The Android operating system has the ability to have very specific control over notifications through a feature called notification channels. This allows you to control what type of notifications can an app make, regardless of the application it is. For example, we can choose to receive notifications from WhatsApp, but avoid receiving notifications specifically from groups.
On Samsung Galaxy devices, notification channels are called notification categories and the feature is enabled by default, or at least until One UI 6.0. In the new One UI 6.1 Samsung has disabled this feature by default
How to enable notification categories on devices with One UI 6.1
Notification categories, which Google calls notification channels, debuted in the operating system release Android 8.0. Samsung Galaxy devices have had this feature for years, but for some reason the manufacturer decided to disable it starting with the latest version of their system.
In One UI 6.1, when accessing the notification configuration options in each app, the ability to customize notification categories no longer appears, which was possible until One UI 6.0.
Left: One UI 6.1 without notification categories. Right: One UI 6.0 with notification categories enabled by default.
Fortunately, there is a way to re-enable notification categories for apps, simply It’s a little hidden between system settings. We need to follow the following steps:
- Go to Samsung Galaxy device settings menu
- Then access the section Notifications
- Then press Advanced settings
- Finally, activate the switch in the option Manage notification categories by app
Now, to personalize notifications by category, simply access each application that we want to configure. To do this we must follow these steps:
- Access the device settings menu then the section Applications
- Select an app. We will use WhatsApp as an example
- Now we continue Notifications
- The next screen now displays the option Notification categories. We press on it
- In this section we can configure exactly which notifications we want to keep active, by category
We can repeat the process in all the applications we want. This is especially useful in messaging apps or social networks, which often bombard users with different types of notifications. On YouTube, for example, it is possible to disable notifications for video recommendations, comment replies and download notifications, among others.
One UI 6.1 is available immediately on the new Galaxy S24, Galaxy S24+ and Galaxy S24 Ultra, and will reach more compatible devices in the first months of 2024. Notification categories are a very useful tool for avoid that feeling of being overwhelmed and bored of receiving too many unnecessary notifications in an app, but without stopping receiving the notifications that really matter.
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