Notification Cooldown — no Android 16 required
First things first: Notification Cooldown, if the name doesn’t ring a bell, is a new Android option designed to minimize interruptions from back-to-back, rapid-fire notifications — like when your chatty colleague Kirstie sends you 7,000 short messages during a Zoom call or your kinda-sorta buddy Brad sends seven stupid sentences somehow split into 14 separate texts.
In Android 16, Notification Cooldown can turn down the volume and “minimize alerts” in any such repeat-interruption scenarios — automatically, on your behalf, when you active a single simple toggle with your system settings.
Here’s a little secret, though: I’ve had a similar sort of system up and running on my own personal Android phone for ages now, since long before Android 16 existed. It’s even better, actually, ’cause I can decide exactly which notifications will trigger it — down to the specific app and even sender involved — and also decide for myself how long the “cooldown” period should last.
