Which Apps Are Worth Receiving Notifications From?

For most apps on your phone, turning off the notifications function is a boon to both you and your smartphone’s productivity. Odds are pretty good that, if you had push notifications for every app on your phone, that you’d get nothing done. After all, who would ever need notifications enabled for Photos or a QR Reader? That said, there are some instances when you should have notifications enabled for apps.

Messages and Phone
No one wants to miss an important call from their mother or a text from their best friend, especially if there is an urgent situation that demands an immediate response. Whether or not you receive many calls and text throughout your day, calls and texts to your number are usually from people that you actually care about in your life. It pays to have extra notifications turned on in the event that you miss an important voicemail from your doctor or a conversation with your spouse.

Read More: Here’s How to Unlock Your Android from SMS

Email
Like with calls and texts, emails can be important and may require an immediate response.

Unlike your calls and texts, however, your email is more susceptible to receiving spam messages that may cause undue distractions and alarm when reaching for your vibrating phone. To prevent this, simply enable notifications only for your primary personal and primary professional email accounts. If you have multiple email accounts for professional use, personal use, or both, enable notifications only for those that you most frequently utilize.

​Calendar
Most of us live busy lives that require us to perform many various tasks throughout the course of the week, which means there have probably been moments in your life where you’ve forgotten to buy groceries, fold the laundry, or schedule that dentist appointment. If you rely on your phone’s built-in calendar to keep abreast of meetings, deadlines, errands, and date nights, it pays to have alerts set up to remind you just in case. Plus, it’s a great habit to develop to keep yourself organized and on top of your daily obligations.

Breaking News and Commuting Apps
If something big happens in the world, chances are you’ll find out about it through a plethora of channels — texts from family, Twitter feeds, TVs in the airport set to CNN. That said, if you’d like to keep on top of national and global events without spamming your home screen with Tweets, try allowing some notification permissions from news sources like Reuters or CNN Breaking News.

Additionally, if you rely on public transit to get to and from work, you are probably aware that accidents can and do happen that throw a wrench into your regular commuting plans. For instance, if you commute into New York to work, having both an MTA and NJ Transit/LIRR app can do wonders to keep you from waiting at terminals and subway stops.