Oreo removed individual text notifications per contact

[Tom Olandese]

Trying to track down some info here. By now almost everyone should know that the oreo update has removed the option to assign text alerts to contacts in samsung phones. Is this a global change to all oreo devices independent of hardware? Samsung is directly blaming android for the change and trying to absolve all responsibility (also claiming they cant add the function in despite 3rd party apps doing it). Trying to find real answers so far it doesn't seem that anyone wants to acknowledge the change or address any plans on fixing it.

 

[Hadron]

No, it's not a global change in Oreo independent of manufacturer. Not only do all 3rd party apps support it, but so does Google's own Messages app, which is the native message app for Google devices and some others (I've tested this personally on my Pixel 2). The only "affected" app seems to be Samsung's own message app.

Logically that leaves two possibilities:

1) It's actually a change made by Samsung to their app, and they are simply lying about it being anything to do with Oreo.

2) Samsung manage personalised notifications in some strange way that nobody else does, this approach of theirs doesn't work with Oreo, and they are too incompetent to fix it or do it a different way (like, e.g., everyone else does).

Or a variant:

3) Either of the above, except that the reason it's not being fixed is that the corporation doesn't think it needs to listen to customer complaints. I think this last is most likely: people who complain just get stonewalled by employees saying what they are told to say and the complaint never gets to anyone who might be able to do anything about it.

That may sound harsh, but I've not forgotten what happened when the S4 launched: the 16GB model had no more than 10GB available to the user, and for many people that filled quickly. When they complained, Samsung told them to move apps to SD - except that the software didn't have that option! What did they do when the number of complaints mounted, and when people pointed out that there was no such option on the phone? They stuck mindlessly to the script, even escalating it by issuing a public statement saying the same thing. It was only when the mainstream media picked up on the story that they suddenly "realised" that the thing they'd been telling everyone to do wasn't possible and announced that they would be fixing that "bug" very shortly. Put another way, it was only when it became a threat to sales that it reached the attention of someone who could order something to be done about it. And I doubt that their corporate culture has changed much in the last few years, so suspect that this attitude is what you are facing now.

 

[Tom Olandese]

Well this is exactly what I'm seeing. Every contacts I've made to them is the same "blame oreo" tactic. Their own forum mods have completely ignore the thread but now are commenting on other oreo issue threads that they cannot comment on future updates. It just floors me that something so out of touch can legit happen like this. I mean the thread is over 1,000 posts and the mods won't touch it!

 

[Tom Olandese]

While this has been over a month of trying to get answers, Samsung responded again today blaming the change on Android Oreo removing the function. I can't seem to find a way to contact Google/Android for feedback on this. The only links I find go back to respective phone makers. Can anybody assist me with a general customer contact regarding android support?

 

[lunatic59]

Your really not going to find specific Google contact information. they distance themselves from support like this. While I have no doubt it was a change in oreo that broke this function in Samsung's (sand Sony's) contact app, they get the SDK ahead of time so they can update their apps to be compatible when the new update is released. In this case they either din't want to bother or chose to remove the feature.