Android 17 Beta 3 Uncovers 'Notification Rules' for Granular Notification Control
Android 17 Beta 3 includes code indicating a new "Notification Rules" feature designed to offer users granular control over notifications. This feature allows users to apply five distinct actions to notifications originating from specific applications and individual contacts. While some controls for app notifications exist, the ability to apply these rules to specific contacts for calls and texts would represent a significant expansion of current capabilities.
The "Notification Rules" feature aims to provide users with more precise management over how they receive alerts from various sources on their device.
Feature Overview
The "Notification Rules" feature was identified within code strings of Android 17 Beta 3. Its core purpose is to empower users with refined control over their device's notification behavior.
Defined Actions
Users will be able to establish rules for particular apps and contacts, assigning one of five distinct actions to matching notifications:
- Silence: Suppresses the notification, preventing it from making sound or vibrating.
- Block: Prevents the notification from appearing at all.
- Silence & Bundle: Silences the notification and groups it with other similar alerts, reducing clutter.
- Highlight: The exact function of "Highlight" remains unclear. Speculation suggests it may involve prioritizing notifications, applying a visual distinction or cosmetic emphasis, or displaying notifications in an expanded format for increased visibility.
- Highlight & Alert: This action is presumed to combine the "Highlight" functionality with an audible or vibratory alert, ensuring the highlighted notification also grabs immediate attention.
Enhanced Control Capabilities
Existing Android versions already provide functionalities for silencing and blocking app notifications. The "Notification Rules" feature introduces the crucial capability to apply these granular controls to calls and texts from specific contacts. This means users could, for example, silence notifications from certain callers without fully blocking their calls or texts, or without needing to silence all phone calls universally. Options for selecting contacts or apps when creating these rules may include searching, selecting all, or deselecting all.
Android's notification system has previously incorporated advanced features such as Notification Channels, Notification Cooldown, and Modes. The "Notification Rules" feature further expands this comprehensive suite of user control options.
Potential Availability and Confirmation Status
Strings related to this feature have also been observed in leaked builds of Samsung’s One UI 9, suggesting that it may not be exclusive to Google Pixel devices and could be available on Samsung devices upon its eventual release.
Google has not yet officially confirmed the "Notification Rules" feature for Android 17. As such, its public release timeline remains subject to change, and it could potentially be introduced in a future Android iteration or even not be released publicly at all. Features identified through APK teardowns are not guaranteed to be part of a final public release.