Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

ryanstewart

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 23, 2011
52
0
Los Angeles, CA
Heyo,

So, I'm kinda surprised I can't find any real info on this after some solid searching, but I'm looking for how to edit the push notification status of individual apps, and I'm hoping I'm not looking for something that's not possible.

Essentially, what I want to be able to do is be able to go through each individual app and select which ones I want to have push notifications, and which I want to have fetch notifications, such as every 15 minutes, like how mail works.

I'm trying to save some battery life, and I obviously know that push notifications can be quite the battery bandit, but I don't want to turn all of the notifications off for an app, I just want to set them to fetch. Is this possible? Any help would be appreciated.

Also, just to triple-check, whether or not an app is running when you pull up the multi-task bar doesn't affect whether or not you get notifications for it, right?

Thanks for the help in advance!

EDIT:

Also, I'd like to know, if I turn an app off in the notification center, does that mean that I won't receive any notifications ever for that app, or that they will only appear if I run the app, or what? In other words, what exactly does turning an app off in the notifications center do? Thanks again!
 
Last edited:

skuu2

macrumors newbie
Oct 10, 2011
15
0
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

I'm interested to know some of the stuff you asked too. Did you look in the notification settings? You didn't mention it so maybe you didn't. As far as I'm aware you don't get the same options as mail. I don't know if closing the app via the multitask bar stops notifications, aside on a messenger app.

Also you said 'turn off an app in the notifications centre'. You can't do that, did you mean the notifications settings?
 

Fatboy71

macrumors 68000
Dec 21, 2010
1,536
481
UK
Heyo,

So, I'm kinda surprised I can't find any real info on this after some solid searching, but I'm looking for how to edit the push notification status of individual apps, and I'm hoping I'm not looking for something that's not possible.

Essentially, what I want to be able to do is be able to go through each individual app and select which ones I want to have push notifications, and which I want to have fetch notifications, such as every 15 minutes, like how mail works.

I'm trying to save some battery life, and I obviously know that push notifications can be quite the battery bandit, but I don't want to turn all of the notifications off for an app, I just want to set them to fetch. Is this possible? Any help would be appreciated.

Also, just to triple-check, whether or not an app is running when you pull up the multi-task bar doesn't affect whether or not you get notifications for it, right?

Thanks for the help in advance!

EDIT:

Also, I'd like to know, if I turn an app off in the notification center, does that mean that I won't receive any notifications ever for that app, or that they will only appear if I run the app, or what? In other words, what exactly does turning an app off in the notifications center do? Thanks again!

Have you tried going into Settings, scrolling down to the part where you see Safari and the other apps you see on your iPhone, until you see the app/s that you are wanting to push notification/edit. Touch that app and see if it gives you an option to have push switch on or off for that particular app.

For example. When I go into this section on my iPhone for the Facebook app, I have the option to have push notifications for various things that happen on Facebook.

Obviously the above is dependent on the app, some apps won't give you the option to have push notifications.

Re:

'Also, I'd like to know, if I turn an app off in the notification center, does that mean that I won't receive any notifications ever for that app, or that they will only appear if I run the app, or what? In other words, what exactly does turning an app off in the notifications center do? Thanks again!'

I'm almost certain that this would just mean that the app would not display information, when you pulled down the notification screen, but if the app allowed push notifications, you would still get these, even if you had switched it off in the notification center.
 

ryanstewart

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 23, 2011
52
0
Los Angeles, CA
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

I'm interested to know some of the stuff you asked too. Did you look in the notification settings? You didn't mention it so maybe you didn't. As far as I'm aware you don't get the same options as mail. I don't know if closing the app via the multitask bar stops notifications, aside on a messenger app.

Also you said 'turn off an app in the notifications centre'. You can't do that, did you mean the notifications settings?

Yes I have looked in all the settings in both the settings app and within each individual app.

You do have the ability to turn apps on/off in the notification center. It's in Settings-Notifications-Whatever app you choose. The first option is an on/off switch for "Notification Center." It sounds like what you're referencing though.

----------

Have you tried going into Settings, scrolling down to the part where you see Safari and the other apps you see on your iPhone, until you see the app/s that you are wanting to push notification/edit. Touch that app and see if it gives you an option to have push switch on or off for that particular app.

For example. When I go into this section on my iPhone for the Facebook app, I have the option to have push notifications for various things that happen on Facebook.

Obviously the above is dependent on the app, some apps won't give you the option to have push notifications.

Ya I've definitely done that, but what I need to know is if you turn off push notifications on, for instance, Facebook(which, as you said, is only available for some of the apps), does that mean you won't get any notifications from that function of the app, or just that you'll receive them on a fetch basis? You see, the latter is what I'd like to do, but I'm thinking that's not possible. And the only reason I'd like to do that is to save battery life. Well...and I'd prolly rather just get alerted every 15 minutes with possibly multiple notifications at a time rather than potentially every second.
 

Fatboy71

macrumors 68000
Dec 21, 2010
1,536
481
UK
what I need to know is if you turn off push notifications on, for instance, Facebook(which, as you said, is only available for some of the apps), does that mean you won't get any notifications from that function of the app, or just that you'll receive them on a fetch basis? You see, the latter is what I'd like to do, but I'm thinking that's not possible. And the only reason I'd like to do that is to save battery life. Well...and I'd prolly rather just get alerted every 15 minutes with possibly multiple notifications at a time rather than potentially every second.

