tap on an old notification, it just opens the app instead of the actual contents, whereas notification history on Google Pixel (i.e. on Android before Samsung messes with it) just treats the historical notification as a fresh one, opening up the contents as you’d expect.

The list of problems goes on from there, really. Another example is Samsung having recently ruined the usefulness of lockscreen notifications by default, with users needing to go into their Settings just to make notifications visible again.

Personally, I just don’t get it.

Android presents these awesome, useful tools for managing notifications, and Samsung just says “oh our users don’t need those” and turns them off. I’m glad they still exist in the software, but the very annoying truth is that most Samsung Galaxy users have absolutely no idea these features exist. As such, they’re not asking for this change to be made.

What do you think? Is Samsung ruining Android notifications? Do you use these features? Did you know they existed? Let’s discuss!

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