"Notification ranker" - what does it do, and what happens if I disable it?


Question

After staying for so long on Marshmallow, today I finally made the decision to upgrade one of my secondary devices with Nougat (LineageOS 14.1 to be precise). Everything went smooth and most things stayed familiar... except this weird entry in Settings - Developer options - Running services.



screenshot screenshot screenshot

Screenshots (click images for larger variants)



I'd keep the running process list as clean as possible (habit, don't question why), but when I clicked into this "Android Services Library" and tried to stop it, it says it runs a "Notification ranker service" (second screenshot).



Clicking "Settings" there takes me to an app preference screen (third screenshot; likely the same as in Settings - Apps) that contains nothing about the service or the app:



Furthermore, I can't find any reference on how this "notification ranker" mechanism works, or even what it is.



Note that I also flashed stock Nougat on my Nexus 6P before, and from what I remember, that one also has this service running, so it's not specific to LineageOS.



Can anyone with sufficient knowledge tell me what it does, and what will happen if I disable this service via external means, e.g. will notification functions be affected?


Answer

From arstechnica:




GoogleExtServices has an app name of "Android Services Library" and
does actually contain something: an "Android Notification Ranking
Service."
A "Notification Ranking Service" was added in Lollipop, and
it sorts notifications by "importance" based on things like freshness,
app type (IM apps come first), and by contact. This seems to be an
extension to the system that includes support for Nougat's
"notification bundling" feature. This is a really minor feature, and
with only this single chunk of code, GoogleExtServices weighs in at a
microscopic 10KB.



Topics


2D Engines   3D Engines   9-Patch   Action Bars   Activities   ADB   Advertisements   Analytics   Animations   ANR   AOP   API   APK   APT   Architecture   Audio   Autocomplete   Background Processing   Backward Compatibility   Badges   Bar Codes   Benchmarking   Bitmaps   Bluetooth   Blur Effects   Bread Crumbs   BRMS   Browser Extensions   Build Systems   Bundles   Buttons   Caching   Camera   Canvas   Cards   Carousels   Changelog   Checkboxes   Cloud Storages   Color Analysis   Color Pickers   Colors   Comet/Push   Compass Sensors   Conferences   Content Providers   Continuous Integration   Crash Reports   Credit Cards   Credits   CSV   Curl/Flip   Data Binding   Data Generators   Data Structures   Database   Database Browsers   Date &   Debugging   Decompilers   Deep Links   Dependency Injections   Design   Design Patterns   Dex   Dialogs   Distributed Computing   Distribution Platforms   Download Managers   Drawables   Emoji   Emulators   EPUB   Equalizers &   Event Buses   Exception Handling   Face Recognition   Feedback &   File System   File/Directory   Fingerprint   Floating Action   Fonts   Forms   Fragments   FRP   FSM   Functional Programming   Gamepads   Games   Geocaching   Gestures   GIF   Glow Pad   Gradle Plugins   Graphics   Grid Views   Highlighting   HTML   HTTP Mocking   Icons   IDE   IDE Plugins   Image Croppers   Image Loaders   Image Pickers   Image Processing   Image Views   Instrumentation   Intents   Job Schedulers   JSON   Keyboard   Kotlin   Layouts   Library Demos   List View   List Views   Localization   Location   Lock Patterns   Logcat   Logging   Mails   Maps   Markdown   Mathematics   Maven Plugins   MBaaS   Media   Menus   Messaging   MIME   Mobile Web   Native Image   Navigation   NDK   Networking   NFC   NoSQL   Number Pickers   OAuth   Object Mocking   OCR Engines   OpenGL   ORM   Other Pickers   Parallax List   Parcelables   Particle Systems   Password Inputs   PDF   Permissions   Physics Engines   Platforms   Plugin Frameworks   Preferences   Progress Indicators   ProGuard   Properties   Protocol Buffer   Pull To   Purchases   Push/Pull   QR Codes   Quick Return   Radio Buttons   Range Bars   Ratings   Recycler Views   Resources   REST   Ripple Effects   RSS   Screenshots   Scripting   Scroll Views   SDK   Search Inputs   Security   Sensors   Services   Showcase Views   Signatures   Sliding Panels   Snackbars   SOAP   Social Networks   Spannable   Spinners   Splash Screens   SSH   Static Analysis   Status Bars   Styling   SVG   System   Tags   Task Managers   TDD &   Template Engines   Testing   Testing Tools   Text Formatting   Text Views   Text Watchers   Text-to   Toasts   Toolkits For   Tools   Tooltips   Trainings   TV   Twitter   Updaters   USB   User Stories   Utils   Validation   Video   View Adapters   View Pagers   Views   Watch Face   Wearable Data   Wearables   Weather   Web Tools   Web Views   WebRTC   WebSockets   Wheel Widgets   Wi-Fi   Widgets   Windows   Wizards   XML   XMPP   YAML   ZIP Codes