Android 15 finally fixes that annoying notification noise for good

Android’s notification system has always been a bit of a mixed bag. Sure, it gets some things right — like grouping messages, offering smart replies, and letting you fire off responses without even opening an app. But let’s be real: sometimes those alerts feel more like unwelcome interruptions, especially if you’ve got a secondary Android device that spends most of its life powered down. If you’ve ever been startled by a barrage of old notifications when you finally fire up your backup tablet, Android 15’s latest update is about to become your new best friend.

Imagine this scenario: you’ve got an old Android tablet collecting dust in a drawer, only seeing the light of day when you’re on vacation. Naturally, you keep it powered down most of the time to preserve the battery. But the next time you switch it on and connect to the Internet, it’ll come alive with a cacophony of dings, buzzes, and vibrations from notifications you’ve already dealt with on your main device. It’s like the tablet is trying to remind you of everything you’ve missed — days, or even weeks, after the fact. Annoying, right?

Well, someone at Google seems to have had enough of this nonsense, because the latest Android 15 QPR1 beta has introduced a clever tweak: Android will now reject any notification that’s over two weeks old. That’s right — those ancient alerts that usually hit you like a tidal wave will no longer make your device chime, buzz, or display full notification content. It’s the peace and quiet we’ve all been craving.

So, how does this magic work? According to Android Authority, when you turn on your neglected device, Android compares the timestamp of each incoming notification with the current time. If any notification is older than two weeks, it won’t bother you. Sure, you’ll still see which apps or contacts were trying to get your attention, but you won’t get the usual ping-fest. For notifications delivered through Google’s Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM), which queues them until your device is ready, this change means that even if there’s a backlog, it won’t feel like you’re under attack from your own tech.

This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Google’s plans to make notifications less annoying. They’re also cooking up features to sync notification dismissals across your Android devices (finally!) and a cooldown setting to prevent back-to-back pings. Plus, they’re experimenting with ways to tweak how notifications show up in your status bar — though that’s still a work in progress, so don’t get too attached to any mockups you might spot.

For now, though, Android 15’s refusal to play old notifications is a small but significant victory in our ongoing quest for a calmer, quieter device experience. So, next time you turn on that long-forgotten tablet, you won’t be met with a flood of outdated alerts — you’ll just get on with your day, distraction-free. Finally, some peace and quiet, courtesy of Google.