Particle.news

Download on the App Store

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

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

Image
The BBC News application is seen on an iPhone in this photo illustration on January 29, 2019. (Photo by Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Image

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.