Smarter Phone Alerts

New York-based start-up Triggerhood has built software that will stop smartphone alerts interrupting you by telling your apps when it's a good or bad time to send them.

The tool, also called Triggerhood, creates a personal profile of your behaviour and uses an algorithm to make sense of this, once it has been added to an app by developers. Triggerhood is currently in beta testing: several small apps are using the software and the company is aiming to supply it to larger apps soon, co-founder Guy Balzam told MIT Technology Review.

Information is collected anonymously, based on whether an app is open or closed, location data, and signals from smartphone sensors that can tell if the owner is running, driving or tilting their device. For example, within a few days, Triggerhood can determine that a news app should send you article notifications only after you have completed your morning run or drive to work.

Devices that help hyper-connected consumers fight overwhelm are in high demand. For more strategies to engage with time-poor, tech-tethered consumers, see Working Smarter, Luxury Changes Gear and Battling Busyness.