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Seth Weintraub

Apple versus Google

Apple's iPhone Push Notifications are running

7 comments

TAGS:Apple, iPhone, Push notification
IT TOPICS:Macintosh & Apple, Mobile & Wireless, Personal Technology

I got a chance to check out the Apple Push Notification system this week because Apple sent developers a key to download the new Associated Press app. It looks pretty much like the old App, except now you can choose to receive breaking news just like you'd receive an SMS message.

The App itself is great, but the Push Notifications are pretty annoying. Every time there is breaking news (I don't get to decide what is breaking), you get a little buzz/message, no matter how mundane or irrelevant.

This clearly isn't an app that needs Push Notifications.

This leads me to believe that more apps than you'd want are going to have Push Notifications. Amazon will alert you when a book goes on sale? Perhaps ESPN will give you scores by push. The mind is boggled.

Sure, you'll be able to turn this stuff off but laziness and temptation will keep it on for many.

And don't get me wrong, I am excited to have an IM and VoIP client that works when the app isn't running. I just don't want every app I download thinking I want to hear from it when it is turned off.

How about you? Do you think Push Notification for Apps will get annoying?

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What People Are Saying

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Stress Test

Submitted by Anonymous on May 20, 2009 - 1:10 P.M.

I think most of the developers who participated in this push notification test fully understood that this was simply a stress test for the servers. It's an easy way to pass hundreds of notifications to hundreds (or thousands) of users in an couple hours to make sure their servers can scale to handle thousands of notifications for millions of people. So consider yourself part of the testing team, and not annoyed by helping with the next generation of the iPhone OS.

Will people make apps that push crap? Sure, of course they will. If you've looked in the App Store, you would see that many are already building crap apps.

But a badge on the phone that updates when you get an IM? or a pop-up when a call comes in from Skype? Someone updates a meeting request with a new time? These are very useful push apps.

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Spam....so?

Submitted by Anonymous on May 20, 2009 - 11:34 A.M.

Umm...if you feel the app is pushing too much or pushing spam then delete it or don't download it.

I'm sure there will be apps out there that push crap, but there will be an equal number of apps that are actually usable.

Also, keep in mind this is a stress test. They are purposely sending out too much.

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I've been trying this app

Submitted by Anonymous on May 20, 2009 - 7:32 A.M.

I've been trying this app out too and it will eventually get old. This and the in app purchasing idea are going to turn into bad ideas once the crapware devs get their mitts on them.

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hey Seth, in regards to the

Submitted by Anonymous on May 20, 2009 - 2:08 A.M.

hey Seth, in regards to the comment about this getting annoying - i thought i saw a screenshot of the 3.0 Settings/Notifications allowing you to disable each of the 3 ways of notifying on a per app basis - is that not really the case?

thanks

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Notification controls

Submitted by Brent on May 21, 2009 - 6:29 P.M.

Under Settings>Notifications there is an option for each app with notifications. You can turn control Sounds, Alerts, and Badges separately.

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Agreed

Submitted by AYBABTU on May 20, 2009 - 1:10 A.M.

Thats exactly what i thought when they introduced PUshNotifications. Why would any developer pass up free spamming?? It would be nice for my rss reader though.
I really hope the apple appstore rejectioncrew watches over this issue =D

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I don't think it's an issue

Submitted by Matt on May 21, 2009 - 9:22 A.M.

I don't think it's an issue for the app store rejection crew to worry about. I think it's up to each user to decide how much "crap" he wants pushed to him. If I want to install an app that's going to buzz every 30 seconds, why should the app store prevent that?

I think that the app vendors or content providers will need to provide sufficient control to the users to decide what's important and what isn't.

I currently have push email enabled on my iPhone. (I'm using Zara's z-push interface with my own IMAP server). I was happy to find that only mail in my Inbox gets pushed. Incoming mail that the server filters to other mailboxes doesn't get pushed, and only appears when I open those mailboxes. Since I discovered that, I've been tweaking my server filters to control what goes into the Inbox, so I only get "buzzed" for mail that I think is important, and low-priority stuff doesn't interrupt me. User control over what is considered "important" is a good thing.

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