34 2 - 15 October 2019
Best Free Apps
App of the Fortnight
TOOLS
Unnotification
bit.ly/unnotify485
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Notifications are either
extremelyhandyor
intensely annoying,
depending onyourpoint
ofview. Androidhas a
numberofbasicbuilt-in
tools for managing
notifications –you can
viewthem, turnthemoff
for specificappsand
changethe noisethey
make whentheyarrive–
but that’s about it.
If only there was aneasy
way toviewprevious
notificationhistory or
undo accidentally
dismissednotifications.Well, with Unnotificationthere is
- plusa wholelot more.
While it’s truethatAndroiddoes, infact,keepa
notificationlog,this isusuallyhidden and mostdevices
don’t allowyou toviewit bydefault. Insomecases,you
may be abletoworkaroundthisbyusing asomewhat
convoluted hack thatinvolvescreatinga widgetonyour
homescreen. But Unnotification makes thismucheasier.
With the app installed,you can not only viewyour
notificationhistory,but also
searchit for specifictext
(app names ortextwithin
a notificationheading,for
example). You can also set up
a schedulethatautomatically
clearsyourlog daily,weeklyor
monthly, andevenexportyour
notificationlog –toGoogle
Drive oranemail, for instance- if you wanttokeepa backup.
Whenit originallylaunched,
Unnotificationwas only
availablefor devices running
Android8 and above.
The latest update, however,
opens upthe app tousers
ofAndroid6 andup, too,
althoughsomeof its features
- if you wanttokeepa backup.
- namely the
abilitytoundoswipednotifications andthe
optiontoviewsnoozed ones– remainlimited
toAndroid8+ devices.But the app isstillwell
worth installing.
Our rating HHHHH
UPDATED
1
Launch Unnotification
andswipeyourway
through all the introductory
screens.Atthe end,you’ll
see a screen promptingyou
toallow the app permission
toaccessyour notifications.
Tap EnableAccess, then
press the sliderto switch on
‘Notification access’ for
Unnotification^1 and tap
Allow^2 in the box that pops
up.Tap the Back button^3
toreturntoUnnotification,
then tap OK.
2
Tap the magnifying-
glass icon in the
top-rightcornertobring up
a comprehensive list ofyour
device’s notification history.
(^1) You can type akeyword
where it says‘Search
notifications’atthetop^2
tosearchfor something
specific, or just browseyour
notification historyby
scrolling.Bydefault, the
mostrecent notifications
appearatthetop,butyou
can tap the triangle menu^3
for more sorting options.
3
Users of Android 8 and
aboveget afewextras,
including the abilitytobring
back notificationsyou’ve
accidentally deleted.Swipe
down from thetop of the
screentoview the Android
notification drawer,^1 then
swipeawayone of the
notifications.You’ll seea
new mini-notification appear
atthetop saying ‘Undo
Notification?’.^2 Press Undo
(^3) toreturn the notification
towhere itwas beforeyou
deleted it.
MINI WORKSHOP
Manage your notifications using
Unnotification
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