Individual app "Allow Notifications" setting clarification

[pgoelz]

Can someone clarify if this is a bug or a feature.....

It appears that in some apps, the "Allow Notifications" setting acts globally on ALL notifications and in other apps, it acts locally for notifications from THAT app only.

Example 1.... while listening to an audio book with the Audible app, setting "Allow Notifications" to OFF blocks ALL notifications.

Example 2.... while listening to a podcast with the Google podcast app, notifications are received regardless of whether "Allow Notifications" is on or off.

What am I missing? Is setting "Allow Notifications" to OFF supposed to block notifications from all OTHER apps or just that specific app?

EDIT: Just ran the test again and this time, setting "Allow Notifications" to off in the Audible app did NOT block notifications from other apps. So now I'm even more confused. Is the notification system broken or just too complicated for its own good?

 

[BigBlur]

"Allow Notifications" is only for that app. So if you have notifications turned off for Audible, you won't get any notifications from Audible...ever. You can/will still get notifications from other apps while Audible is running.

If you don't want any notifications while an app is running, then you need to look into Focus modes. Focus modes can be configured to suppress all notifications for various situations...when an app is running, certain time of day, location, etc; or even turned on/off manually.

 

[pgoelz]

OK, once again.... my recent experience is the following:

"Allow Notifications" was OFF for the Audible app and SMS notification sounds were BLOCKED, but only while using the Audible app. When "Allow Notifications" in the Audible app was toggled to ON, SMS notification sounds were RECEIVED while using the Audible app.

In a subsequent test the "Allow Notifications" setting in the Audible app had NO effect on SMS notification sounds..... they were received regardless of the setting (ie., per your description).

Sounds like a bug?

 

[BigBlur]

Yep, an app shouldn't have any control over notifications/sounds from another app. So this could be a bug or fluke if you're also sure you didn't have the phone muted from the switch on the side.

 

[pgoelz]

Yes, 100% certain the do not disturb switch was OFF. This is actually my wife's phone and she has had an issue for a while now where she does not get audible notifications for incoming SMS while she is listening to an audio book. Today we looked into it and while testing, found the "Allow Notifications" setting in the Audible app was OFF. As soon as she switched it to ON and did nothing else, the audible SMS notifications resumed.

FWIW, while I can't say for certain I think there have been a couple times where I discovered an incoming SMS notification but never heard the SMS ringtone on my 13 Pro. So maybe this is a wider issue and the "Allow Notifications" setting is a red herring? There was a post a couple days back that described a similar lack of audible notifications.

Maybe I'm holding it wrong.... I'm kinda new to IOS.....