Hacker News: awaaz

New comment by awaaz in "Tell HN: I've been paying for a rural Tanzanian's education for 10 years"

awaaz — Thu, 08 Oct 2026 17:17:57 +0000

Ugh, thanks for pointing that out. I've pinged Franz about it. I actually host the website for them, but can't fix these buttons since donations are run from a third-party.

Also, this donate link - https://yuwa-india.org/donate/ - does work.

New comment by awaaz in "Tell HN: I've been paying for a rural Tanzanian's education for 10 years"

awaaz — Thu, 08 Oct 2026 16:53:18 +0000

I don't want to hijack the thread, but would like to surface another such organization which I am aware of - Yuwa [1], which operates in India.

It was founded by Franz Gastler [2] when he visited India a couple of decades ago and spent time in some _really_ rural parts of the country. I'm proud to call him a friend, and have volunteered myself at the Yuwa School to teach math/CS. Through this school, girls have ended up at Harvard (!!) with scholarships, who would've never stepped out of their villages and probably ended up as child brides. I usually introduce him to my compatriots as the firangi who's done more for our country than anybody else I know!

[1] https://yuwa-india.org

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Gastler

New comment by awaaz in "DoNotNotify is now Open Source"

awaaz — Sun, 08 Feb 2026 12:15:28 +0000

It should be able to, unless they are using Live Update [0] notifications.

[0] https://developer.android.com/develop/ui/views/notifications...

New comment by awaaz in "DoNotNotify is now Open Source"

awaaz — Sun, 08 Feb 2026 11:18:44 +0000

You're very kind, thank you!

New comment by awaaz in "DoNotNotify is now Open Source"

awaaz — Sun, 08 Feb 2026 11:15:55 +0000

The starting point is a notification from an app that you want to create a rule for. So you wait for a notification, then click on it in the "History" tab, and then you can configure the rest from there. It's slightly non-intuitive, but the reason for that flow is that the app needs the package name of the app, which almost nobody will know.

New comment by awaaz in "DoNotNotify is now Open Source"

awaaz — Sun, 08 Feb 2026 08:45:44 +0000

This isn't really a commercial project, so not much of that applies.

DoNotNotify is now Open Source

awaaz — Sun, 08 Feb 2026 07:39:49 +0000

A month ago, I submitted my app "DoNotNotify" to control Android notifications on Show HN [0], and it trended on the front page for a day. I was happy, but the most upvoted comments on the thread were asking for the app to be open sourced, since it dealt with system-wide notifications. My promises weren't good enough, and the community wanted more!

Why didn't I open source it in the first place? Linux has been by primary driver for more than a decade. I genuinely believe in the philosophy, and have always wanted to give back to the community. The primary reason, probably, was because I was ashamed that I had 90% vibe-coded the app. More than 2 decades of writing software, and my first contribution to FOSS would be AI-generated code? Would it withstand even the most minimal of scrutiny? Would by (unknown) name forever be tarnished? I exaggerate, but only slightly :)

So, yesterday, after a fair bit of trepidation, I changed the github repo visibility to public and put up a announcement on the app's website [1]. I have also submitted the app to F-Droid [2]. As before, I welcome the community's feedback and suggestions!

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46499646 [1] https://donotnotify.com/opensource.html [2] https://gitlab.com/fdroid/rfp/-/issues/3569

-- Anuj Jain

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46932192

Points: 418

# Comments: 47

New comment by awaaz in "Show HN: DoNotNotify – Log and intelligently block notifications on Android"

awaaz — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 18:04:31 +0000

It does have rules for about 25 common apps already built in. I had considered making a feature to 'share' rules with other users of the app, but that would've required Internet access. And as you can see from the comments on this thread, nobody wants an app like this to send data :(

New comment by awaaz in "Show HN: DoNotNotify – Log and intelligently block notifications on Android"

awaaz — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 17:17:09 +0000

The app requires a very specific permission for this, which it asks for on first launch. It's not even just a popup on which you can tap "Ok" - Android will take you to a special screen from where you need to manually switch on the notifications access for it to work.

New comment by awaaz in "Show HN: DoNotNotify – Log and intelligently block notifications on Android"

awaaz — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 17:05:57 +0000

iOS doesn't give developers access to other apps' notifications, AFAIK. I'm not an iOS developer though - maybe someone with more knowledge can chime in.

New comment by awaaz in "Show HN: DoNotNotify – Log and intelligently block notifications on Android"

awaaz — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 17:04:18 +0000

> Have you thought about adding ML-based classification for notifications that are harder to catch with patterns?

Honestly that's a little out my league. The idea did occur to me, but I'm discouraged by the amount of compute required for most ML.

> Also curious about battery impact — how often does it process the notification stream?

The OS sends any new notification to the app (it is a push based approach) automatically. On my own phone, this app currently shows at the bottom of the list in battery usage (<1%).

New comment by awaaz in "Show HN: DoNotNotify – Log and intelligently block notifications on Android"

awaaz — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 17:00:02 +0000

Fair enough, you only have my word on it (that it doesn't send any data to the Internet). But you do have my word :)

Another person requested that the app be open-sourced as well. I will look into that.

New comment by awaaz in "Show HN: DoNotNotify – Log and intelligently block notifications on Android"

awaaz — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 16:45:46 +0000

That's a great suggestion. Perhaps in the next version!

New comment by awaaz in "Show HN: DoNotNotify – Log and intelligently block notifications on Android"

awaaz — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 16:37:02 +0000

Thanks for the heads up! Will take a look at it.

New comment by awaaz in "Show HN: DoNotNotify – Log and intelligently block notifications on Android"

awaaz — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 16:35:39 +0000

Yes, it requires a special permission, which the app asks for when it is first launched. Thankfully no other permissions are required.

New comment by awaaz in "Show HN: DoNotNotify – Log and intelligently block notifications on Android"

awaaz — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 16:34:37 +0000

Honestly I did not know about Buzzkill. I suppose the big differentiator is that DoNotNotify is absolutely free.

New comment by awaaz in "Show HN: DoNotNotify – Log and intelligently block notifications on Android"

awaaz — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 16:33:23 +0000

Personally it just grates me when my notifications stack up (even if I wasn't disturbed when the notifications came in). My philosophy is - I should be able to control what I see, hence this app.

New comment by awaaz in "Show HN: DoNotNotify – Log and intelligently block notifications on Android"

awaaz — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 15:54:31 +0000

You're welcome, friend!

New comment by awaaz in "Show HN: DoNotNotify – Log and intelligently block notifications on Android"

awaaz — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 15:42:14 +0000

> I've been happy with the solution of switching off notifications from apps that interrupt me with promotions - one strike and they're out.

I have exactly the same policy. But in my case I am forced to keep notifications enabled from apps like MyGate (since nobody would be able to visit me without it) and I have no say in the matter - my gated society uses it and my only way out is to pay for the app itself.

New comment by awaaz in "Show HN: DoNotNotify – Log and intelligently block notifications on Android"

awaaz — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 15:34:39 +0000

Can you share a screenshot of the notification, and the rule that you created for it at aj@donotnotify.com please?

Also, do note that if it is a persistent notification[1] then the Android OS does not allow it to be dismissed. In such a case, you will see the notification in the blocked history with a warning icon next to it.

[1] https://developer.android.com/develop/ui/views/notifications...