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Comment: Notification snoozing may be my favorite new feature in Android O

Android O debuted yesterday and, mostly in line with our report last week, it brings along several great changes to the OS as a whole. There are added perks like a cleaner settings menu, picture-in-picture, customizable lockscreen shortcuts, and much more. However, my favorite feature so far is an easy one to pick: notification snoozing.

Android’s notification system continues to evolve, and in most ways that means it’s getting better. In Nougat we saw improved control over when an app could push a notification, but O brings some even better refinements.

The first is notification channels, which allow users to better sort their notifications and mute/allow them by category. The second is notification snoozing, which does exactly what it sounds like.

Sliding a notification slowly to either side reveals the snooze timer and the settings icon. Tapping on snooze brings up options to snooze the notifications for anywhere between 15 minutes and an hour, the former being the default setting.

This works on all notifications, even if they are system notifications that you can’t delete, like OTA upgrades or connected wearables. Once the timer has run out, the notification returns like it’s brand new.

Needless to say, this is a feature that’s going to come in handy in Android O. I can’t count how many times I’ve got a text or email that I couldn’t deal with right that second, and later forgot to get back to it. With notification snoozing, my phone will be able to remind me that I needed to get back to that at a better time.

(Yes, some apps, including Inbox by Gmail, have offered the ability to snooze certain kinds of notifications. But with this system-wide feature, you’ll be able to snooze anything!)

Obviously, there are still refinements that could be made to this, such as adding custom timer lengths. However, in its current form, I can already tell this is going to prove valuable for me in day to day use. What about you?


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