Android Q Beta 5: ‘Silent Notifications’ split into bottom section of shade

Ben Schoon | Jul 10 2019 - 11:13 am PT

Android’s notification system has been pretty great for a long time now, but in Android Q, Google has been tweaking it even further. With the arrival of Android Q Beta 5, notifications now get a clear “silent” mode which splits them into a second section of the overall notification shade.

In previous Android Q betas, Google offered a quick switch for notification priority. While the value was clear, the implementation made it somewhat confusing to set up and use, especially because it wasn’t obvious how it affected notifications in general.

Android Q Beta 5 fixes this in one fell swoop by labeling notifications as “Alerting” or “Silent” and splitting up the notification shade as a result. Notifications that are set to “Alerting,” the default for most apps, will appear at the top of the list of incoming notifications. Any notifications set to “Silent” are dropped below a clearly labeled section. The section also has its own button for clearing only those notifications.

‘Silent Notifications’ get their own section and can be cleared instantly as a group

Personally, I think this is an excellent move by Google. It makes it much easier for the end user to sort their notifications. Hopefully, this is the final implementation Google sticks with in Q’s final release.

We’re still digging through Android Q Beta 5 to see what’s new, so stay tuned and drop comments below to let us know what you find!