The Notification Categories feature is among the most useful and well-integrated One UI elements. I'd go as far as to say it's probably underrated, but that doesn't really bother me as long as the feature exists and remains a part of One UI. To be frank, the thought that Samsung might be preparing to remove it frustrates me to no end, and I hope the new One UI 6.1 update for the Galaxy S24 series isn't a sign of bad things to come.
Here's a bit of backstory as to why I'm worried about the future of Notification Categories. For reasons unknown, Samsung not only turned Notification Categories off by default in One UI 6.1 but also hid the feature.
Thankfully, you can unhide it if you know where to look, and I recently wrote a guide on how to reinstate it so you can manage per-app notification types individually.
But that's not what concerns me right now. What does is the “why” and not the “how.” From the user's perspective, I can't think of one advantage to having the Notification Categories feature hidden and turned off. Per-app notification toggles in One UI 6.0 and earlier versions were neatly tucked away in their own settings menu and very far from cluttering the UI or confusing the user.
This feature was so elegantly implemented that no matter how much I try to find a good reason why Samsung hid it in One UI 6.1, I come up empty. But there might be one explanation for it, and I really don't like where it's going.
Is Samsung preparing to remove Notification Categories altogether?
The one reason I can think of as to why this has happened is that Samsung is planning to remove Notification Categories altogether in future One UI updates. By turning them off by default in One UI 6.1 for the Galaxy S24 series, the company could be trying to ease users into this change.
I'm not saying this is confirmed in any way, and I sure hope it's not true, as I truly believe Notification Categories are fantastic the way they are in One UI 6.0.
But I keep wondering ‘What was Samsung thinking?' This doesn't look like an attempt to streamline the user experience in One UI 6.1.
Why would Samsung want to add an extra setting that makes this feature — one that's already almost hidden — even more difficult to find?
Why add complexity and one extra step to something that is already superbly streamlined and out of the user's way until they need it?
Am I witnessing an insidious plan of Samsung's unfold before my very eyes? A plan to force every notification type, from marketing to miscellaneous, onto Galaxy device users without any options to manage per-app notification categories?
I know software and hardware developers sometimes push users away from certain features and try to ease them into future changes. So I can't help but wonder if this is what's happening here.
I sure hope that's not the case, and I am willing to give Samsung the benefit of the doubt until proven otherwise. But if Samsung has plans to remove Notification Categories altogether, it better stop dead in its tracks right now before it does any more damage to a great facet of One UI.
