I think if you're in the middle of having a convo with someone it's ok, because you know they're awake. But if you just texted someone and saw that, definitely not ok unless it was really urgent!

Oooh, that’s a toughie. If I knew the person really well — and there’s a reason to break through their notifications pause — then I do it. Any other circumstance, though… that would feel a little aggressive. But I am also aggressively polite. 

I was messaging a friend last night and midway through our conversation, I was alerted that they had turned off notifications to “focus” or something. I also clocked that it had JUST turned to 10pm, so I figured it was probably a scheduled feature on their iPhone.

The new iOS offers you the option to “notify anyway” when you are alerted that someone’s message notifications are turned off. And so… I did. And they responded, but I can’t help but feel like I invaded their privacy? Was that not cool of me? Did I cross a boundary? We were literally in the middle of a convo about plans for the next morning, I didn’t want to get lost in the shuffle of bedtime routines!

Do you "notify anyway"?

Allison Piwowarski