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Alert Fatigue Prompts 43% of Smartphone Users to Disable News Notifications

Publishers are reevaluating alert strategies as users unsubscribe over excessive or irrelevant notifications

Overview

  • Nearly four in five people globally do not receive any news alerts in an average week, according to a Reuters Institute study.
  • Weekly news alert use has climbed from 6% to 23% of US phone users and from 3% to 18% in the UK since 2014.
  • Some outlets, such as the Jerusalem Post and CNN Indonesia, send up to 50 notifications per day, while aggregators often issue multiple alerts on the same story.
  • Major news publishers typically enforce daily limits and strict timing criteria to balance informing audiences without driving uninstalls.
  • Apple and Google have cautioned publishers that excessive notifications could lead to future platform-level restrictions.