Android Pie is returning a bit more control to users. Some of that control is quite obvious, whereas some is tucked away, to prevent the average user from uncovering what is available. One such bit of control that falls in the latter category is the ability to disable some System UI notifications.
What are System UI notifications? You know when you take a screenshot, and Android informs you that you just took a screenshot? That’s a System UI notification. Now, before you jump in to say, “Heck yeah! I hate it when Android reminds me that I just took a screenshot!”,know that Android Pie’s screenshot notification now includes the ability to quickly share that screenshot from the notification itself. So what might have been an annoyance in Android Oreo, is now actually quite helpful.
But there might be other System UI notifications that you don’t want. Fortunately, developers made it possible to disable them. Unfortunately, it doesn’t apply to all notifications. In other words, Android Pie is very specific and limited in what you can disable. My guess is that this will change over time, but for now, the feature isn’t quite as large in scope as what you might want.
That being said, it’s still a good idea to know how to disable those notifications, should they become a bit too intrusive.
SEE: Mobile device computing policy (Tech Pro Research)
What you’ll need
You’ll only need one thing: a device running Android 9 (aka Pie). Without the latest iteration of the platform, you won’t find this option available.
How to disable the notifications
The first thing you must do is locate the System UI settings. With recent Android releases, this is now incredibly simple. Instead of digging through the Settings app to find System UI, simply open Settings and type System UI in the search bar. When the results appear (Figure A), tap the System UI entry.
Figure A
In the System UI configuration window (Figure B), you will see a listing of all the system notifications that are sent to the Notification Shade, the majority of which are grayed out. In fact, as of this writing, there are only two System UI notifications you can disable:
- Battery Life
- Screenshots
At the moment, the rest of the notifications cannot be disabled.
Figure B
To disable any of the available notifications, tap the associated checkbox. In that same window, you can disable the notification dots for those notifications as well by tapping the ON/OFF slider until it is in the Off position.
Once you’ve disabled a particular notification, it will no longer appear in the notification shade.
Not much to see here … yet
And that’s pretty much all there is to disabling System UI notifications. At the moment, there are only two notifications that can be disabled, but I imagine, in coming releases, the number of notifications that can be disabled will increase. Until then, if you don’t want to be informed that you just took a screenshot, or warned about battery life, you have control over those notifications.
