I just hellban every app from sending any notifications, except for a select few. Apps get like a one strike policy on notification spam. If they send a single notification I didn't want, I disable their ability to send notifications at all.

Also all notifications/etc are silent, except for alarms, pages, phone calls, and specific named people's texts.

Everything else... no. YouTube was the worst offender before for me.

Another technique for me is to avoid apps like Instagram, Facebook and Youtube. I run them all through mobile Firefox with uBlock origin and custom block scripts that block sponsored posts and shorts. This combines well with having Youtube's history turned off which prevents the algorithmic suggestions.

> YouTube was the worst offender before for me.

Uber. Hands down. I'm using it a lot less since they started sending ads on the same notification channel as my ride updates.

I give apps a one strike policy on notification spam. If they do it at all, I'm uninstalling it until I actually need to use it next (if I can't find an alternative). And the same goes for getting in my way to beg for a review on the app store: that's a shortcut to getting a one-star rating.

The main exception to this is the notification spam from Google asking me to rate call quality after every damn call. I don't have my phone rooted, so I can't turn off that category of notification.

This is the way. You get one chance, app. If you send me an unwanted notification, you're done. You have to almost treat these apps as attackers.