What notification access lets Quietly read

Decide whether you need notification access

If Android's own notification settings solve your problem, you can use those without giving Quietly access. Recording alerts and applying content rules require more: Quietly needs to receive the notifications Android makes available to its notification listener.

Android notification access is a meaningful permission. Read the explanation shown by your phone and Quietly before enabling it. You can decline; Quietly then cannot perform its notification recording and blocking functions. Giving permission does not make missing or hidden message content available.

What can appear in a notification record

With consent and access, Quietly can read the sending app, notification content, timing, and available conversation information. Depending on the source notification, this may include sender images, icons, or an attached preview image. The available fields differ across apps and messages.

That means notification history can contain personal conversation previews or other sensitive details that the sending app includes. Quietly does not need your messaging password, does not sign into those accounts, and cannot retrieve an entire conversation simply because a preview arrived.

Local notification content and separate network activity

Your notification content, rules, searches, and on-device Insights stay in Quietly's local storage. They are excluded from its Firebase Analytics events and ad requests. Quietly has no account or developer-operated notification-content cloud, and that local data is excluded from backup.

This does not mean the whole app never connects to the internet. It uses limited Firebase analytics and, in the free version after required consent, Google advertising. Those services can process separate app, device, diagnostic, and network information. Google Play handles the optional one-time Pro purchase; Pro removes ads.

Choose what to retain

Retention can be 7, 30, or 90 days, or until you manually delete records. Shortening it can delete older history. Choose based on how far back you need to search, rather than collecting more simply because a longer period is available.

Excluding an app from History deletes its existing saved history and prevents future history storage for that app. Its blocking rules can still apply. Successful block records and their notification content are separate options that remain off until enabled. Excluding history is therefore different from turning off processing.

Stop collection and delete data separately

Stopping Quietly notification processing prevents it from reading and blocking new notifications while preserving saved history and rules. It does not automatically revoke the Android permission. Deleting history removes stored records but does not stop new ones if processing remains enabled.

1. In Quietly's data and privacy settings, choose Stop Quietly notification processing when you want new processing to stop.
2. To revoke system access too, open Android notification access settings and turn Quietly off. The exact menu varies by device.
3. Delete notification history if you also want existing saved records removed, or use the full local reset for history, rules, and related local settings.
4. Read the confirmation carefully: deleted local notification history cannot be recovered by granting access again.

Your next step

Permission, processing, retention, and deletion are separate controls. Choose each deliberately, and keep only the notification records you expect to use.

Explore this feature in Quietly, or get help with setup.

Sources and further reading

• Android notification listener reference
• Quietly on Google Play