Notifications can definitely be useful, ferrying information to your phone about incoming messages from loved ones, sports scores, and incoming Uber rides. But they can also be a frequent distraction, causing your phone to ping and buzz throughout the day and causing you to spend more time checking your device than you really should.
If you've got a Pixel phone, then there's a handy feature built right into Android that can help, and it's called notification cooldown. I've been using it ever since it arrived in the March 2025 Pixel Drop, and it makes a genuine difference to notification management.
