# I've Inadvertently Opted Out of Smart Notifications Thanks to GrapheneOS. > Source: > Published: 2026-08-16 13:48:25+00:00 # I've Inadvertently Opted Out of Smart Notifications Thanks to GrapheneOS. I recently read Jacques Corby-Tuech's post on [what Apple and Google are doing to your push notifications](https://www.jacquescorbytuech.com/writing/what-apple-and-google-are-doing-your-push-notifications?ref=blog.matthewbrunelle.com). The piece is written from the perspective of marketing and how the changes impact their industry. So we get an interesting look at how the sausage is made: Push exists to bring users back into the product; once they're there, the owned surfaces take over. Corby-Tuech focuses on how the new AI based notifications on Android and iOS are impacting advertising channels. I didn't realize how much push notifications had changed in the last year, because I've been [using GrapheneOS for a little over a year now](https://blog.matthewbrunelle.com/8-4-months-of-daily-driving-grapheneos/) and do not have access to the Smart Notifications that rolled out on Pixels. [^ On GrapheneOS [push notifications still go through Google Play Services](https://grapheneos.org/faq?ref=blog.matthewbrunelle.com#notifications), but there is at least the sandbox.] That hasn't been a problem for me though. Rather than look at the heap of notifications you receive and relinquish control to AI, you can instead cut the notifications off at the source. That's why I am making deliberate choices rather than delegating that power. Some people [view the notification organizer as a lifesaver](https://www.androidauthority.com/how-to-use-pixel-notification-organizer-3624003/?ref=blog.matthewbrunelle.com), a way to deal with all the distractions apps bombard you with. Google's documentation on how to [use AI to manage your notifications](https://support.google.com/pixelphone/answer/16691280?hl=en-Get%3D&ref=blog.matthewbrunelle.com) lists four categories that notifications are bundled into: promotions, news, social, suggested. Everything else is not bundled, implicitly marking it as more important. As a thought experiment, how many of those categories do you really want to receive notifications from? I did the experiment last year. The notification history feature is helpful for this. [^ Its opt in on GrapheneOS.] I could see what apps were sending lots of notifications and toggle off categories that were noise. If an app didn't break out an annoying notification into its own category then I removed notification access altogether. Often I realized I was just better off [removing many apps](https://blog.matthewbrunelle.com/the-apps-that-i-got-rid-of-when-trying-out-grapheneos/). The [apps I kept](https://blog.matthewbrunelle.com/the-apps-that-i-kept-on-grapheneos-2/) are the ones that actually provided value instead of extracting value from me. Here's how I applied that thought process to the four categories the AI filter on Pixels handles. The notifications in the promotions category are literal ads that you opt into. The piece by Jacques even references a paper on how users form a hierarchy of notification importance and consistently rank promotions as the least important. Likewise Suggested is the drip feed of content that providers use to pull you in. Remember, "push exists to bring users back into the product". With the Smart Notifications both Promotions and Suggested are silenced by default. That should be a good indication that you should reevaluate whether the apps actually are important to you. Google News pushes breaking news as if it is important. Yet Google also added a News category to the Smart Notifications. The constant bombardment of "breaking news" causes people to [disengage from journalism due to fatigue](https://news.umich.edu/more-feelings-of-misinformation-more-news-avoidance-u-m-study-shows/?ref=blog.matthewbrunelle.com). I've been trying to embrace slow journalism. When publications have time to investigate news pieces you will be better informed on the event rather than just superficially informed. I've moved my news apps to an eink device and have a specific news reading time. That way I can still be engaged, but without the rush. Finally there is Social. The book *Superbloom* does a great job describing social media as a priming mechanism that "keeps us in a permanent state of anticipation, awaiting the next stimulus, craving the next glance at the screen". Notifications are a core part of this. There is FOMO and that is by design. I felt this myself, but I am better off after reducing my usage over time. I'm now fully off of social media. That's a deep plunge that you don't have to fully replicate, but reducing your time just a bit is a start. A [review from 2023 concluded that](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10476631/?ref=blog.matthewbrunelle.com) "There is now a great deal of evidence that social media is a substantial *cause*, not just a tiny *correlate*, of depression and anxiety". Since then this debate hasn't been settled, but continues to amass supporting evidence. Carr frames this nicely in Superbloom: "spreading doubts about the causative role of social media in mental distress may have been warranted a decade ago, it’s hard to justify now. It comes off as a head-in-the-sand response, and, given the numbers, an irresponsible one." For me, not many notifications were left after removing those categories. Essentially all that remained was timely calendar/todo reminders and messages from people. To be sure, if one refuses to reduce their app usage, then Smart Notifications feels like the only option we are left with. However, I would argue this is by design. The apps that push the most notifications do not want us to think we can reduce engagement. I did not drop everything all at once. I think that would be unpalatable to most. If you have a hard time stomaching that you can start to pare down your apps and use Smart Notifications to cover the remaining notifications. You can even keep apps, but deny notification access. You can make great progress if you go a little bit at a time. You might even be surprised to find that as you use those "essential" apps less you start to feel comfortable enough to remove them. The most important part is to be more intentional about how you interact with your phone. That is why I don't like the Smart Notification approach. It lacks intentionality. At I/O this year Google announced a harm reduction feature called [Pause Point](https://www.androidauthority.com/pause-point-for-android-3664886/?ref=blog.matthewbrunelle.com) which lets you mark "distracting" apps. This then adds friction by prompting you when you open an app to consider if you need to use it. Adding an app to this feature is a sign that it is designed to bypass self control. That is also a good indication that it's an app worth reevaluating. You can undo the inversion of control and be in charge of deciding which apps are truly important to use. I like Cal Newport's advice: don't keep your phone on you when you are at home. Pick a phone spot and keep it there. Go to the phone spot when you need to use your phone. Like many Pixel features, Smart Notifications is region locked. On the plus side the use-less-apps approach is available globally and absolutely free. Plus, the feature uses AICore which [reserve 3.5 GB of ram for models](https://www.androidauthority.com/pixel-10-ai-ram-use-3591327/?ref=blog.matthewbrunelle.com) on the stock Pixel 10. So that's more ram in my pocket [^ Well technically on the kitchen table since that's the Phone Spot.], which is especially important now that [Google has reduced the ram from 16 GB to 12 GB](https://www.engadget.com/2234960/pixel-11-series-cost-more-but-less-ram/?ref=blog.matthewbrunelle.com) on some Pixel 11 models.