LinkedIn is setting daily and monthly limits on notifications for users

Business-oriented social networking company LinkedIn has successfully cut the number of emails it sends to users — about other people connecting with you, endorsing you, getting new jobs, making news, and so on — by 50 percent, but it’s not stopping there. Today the company announced a new Air Traffic Controller system that’s designed to send more intelligent, and in some cases fewer, notifications to users.

“ATC is a single platform for all communication to our members across LinkedIn, including email, mobile and SMS,” Erica Lockheimer, director of engineering growth and Women In Tech at LinkedIn, wrote in a blog post on the new system. “Our platform uses learning algorithms, which take into account member interactions to better determine the right frequency of communication you get from LinkedIn, at the right time, and through the right channels.”

Machine learning is lurking behind many parts of LinkedIn, including figuring out what kinds of roles people hold at companies given the titles they use on their profiles. Now it’s being applied to notifications.

And the company has decided to put daily and monthly caps on notifications across the board, Lockheimer wrote.

The new system will translate into “an immediate improvement to both the quantity and quality of communications you receive from LinkedIn,” she wrote.

The system is taking into consideration user preferences and behavior.

“For example, in the past, we sent an email for every connection invite you received. Now, if you receive a handful of connection invites in a short period of time, our platform will automatically roll that up into a single email,” Lockheimer wrote.