I'm almost certain that the only thing that can fetched is email. Has far as I've noticed in my experience is that apps that allow you to get notifications, then these are push based.
 

ryanstewart

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 23, 2011
52
0
Los Angeles, CA
I'm almost certain that the only thing that can fetched is email. Has far as I've noticed in my experience is that apps that allow you to get notifications, then these are push based.

Hmmm...and so if you turn off these push notifications, does that mean you won't ever receive notifications for that app? That seems like an unfortunate tradeoff, either receive notifications up to every second, or never.
 

Fatboy71

macrumors 68000
Dec 21, 2010
1,536
481
UK
Hmmm...and so if you turn off these push notifications, does that mean you won't ever receive notifications for that app? That seems like an unfortunate tradeoff, either receive notifications up to every second, or never.

Yes I'm sure it means that.

You could turn off push notification for an app and see if you get notifications through fetch, but I'm pretty certain you wouldn't. From my experience with apps/app notifications, its push or nothing.
 

ryanstewart

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 23, 2011
52
0
Los Angeles, CA
Yes I'm sure it means that.

You could turn off push notification for an app and see if you get notifications through fetch, but I'm pretty certain you wouldn't. From my experience with apps/app notifications, its push or nothing.

Hmmm...too bad. Well, hopefully my battery will be able to get through a day without sacrificing too many notifications.

Thanks!
 

gage006

macrumors regular
Feb 9, 2010
158
3
There is no fetch for notifications. Also, push uses much less battery than fetch.
 

ryanstewart

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 23, 2011
52
0
Los Angeles, CA
There is no fetch for notifications. Also, push uses much less battery than fetch.

Really? The first thing I read on just about every "save your iPhone battery" page says change your email from push to fetch. But then again...they also say that having 90 apps running in the fast app switcher doesn't drain your battery...
 

haoledoc

macrumors member
Jan 24, 2011
42
0
Really? The first thing I read on just about every "save your iPhone battery" page says change your email from push to fetch. But then again...they also say that having 90 apps running in the fast app switcher doesn't drain your battery...

Apps in the tray shouldn't affect your battery at all. The only exception is if an app crashes or gets caught in some loop where it's trying to do something battery intensive in the background. Some people here seem to obsessively delete apps from the tray either in a misguided attempt at saving their battery or just because they have OCD. I never kill an app in the tray unless that specific app is giving me problems. My battery life is fine. The apps in the tray are in a suspended state and are not using any resources the vast majority of the time. Furthermore, apps set to listen for notifications, track your location, etc. will do so whether you see the icon in the tray or not. Killing an app is useless unless you specifically need to reload the app because it's crashed or isn't behaving well.

I'm not sure whether push vs fetch for email makes a big difference either. I've had my email set to push just for convenience ever since the original iphone. I charge the phone each night and it's rare that I get it down to 20%, even with heavy use.

Unless you're planning many hours of video or games every day, I wouldn't worry too much about your battery.
 

posguy99

macrumors 68020
Nov 3, 2004
2,284
1,531
Essentially, what I want to be able to do is be able to go through each individual app and select which ones I want to have push notifications, and which I want to have fetch notifications, such as every 15 minutes, like how mail works.

Then bang on the individual app authors, ask them to make their applications do what you describe vs relying on the push framework provided by Apple.

Be prepared to watch your battery get eaten, though. Let's see... umpteen apps registering with one push server at Apple, so that all notifications can be got in one gulp, vs umpteen applications all polling on their own schedule so that the cell radio stays on more, the phone doesn't sleep, etc.

Why in the world you think the *OS* can magically make an app poll for notifications when the support isn't present in the app is beyond me...
 

ryanstewart

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 23, 2011
52
0
Los Angeles, CA
Then bang on the individual app authors, ask them to make their applications do what you describe vs relying on the push framework provided by Apple.

Be prepared to watch your battery get eaten, though. Let's see... umpteen apps registering with one push server at Apple, so that all notifications can be got in one gulp, vs umpteen applications all polling on their own schedule so that the cell radio stays on more, the phone doesn't sleep, etc.

Why in the world you think the *OS* can magically make an app poll for notifications when the support isn't present in the app is beyond me...

I completely agree, quitting the apps from the task bar SHOULDN'T affect battery life, but when I started doing that on a consistent basis my battery life shot up, so there's no denying that for me, that was the biggest battery booster of them all. I'd recommend everyone try it and see if it works for them!

Thanks for the help (to those of you who were helpful)!!!
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Tilo

macrumors newbie
Apr 2, 2012
1
0
well I stumbled on this one as I search for app still notify (send notification) even tho not running at all (not even in background) [ios 5 notification even after kill multi task]

Based on this I did a mini test (with the app MS Lync, yeah don't laugh at me :eek:)

-Allow App in notification center will get you notification even tho not started or running at all.
-Turn off App in notification center will get you no notification not even if running in background.

Well the app must be ready for this as Skype for example doesn't work like this.

For what is the multi task bar/background good for? I don't like this way of notification as I only would run(and get notification) the messenger when on the road and not in the office in front of my desk.

This should answer the thread starter last questions to a certain degree (also depend on app as Skype for example behaves different then Lync)
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.