Rant Mode - Google Flight Notifications



  • Google has a weird way of applying staggering levels of sophistication, human intelligence, and computation power to things that have no significance whatsoever and are gimmicks at best, yet leaving essential everyday apps short of mind-numbingly obvious features. In particular for this time, I will complain about their Android flight notifications.

    It puts up notifications, Now cards, and various other things I can't be bothered to keep track of for any flights I reserve for myself, based on scanning my email and picking up the details automatically. That's nice and handy I suppose. The problem is that it's too dumb to figure out whether the flight is for me or not. Whenever anyone flies in to visit me, they usually email me their flight reservation, which Google dutifully picks up and treats as if it's for me. Thus I get notifications to head to the airport, in a city halfway across the country, to catch a flight to where I am right now, and more notifications about all of the details of this flight, as if I'm on it. Can't they apply a little of their precious machine learning neural network voodoo to read the fucking name on the ticket and figure out that it isn't me?

    And now that I'm warmed up, speaking of completely obvious and simple features, why can't I set the phone app to not ring unless the number is in my contacts? I almost never get a call from a number not in my contacts that I actually want to answer, and that's only when I have something planned in advance, like a phone interview for a new job or something. 99.9% of them are some kind of scammer. And for the double-dumb side, it's now capable of putting up a big red warning that the incoming call that the phone is ringing for is probably spam. But it still won't do the completely obvious thing of not fucking ringing the phone if it's a known spammer calling.



  • @undergroundcode said in Rant Mode - Google Flight Notifications:

    But it still won't do the completely obvious thing of not fucking ringing the phone if it's a known spammer calling.

    I've got this option under the contact I've made for this purpose:

    0_1511293299506_cb8557e1-2933-43a4-9043-c8783dbd1656-image.png



  • @hungrier That lets you silence a particular spammer. I'm talking about the random ones that use new phone numbers every time. It seems that Google did a bunch of fancy shit to detect that the calls are spam automatically, even if you've never seen the number before. But then for some reason, they still ring the phone, just with a giant red SPAM warning. There isn't even an option to not ring the phone for these Google-identified spammers.



  • @undergroundcode I don't think I've ever seen the spam warning (maybe it's a US-only thing?) but whenever I get a spam call I add the number to that contact. It obviously doesn't help the first time they call, but after that it saves me from having to look up the number.


  • Considered Harmful

    @UndergroundCode For the latter gripe, sounds like you want to install the Hiya app. It has individual block settings for known scammers, known spammers, private numbers, and numbers not in your contacts. It's quite useful.


  • FoxDev

    @undergroundcode said in Rant Mode - Google Flight Notifications:

    99.9% of them are some kind of scammer.

    I use this setting:

    0_1511300495068_5fb865d7-29f8-4d62-8dc2-11d9e1e6d2fa-image.png

    that forces you to announce who you are when you call me before it rings. autodialers are incapable of doing so so i don't get robocallers and almost all telemarketers that call directly disconnect as well as they know they'll get voicemail becasue duh. but this also allows legitimate calls through.

    then i combine it with this setting:
    0_1511300597740_6fa0a5d3-cc55-45f0-b137-d84216406cac-image.png
    That turns off call verification from people i've added to my contacts. that way you don't have to do that song and dnace if i know you already.

    i no longer get spam calls. it's just not a thing that happens.

    Thank you google! (maybe make these settings the default for new Fi customers?)


  • :belt_onion:

    @undergroundcode said in Rant Mode - Google Flight Notifications:

    There isn't even an option to not ring the phone for these Google-identified spammers.

    That's because there's no way to know they're spammers for sure. The number they're using may be (probably is) a legit phone number owned by someone, and blackholing it is bad for obvious reasons.


  • :belt_onion:

    @undergroundcode said in Rant Mode - Google Flight Notifications:

    And now that I'm warmed up, speaking of completely obvious and simple features, why can't I set the phone app to not ring unless the number is in my contacts?

    Mmm, there’s a feature that’s partway there, I suppose; you can set Do Not Disturb to Priority mode, which will only ring through “starred” contacts, IIRC.



  • @accalia That's Fi? Looks like Google Voice. I tried Google Voice a while back, and cancelled it because it makes MMS messages disappear, and way too many of my friends use them. If Fi lets you do that and supports MMS properly, I may have to take a look at it.



  • @pie_flavor said in Rant Mode - Google Flight Notifications:

    @UndergroundCode For the latter gripe, sounds like you want to install the Hiya app. It has individual block settings for known scammers, known spammers, private numbers, and numbers not in your contacts. It's quite useful.

    That sounds worth checking out too, thanks!



  • @sloosecannon said in Rant Mode - Google Flight Notifications:

    @undergroundcode said in Rant Mode - Google Flight Notifications:

    There isn't even an option to not ring the phone for these Google-identified spammers.

    That's because there's no way to know they're spammers for sure. The number they're using may be (probably is) a legit phone number owned by someone, and blackholing it is bad for obvious reasons.

    There's that all right. I wouldn't recommend blackholing everyone that Google decides is a spammer universally. Something like that would be a nice feature for grumpy nerds like me to turn on though. Maybe a 3-way setting for calls labelled as spam - ring normally, no ring but a subtle notification, and no notification at all.


