Notifications or Notification Service are a powerful feature on our mobile phones, helping us stay informed, organized, and responsive to important events and updates from your apps. They appear as messages, alerts, or icons in the notification shade at the top of your device’s screen. It allows apps to inform you about various events, updates, or information, even when you are not actively using the app. Don’t confuse it with Notification Access permission though. They look similar, but serve different functions. Notification Access is a permission on Android phones that allows apps to read the notifications generated by other apps on your device. Apps that provide notification management and customization features may require this permission. Most others however should not require this permission to run properly. It’s important to be cautious when granting Notification Access to third-party apps and allow them the access to sensitive information contained in notifications on your phone. Giving this permission to malicious or poorly designed apps could compromise your privacy and security. iOS does not have an equivalent feature to Android’s “Notification Access” or “Notification Listening Service” so far. Unlike Android, which allows certain apps to access and interact with notifications from other apps with user consent, iOS has stricter privacy and security policies in place.
You can follow below instructions to review and control which apps have Notification Access permission on your Android device and revoke it for any apps you no longer trust or need to access your notifications. Please note that the exact names and locations of these settings may vary slightly depending on your Android version and device manufacturer.
Unlock your phone. Open the Settings app on your device. Look for the “Apps & notifications” or “Apps” option. Find and select “Advanced”, “Advanced Permissions”, “Special app access”, or a similar option. Notification access is usually nested under the Special app access section.
You should find the Notification access here and manage which apps have access to your notifications. You’ll see a switch or toggle that allows you to turn the permission on or off for that specific app.
