Android P DP2: Notification shade adds new ‘manage notifications’ shortcut for per-app notification controls

Ben Schoon | May 9 2018 - 6:33 am PT

Google’s second release of Android P adds quite a lot of new features to the OS, but some of the best have been subtle changes that improve usability. In its second developer preview, Google has added a new shortcut for managing notifications.

In case you weren’t aware, notification controls in Android have gotten ridiculously granular in the past couple of releases. You can control basically everything if you want to. However, managing everything requires heading into the settings. Now, Google is making that easier in P with a new shortcut.

Within the notification shade directly across from the “Clear All” button is a new “Manage Notifications” shortcut. That shortcut brings you to the “App notification” settings screen, which is also accessible by going through Settings > Apps and notifications > Notifications.

By default, it delivers a filtered view which shows apps which have delivered notifications most recently over the past day or so. You can easily change that view, though, to show apps which deliver notifications most frequently.

In either case, you can easily turn off notifications to an app, which is handy if an app is spamming you. You can further control the notifications by disabling specific types of notifications on a per-app basis. It’s a powerful tool we’ve had since Oreo, but Google has made it a lot easier to use with this shortcut in Android P.