  • Notification Spam Recipient

    @undergroundcode said in Rant Mode - Google Flight Notifications:

    @accalia That's Fi? Looks like Google Voice. I tried Google Voice a while back, and cancelled it because it makes MMS messages disappear, and way too many of my friends use them. If Fi lets you do that and supports MMS properly, I may have to take a look at it.

    No, that's not Fi, that's Grand CentralGoogle Voice. It seems to handle MMS slightly better since moving to Hangouts.


  • Notification Spam Recipient

    @accalia said in Rant Mode - Google Flight Notifications:

    Thank you google! (maybe make these settings the default for new Fi customers?)

    Now if only I could prevent anyone by my Google Voice number from ringing my phone...


  • kills Dumbledore

    Why ignore the spammy calls? It's great fun asking for lots of details on what PPI is and then saying it sounds great and you'll take 4



  • 0_1511338891131_Screenshot 2017-11-22 at 02.21.04.png

    I never received this phone call - it went straight to spam.


  • 🚽 Regular

    @jaloopa said in Rant Mode - Google Flight Notifications:

    Why ignore the spammy calls? It's great fun asking for lots of details on what PPI is and then saying it sounds great and you'll take 4

    I only get those 'Good greetings sir, it is seeing that you were involved in a car accident in the last six months?'.

    I try to string them along until they ask for details and then say it was so bad I died. Some of them carry straight on!


  • kills Dumbledore

    @cursorkeys My wife had to go to the extent of making ghost noises once before they twigged.

    My favourite for accidents is to act confused, say I don't remember any accident, then mention that my memory isn't so good since the accident. I once got asked what accident and said I didn't remember



  • @undergroundcode said in Rant Mode - Google Flight Notifications:

    But it still won't do the completely obvious thing of not fucking ringing the phone if it's a known spammer calling.

    This.

    Many people i know and myself have setups with only allow contacts to ring the phone. Otherwise they go to voicemail. If it's important or someone who wants to get hold of you will leave a message, and you will get that. Very very few spam callers (ppi, insurance, scams etc) will leave a message. Generally robocallers will not leave a message but i imagine someone is working on that.


  • FoxDev

    @undergroundcode said in Rant Mode - Google Flight Notifications:

    @accalia That's Fi? Looks like Google Voice. I tried Google Voice a while back, and cancelled it because it makes MMS messages disappear, and way too many of my friends use them. If Fi lets you do that and supports MMS properly, I may have to take a look at it.

    it's the google voice settings for my fi number. google piggypacks fi on google voice so there's some configuration you nee to go to google voice for. but it all still works\



  • @hungrier said in Rant Mode - Google Flight Notifications:

    I don't think I've ever seen the spam warning (maybe it's a US-only thing?)

    Nope, got it the other day, so it's enabled in Canada at least.


  • Notification Spam Recipient

    @jaloopa said in Rant Mode - Google Flight Notifications:

    Why ignore the spammy calls? It's great fun asking for lots of details on what PPI is and then saying it sounds great and you'll take 4

    Nowadays all my spam calls are just silence. :sadface: Not even machines want to talk to me anymore....



  • @helix said in Rant Mode - Google Flight Notifications:

    Generally robocallers will not leave a message but i imagine someone is working on that.

    I somewhat regularly get messages in an obviously non-human voice:

    This is an important call for ... name.... If you are not ... name, ... please hang up and do listen to the rest of this message....

    By staying on the line, you acknowledge that you are ... name ...

    It is urgent that you call us at number ... blah, blah

    Notable about this is that there is absolutely no information in the message about who the call is from or why it is so urgent that I call them back, certainly nothing that justifies the ominous "If you are not name, do not listen to the rest of this message." (I happen to know that it is a legitimate call and I really should call them back, but only because I once googled the phone number to find out who was calling me repeatedly (at that point, they weren't leaving messages at all, and they still don't more than half the time), and I refuse to play their game. If the call is important, tell my why it's important and let me decide; otherwise, I'll decide it's not nearly as important to me as you think it is.)



  • Thinking about this...
    Email transports was developed all those years ago which are now problematic due to the naive approach to security.
    Just the same as telephone networks were developed and evolved and it was a necessary to allow anyone in the world to dial a number and interrupt any arbitrary person in the world. If only someone designed in a system whereby you had to have a token unique to the recipient to allow you to place the call.



  • @timebandit said in Rant Mode - Google Flight Notifications:

    @hungrier said in Rant Mode - Google Flight Notifications:

    I don't think I've ever seen the spam warning (maybe it's a US-only thing?)

    Nope, got it the other day, so it's enabled in Canada at least.

    Isn't it a Samsung thing? I have it on my Samsung, but I didn't on the Nexus.

    It works for my bank's spam calls, but it also marked the number Microsoft calls me from for 2FA as spam, so.


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @maciejasjmj said in Rant Mode - Google Flight Notifications:

    it also marked the number Microsoft calls me from for 2FA as spam

    Sounds like a win to me!



  • @maciejasjmj said in Rant Mode - Google Flight Notifications:

    Isn't it a Samsung thing? I have it on my Samsung, but I didn't on the Nexus.

    I have a Nexus 6, so no.

    It works for my bank's spam calls, but it also marked the number Microsoft calls me from for 2FA as spam, so.

    If Microsoft ever calls me, I hope my phone identify it as spam too :trollface:


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