Skip to main content

Android 9.0 Pie: Everything that’s new with notifications

Android 9.0 Pie is finally here, bringing with it a number of new features and updates that could seriously change your Android experience. Perhaps the biggest of those changes is what Google has done to notifications, which are now much easier to tweak, and much more functional.

Confused about what’s different in Android 9.0 Pie? That’s why we’ve put together this guide. Here are the biggest changes to notifications in Android 9.0 Pie and how you can take advantage of them.

Tweaked notifications shade

Before diving into the nitty gritty of the new features found in Android 9.0 Pie’s notifications, we’ll take a look at the visual changes — and there are a few of them. With Android 9.0 Pie, the notifications shade has been tweaked to look a little more like a card, featuring rounded corners and a new section for each notification.

A few other visual tweaks have also been made — the maximum number of notification icons in the task bar has been reduced to four, and the quick settings have been given a more vibrant color. Last but not least, there’s a new button to “manage notifications” from right under the notifications shade.

Edit the notifications you get

Android 9.0 Pie also makes it a whole lot easier to manage the exact types of notifications you get. Not only can you tweak which apps send you notifications, but you can also get a whole lot more granular and tweak specific types of notifications from those apps. That’s a pretty helpful feature — and there’s a few ways to go about using it.

For starters, perhaps the most useful way to make use of blocking certain notifications is from notifications themselves. If a notification pops up that you don’t consider important, simply hold down the notification, then tap the small information button, represented by an “i” icon, in the top right of that notification. You’ll then be taken to the app’s settings. Tap the Notifications option, and you’ll be presented with a list of notifications being sent by that app, with checkmarks next to each type. To make things easier, the notification that you were sent should be highlighted, so you can quickly uncheck it if you want.

Over time, this should seriously help you refine the notifications you get so that only notifications you find important show up.

Smart replies

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Another big change to notifications is that Google is making it easier to do more from them. One way it’s doing so is through Smart Replies, which are essentially automatically generated responses you can send to messages you get. When you get a message from a compatible app, you’ll see the message along with a few generated responses that you can tap on to send — without ever having to worry about typing up a reply. Smart Replies only works with a few apps for now, but it’s likely that list will continue to grow.

Do not disturb

Last but not least is Do Not Disturb, which has once again been tweaked in the latest version of Android. In Android 9.0 Pie, you can manually change the settings of Do Not Disturb. To do so, long press the Do Not Disturb icon from the quick settings, after which you’ll be presented with three options — Behavior, Exceptions, and Schedule.

  • Behavior lets you toggle what’s muted in Do Not Disturb. Commonly, everything except alarms and repeat calls are muted.
  • Exceptions allows you to whitelist contacts or callers as well as reminders and events.
  • Schedule allows you to have Do Not Disturb manually turn on at a certain time, at an event, or while you’re driving.

Editors' Recommendations

Christian de Looper
Christian’s interest in technology began as a child in Australia, when he stumbled upon a computer at a garage sale that he…
Did you get Android 10 in the dying days of 2019? Here’s every phone that did
android 10 logo

We've finished our slice of Android Pie and it's time to chow down on something new. But Google did doing something very different in 2019. It dropped the saccharine-sweet dessert naming scheme and gave Android a rebrand. Android 10 is Google's newest operating system, and like every major Android release, it's adding loads of fun new features.

But not every smartphone will be getting the new update, and even if yours is, getting the update can take time. So when can you expect to receive Android 10? We've reached out to almost all of the manufacturers we expect to support Android 10, and here's what they had to say. We'll be updating this story as we continue to hear back.
Alcatel

Read more
Android’s distraction-killing Focus Mode is now available on Android 10
Android 10 Focus Mode

Focus Mode was conspicuously absent from the launch of Android 10, with only a beta version available for certain phones. Thankfully, that's no longer true, and Android's distraction-cutting Focus Mode is now available on a number of devices running Android 10 and Android 9.0 Pie.

A major new addition to Google's Digital Wellbeing toolkit, Focus Mode seeks to limit the ways your phone can distract you when you're looking to concentrate. Select a number of intrusive or particularly bothersome apps, and Focus Mode will pause those apps while the mode is active, stopping notifications from being sent. Furthermore, while the mode is active, those apps' icons will appear grayed out, and for any of them, you'll be notified that the app is currently locked down if you attempt to open it.

Read more
Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Plus vs. Note 10 vs. Note 9: Spec comparison
Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Plus vs. Note 10 vs. Note 9: All the notable differences
Samsung Galaxy Note 10 and Note 10 Plus

We're used to an annual upgrade for Samsung's Galaxy Note line, but at this year's Galaxy Unpacked event we got not one new Note but two. The Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Plus and the Galaxy Note 10 deliver a lot of what we were hoping for and a few more things besides, but there are some differences between the two worth noting. There are also some interesting changes from last year's Galaxy Note 9.

Let's compare Samsung's three latest Note models to dig into exactly what divides them and pick a winner across various categories to help you decide whether it's time for an upgrade and guide you to the right purchase.

Read more