What the evidence actually says.
Tidings rests on one finding, and it is worth being precise about it rather than piling up statistics. Everything below is linked so you can check it yourself.
The study this is built on Batching messages made people calmer. Cutting them off made things worse.
A two-week randomised field experiment put 237 smartphone users into four groups. The group that got notifications in three predictable batches a day reported being more attentive, more productive, in a better mood, less stressed and more in control of their phones. The group that got none at all reaped few of those benefits and reported higher anxiety and more fear of missing out.
That second half is why Tidings has delivery windows rather than a do-not-disturb switch. Silence is not the goal; predictable arrival is.
The four groups - As usual The comparison group
- Batched hourly Little change
- Batched 3× a day Calmer, more focused, better mood
- None at all More anxiety, more fear of missing out
Batching smartphone notifications can improve well-being · Fitz, Kushlev, Jagannathan, Lewis, Paliwal, Ariely · Computers in Human Behavior, 2019 · Randomised field experiment, n=237 Where this is thin
- The notification-volume figure below comes from a study of 15 people. It is widely cited and later work with 278 users found a similar median, but 15 is 15.
- The batching trial ran for two weeks. Nobody has shown that the effect holds for two years.
- None of this proves Tidings works. It shows the direction is sound. When we have our own numbers, they will go here, including the ones that disagree with us.
Every source
- Batching smartphone notifications can improve well-being Fitz, Kushlev, Jagannathan, Lewis, Paliwal, Ariely · Computers in Human Behavior, 2019 · Randomised field experiment, n=237
- “Silence Your Phones”: Smartphone notifications increase inattention and hyperactivity symptoms Kushlev, Proulx, Dunn · CHI 2016 · n=221
- About half of Americans say they spend too much time on their smartphone Pew Research Center · September 2026 · Survey of 9,750 US adults
- An in-situ study of mobile phone notifications Pielot, Church, de Oliveira · MobileHCI 2014 · One-week study, n=15 — the small one
- Digital 2026: Global Overview Report DataReportal · 2026 · Citing Similarweb app data
- Australians now have the right to disconnect University of Sydney · August 2024 · France legislated first, in 2017
- International Migrant Stock 2024 UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs · 2024 · 304 million people living outside their country of birth
- People are sending 7 billion voice messages on WhatsApp every day TechCrunch, reporting WhatsApp's figure · March 2022 · Async voice is already normal
- Social connection linked to improved health and reduced risk of early death WHO Commission on Social Connection · June 2025 · 1 in 6 people worldwide experience loneliness