Our most-engaged users turn off our notifications first.

We segmented 7,800 accounts by notification settings and compared to engagement.

Notifications on (default): 61% of accounts, median 4.1 sessions/week

Notifications off: 39% of accounts, median 6.8 sessions/week

Users who turned notifications off within 7 days of signup: 22%, median 7.4 sessions/week

The users who turned notifications off were our most engaged. They did not want to be pulled back. They wanted to come back on their own terms. We had been treating notification opt-out as a disengagement signal and sending "we miss you" emails to people who were already our best users.

We stopped sending re-engagement emails to users who had turned notifications off but were still logging in regularly. Unsubscribe rate dropped 38%, and those users stayed at their higher engagement level. We had been interrupting the people who needed us least.

Who are you re-engaging that is already engaged, and are you measuring opt-out as a signal of disinterest or a signal of intent?