In the DND (Do Not Disturb) settings in Android 8.1 there is an option to allow "Priority Only" notifications through. You can set what types of things qualify for priority (e.g., someone calling twice in a 15 minute period).

One of the options there is "Messages" which you can set to anyone, contacts only, starred contacts only or none.

However, what "messages" does this apply to? Is it only from hangouts or the builting messaging app? Is it SMS messages?

For example, I'd like WhatsApp messages from certainly people to come through, but I doubt Android knows how to match up the sending of a message from a third-party messaging to my contacts list?


I checked this about an year ago when I had hangouts installed

All messages (including text) that use GCM were blocked. WhatsApp doesn't use GCM so they will be received

  • ... but the whasapp notification will still be blocked by DND I guess? Are you saying that "messages" here then refers to messages between GCM and the phone? That seems much too technical and seems unlike they would actually block delivery of the message, DND must be implemented locally on the phone. – BeeOnRope Aug 22 '18 at 3:27
  • No whatsapp notification was not blocked. You can check it. Also, it is reasonable to think that DND acts on contacts stored by Google contacts and not for apps like Whatsapp that have their own contact list – beeshyams Aug 22 '18 at 3:34
  • They're is nothing complex with GCM. It is a core component of Google – beeshyams Aug 22 '18 at 3:45
  • I don't think you are understanding my point: the behavior of what notifications to block is purely a local decision by the phone. If I tell it to disable all notifications, they are, including whatsapp - whatsapp doesn't have some magic to bypass DND, and anyways it was just an example. My question was specifically about the "messages" category: if I let messages through from "starred contacts", what apps does this apply to? It seems obvious to me it cannot apply to third party apps, GCM or not, because I doubt there is a concept sender for third party notifications. – BeeOnRope Aug 22 '18 at 3:49
  • I get you but whatsapp messages came through and I gave a likely reason (apart from GCM, separate contact list) You can verify and let me know because I am currently without Whatsapp too – beeshyams Aug 22 '18 at 3:54

If it's just phone contacts, then it's just phone contacts. If it's a Google thing, as long as you got contacts on your Google account, then that will still go through. Look at it like messenger and phone (SMS) messages.

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