The notification restrictions are an amputation

Technical Support
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I side-loaded some additional apps—chat, todo/notes, Home Assistant so I can control my home, etc.—because I’d like to actually use this phone and do so for years; if I stuck with the stock apps, it would just gather dust in a drawer.

I haven’t installed needy, attention-hogging apps that pollute my notifications; these are essential, important apps that tell me about important things. The todo app sends notifications when a task starts and reminds me about habits I want to keep up with. I have ADHD and fairly severe time blindness; without this app, and others, poking me from my pocket, I will lose all sense of what I need to be doing when.

But it’s actually worse than just missing visual notifications. When I hear it ding, I have no clue what important thing genuinely needs my attention. I have to open and close each side-loaded app and hunt through them until I find which one might have made the noise. But it gets worse still; what absolutely kills me is that the notification might not have required action in the first place. It could have just been “hey this thing is done”, and on any other phone, I’d read it, appreciate that I now know about the done thing, and dismiss the notification without opening the app or even unlocking the phone.

With these audible dings and without any other information, I know there’s something I should probably read, but I can’t until I do all the tedious work of figuring out where it came from. If I don’t do that immediately, it’ll stick in my mind and bother me until I either do it or forget, and as I already said, the whole point of these apps is helping me remember. So not only can apps still grab my attention, it’s actually in an even less healthy way than stock Android.

On that note, stock Android actually has a wonderful notification control system that allows you to silence not just particular apps, but particular notification types from those apps. Don’t want notifications about trending posts but do want them about DMs? If the app uses notification channels, you can just mute the posts channel and leave the DMs channel alone. That is one of the most genuinely user-focused improvements Google has added to Android in years and it’s exactly what we should be using to limit notifications from poorly behaved apps. Not blanket hiding everything visual except PSTN calls/texts and alarms while still allowing any app to audibly grab my attention and negate the whole point of these stupid restrictions. Google, in a rare show of compassion for its users, did all the legwork of building that set of capabilities into Android. Mudita got it for free by basing their OS on Android, then put development effort towards the (in my opinion) worse goal of completely silencing side-loaded apps … and didn’t actually silence them!

I say it’s the worse goal because they can’t decide for everyone which notifications are important. Most of the world has moved on from crappy, insecure PSTN calls/texts and upgraded to options like Signal or Jabber (for which there are many apps) or Matrix (for which there are many apps) or WhatsApp or WeChat or Telegram or Messenger or or or or (the list continues to the point of absurdity). I can count on zero fingers the number of calls or texts I’ve received over the PSTN in the last month. So the main notifications I’ll have the opportunity to see are from the alarm app I’m probably not going to use very much? And I can choose to either completely miss important texts and reminders about work tasks and personal habits over the side-loaded apps … or let many notifications induce a slight bit of anxiety? What the fuck?

All together, trying to use side-loaded apps on the Mudita Kompakt, whether for general phone things (calls, texts) not over the PSTN or accessibility aids for my ADHD, with these insane restrictions will actively make my life worse. I really hope to see something change here because I love the device otherwise. I’ve wanted a phone like this for years and I’m finally holding one in my hands. It’s fantastic. There are some papercuts I’ll put up with happily, but these notification restrictions are an amputation.

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I agree 100%, although I haven’t actually used mine yet, this sounds like a nightmare?

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You can sideload NotificationLog and if you use custom launcher, you can have it set to right or left swipe on the home screen. You can control in the app which apps you want to get notifications for, however certain apps won’t give notifications on a degoogled phone depending on how they push them. What app are you using for to do reminders?

I think if you rely on a lot of notifications, especially that will pop up on the screen, then the phone might not work for you, since it’s designed to limit them. I have adhd as well, I have set alarms at certain times of the day to check in. I have it set morning tasks, midday tasks, and evening tasks. At these points I do certain things (take meds, chores, etc.) and will also check my calendar, see if I have any missed calls/messages. I used to have a lot of reminders popping up on the phone and I would just get frustrated and ignore them and it didn’t end up helping me much. The only thing I might really miss is notifications of calendar appointments, though. I sometimes forget about them and am only reminded when I get the “10 minutes til” on my phone (which I still get at my computer if I’m at my desk). But my goal is to be more mindful about making sure I actually look at my calendar in the morning/midday and make sure I have noted any important appointments/meetings so I don’t get surprised by them. Maybe something similar can work for you, along with a physical notebook? But if you have a system that works well and this phone can’t do it, maybe you need a smartphone for your lifestyle.

Edit: I want to suggest also that the Past Notifications app is the only one I have found that will show all the notification types, SMS, Signal, Voicemail (at least with my carrier), etc. It’s got ads but if you pay for the key on a device with the play store you can save and then load the APK and get rid of them. The problem I had with NotificationLog is it didn’t show SMS.

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I can only back up @cacklep comment. I have downloaded NotificationLog from F-Droid and I find it really useful. It requires some fine tuning, but it has saved my life. I was also really annoyed by the fact that I had no clue what triggers the notification (I have some sideloaded apps like Signal, post delivery tracking app etc.). I use µLauncher as my default launcher, and by me it is set up so that from the home screen the back button swaps between the notifications screen and the home screen.

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@Esgalath Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughtful and detailed feedback. I can really sense how much you care about the potential of Mudita Kompakt and how important it is that it supports your needs, especially when it comes to managing focus and time blindness. I’ll definitely pass your insights along to the team.

That said, in full transparency, we’ve tried to be as upfront as possible with the community that sideloading apps comes with certain limitations. Since these apps aren’t native to Mudita Kompakt, they may not feel or function the same way as they do on standard Android phones, particularly when it comes to notifications (Mudita Kompakt does not have a notifications tray) and background behavior.
That being said, we absolutely recognize how popular sideloading has become among Kompakt users (I do it too & I love it), and we truly want to support that in ways that align with our core values. I’ll ask the team if there are any current or planned workarounds when it comes to notification behavior for side-loaded apps, or whether there’s room for improvement in this area. I can’t promise anything, but I will ask.

Thanks again for being so open and for sticking with the device despite the challenges, it really means a lot.

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If it helps, I wrote a guide for customizing your notifications for the Kompakt. This will allow you to turn off notification sounds for individual sideloaded apps, or even for specific types of notifications (e.g. you might want to have whatsapp ring for calls, but not for group messages). You can also customize vibration alerts too.

Here’s the guide:

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@damian1 Thank you for this.