this post was submitted on 09 Dec 2023
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I didn't really notice till now, and searching around I see lots of complaints in various communities for different apps.

Turns out it's intended behavior in Android 14. The only persistent thing about it is that they don't disappear when you hit "clear all", which is something I never do because I dismiss the ones I need to instead of nuking everything.

Feels like a big step backwards and I don't understand the reasoning behind it. It was always possible to dismiss persistent ones if we really needed to (long tap etc)

Is there any workaround to get it back?

Unnecessary backstory:

I use a notification creation app to leave important TODOs as pinned notifications so I see them when I check my phone.

I've missed some and I thought I was setting them wrong. Turns out the notifications can be dismissed accidentally, making the app useless.

My use case isn't that important, I can find some other workflow. But there are other more important apps like blood sugar monitors and home security/alert apps that use persistent notifs for functionality.

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

That's great news. I hate undismissable notifications and I always thought they were an awkward workaround for apps that needed to stay in the background and not be terminated or put to sleep by battery saving features

And as long as things keep working, I think dropping this feature is a great idea.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago (2 children)

That's not so great because now you don't know when an app is running in the background.

It also makes it harder for notifications you actually do want to persist like OPs - I use AccuBatterry and don't want to be able to dismiss by accident.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

now you don’t know when an app is running in the background.

we've always had plenty of apps running in the background that don't use notifications

notifications you actually do want to persist

I think notifications should never persist. There should be an entirely different UI concept for apps that need to have information displayed at all times - like a widgets drawer or shade. Having a notification displayed at all times defeat the purpose of a notification, which should be an ephemeral / momentary display of information, usually time-sensitive.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago (1 children)

That's not so great because now you don't know when an app is running in the background.

Not true. This shows at the bottom of the notification shade, tells you how long the app has been running a service and lets you stop it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

Oohh thanks! TIL. Now I wonder if I need Samsung Health to be always on, to be honest...

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

Fair enough, I just wish it was a long tap or something instead of a swipe (or having long tap be an option that you could enable)

I like being able to dismiss some, like my voicemail or background apps

[–] [email protected] 17 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

It sounds like what would really be helpful is a way to "pin" or "lock" notifications so they can't be dismissed easily. This could be a setting for all notifications from certain apps. That way apps can't abuse it, and users can set it up how they like.

Edit: It could be an app permission as well.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

This would be perfect too

Long press to pin

[–] [email protected] 11 points 11 months ago (1 children)

On the flip side of you i hate un dismissable notifications. And i especially hate a crowded notification area. So your use case would drive me insane. Sorry its borked your usage but for me being able to dismiss everything is great

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

Its pretty much clear for me, I periodically go through and deal with each one (respond to each message, read each alert).

When I need a persistent one, it's usually something like "grab X from office before leaving work". In order to dismiss those, I'd have to tap it and check off the task and it disappeared.

I'd love to get that option back, but ah well I guess

[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Oh that is nice. Finally! Bye bye undismissable notifications!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (2 children)

To each his own, but your use case seems like the worst way to accomplish what you need. There are so, so many apps that will allow you to pin a widget to one of your homescreens with a to-do; why on earth would you want to have that living in your notification shade? I have a Keep to-do widget and the Android battery widget on a second homescreen to the right of the main. Exactly as much work as pulling down the shade, except I swipe left instead of down, and no chance of accidentally clearing the persistent notification.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

It's not quite the same - the notification shade can be pulled down from anywhere, no matter what app you're in, whereas what you describe only really works if you're on the home screen.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I have a calendar widget that I use, but this was more for the very important "leave a sticky on the doorknob" type tasks.

I tried a widget for a while, but I found that I either didn't swipe to that page or I didn't like having that space blocked off by an empty widget for the periods of time when I didn't have a task.

It worked for what I needed, but I guess I'll explore options again

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

The problem is you are trying to use a system for something it was never intended for. Persistent notifications were only ever intended for long running background services.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

Even for those though it's broken now. For example, I use fkm as an indicator that my phone is dozing/charging correctly and rotation control to force apps into the orientation I want them. Both effectively require persistent notifications to work as intended.

This behavior decision by Google is a straight downgrade. It needed to be at worst togglable by the user.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

This is why we can't have nice things