DEV Community: Shari Eskenas

I wanted a simple way to control Gmail notifications, so I built one

Shari Eskenas — Fri, 17 Apr 2026 09:46:56 +0000

For a long time, I kept running into the same problem:
I did not want every new email interrupting me, but I also did not want to miss the important one I was waiting for.

That sounds like something email apps should make easy. But in practice, setting it up and changing it later can feel surprisingly clunky.

The issue was not just whether a VIP-style setup was technically possible. It was how much digging it took to set up, and then how awkward it still felt to change later.

Sometimes I want all email notifications on.
Sometimes I want them off.
Sometimes I want only certain people or companies to be able to interrupt me.
Sometimes I want to change that quickly because I am working, sleeping, in a meeting, or waiting for one important message.

The problem was both setup and control

A lot of people hear “VIP email notifications” and assume the problem is solved if an app gives you some way to mark important senders.
But that is only part of it.

What I wanted was not just a way to build a VIP list once. I wanted a simple way to choose who could notify me, and then a simple way to switch between notification modes whenever my situation changed.

That is partly a feature problem. But it is also very much a UI problem.

Apple Mail felt scattered

Apple Mail does have VIPs. On iPhone, Apple says you add a VIP from an email by tapping the sender’s name or email address, opening the contact card, and choosing Add to VIP. But the notification controls live elsewhere: Settings > Apps > Mail > Notifications, make sure Allow Notifications is on, then Customize Notifications, choose the email account, and select the alert settings you want.

So the pieces are there. But they're still spread across different places rather than presented as one clean control surface. Even before getting to the question of switching modes later, the initial setup already felt more buried than I wanted for something that should feel simple.

Apple’s iPhone VIP instructions are also framed around individual senders and contact cards, and I could not find official Apple documentation for a domain-level VIP option.

Gmail felt even more workaround-driven

On iPhone and iPad, Google’s official Gmail notification settings focus on broad choices like notification level, sounds, and High priority only. That is useful, but it is not the same as a simple built-in “only notify me for these exact senders” mode.

If you want something closer to VIP-by-sender, Gmail pushes you toward a workaround flow: create filters, apply labels, and then manage notification behavior separately. Google’s filter help documents the filter-creation process, and Google’s Android Gmail help says label notifications are handled under Settings > [account] > Manage labels, where you choose a label, sync its messages, and then enable notifications for that label.

To Gmail’s credit, it is flexible. Google’s own filtering guidance shows domain-based patterns as well as sender-based filtering, so you can build rules around companies as well as individuals. But powerful is not the same thing as simple. The overall experience still felt like stitching together multiple parts rather than opening one screen and deciding who is allowed to interrupt me.

That was the gap I wanted to fix

What I wanted was simple:

choose which senders can notify me
switch quickly between VIP-only, All Emails, and No Notifications
schedule quiet hours
choose from a wide range of notification sounds, including longer sounds that are harder to miss
assign unique sounds to different senders, so I know who it is before I even look at my phone

So I built Owl VIP Email Alerts, a Gmail-focused app for iPhone and Android.

It puts Gmail notification control on one simple screen.

You can check it out here:
App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/6757348256
Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sundaelectronics.owlapp

A product lesson

Sometimes the value is simply taking something that is technically possible, but awkward and frustrating in practice, and making it feel simple.

That was the whole point here.

I was not trying to replace Gmail.
I was not trying to build a new inbox.
I just wanted a simple way to control which emails are allowed to interrupt me, and a simple interface for changing that when my day changes.

I’d love feedback

I’m curious whether this problem resonates with other people too.

Have you ever wanted to let only certain emails interrupt you without turning email notifications off completely?

Learning to code through Nursery Rhymes and Fairy Tales

Shari Eskenas — Tue, 10 Aug 2021 23:15:10 +0000

Learn Python through Nursery Rhymes and Fairy Tales is my upcoming book currently available for pre-order on Kickstarter: Link

Learn to Code.

This simple phrase has become quite ubiquitous. Where to start? There are many ways to begin learning to code- online tutorials and lessons, courses, coding bootcamps, as well as the traditional go-to method of reading programming books. I can appreciate the traditional book. I like the continuous structure of a book and the progress I feel after turning each page. I also like being able to open a physical book and easily flip to a topic, especially without seeing ads pop up all over the place like they do on the online programming reference sites.

I’m not alone in these sentiments. Physical books still outsell e-books for many reasons, one of which is the emotional connection readers feel to physical books. The problem I saw with beginner programming books is that they’re written like textbooks…and it’s hard to feel an emotional connection to a textbook! It can also be tedious and boring to read long paragraphs of black and white text.

This is how I first thought of the idea for a colorful picture book that told a story with code, in which real-life situations are described in computer programs. I wanted to create a fun, relatable alternative to the existing textbook-like options for beginner programming books. I was also motivated to create an easy-to-read book that teaches concepts quickly and concisely solely through complete code examples and their explanations. My first book A Day in Code tells a story about a fun day that describes situations with C programs next to full-page illustrations that depict the scenes being described. My recently released book A Day in Code- Python teaches Python basics in the same way. It has a castles and dragons theme, which led me to another idea…

Nursery rhymes and fairy tales written in code

Nursery rhymes and fairy tales have been translated into over a hundred languages, but never a computer programming language…until now. My upcoming book resembles a traditional fairy tale storybook, but with a very modern twist- the nursery rhymes and fairy tales are written as complete Python programs! My intention is that the reader’s instant familiarity and emotional connection to the classic stories will make the Python programs easier to understand and enjoyable to read.

Each nursery rhyme/fairy tale program demonstrates one or more new Python concepts. The code is explained below each program. Each nursery rhyme consists of a single page Python program and the fairy tales are split up into multiple pages each containing a complete Python program. When each program is run on your computer, it outputs the nursery rhyme/fairy tale with print functions.

This code page describes the end of Goldilocks and the Three Bears:

This is the accompanying illustration:

Who knew that classic nursery rhymes and fairy tales from hundreds of years ago are structured in a way that makes them transfer well into good code examples? Translating the stories into Python felt as if they were designed to be written in code. It was fun to view them from a logical standpoint and break them down into code. Goldilocks and the Three Bears turned out to be mostly a series of if/else statements. Other nursery rhymes and fairy tales were well-suited to be “translated” into functions and classes.

Check out my upcoming book Learn Python through Nursery Rhymes and Fairy Tales on Kickstarter: Link

A picture book written in Python code

Shari Eskenas — Fri, 04 Dec 2020 18:49:44 +0000

A Day in Code: Python is a picture book that tells a story with Python programs. It is currently on Kickstarter:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/914595512/a-day-in-code-python

Programming books are usually in the form of textbooks or instructional manuals. A Day in Code: Python breaks from tradition by teaching the basics of Python programming in a picture book!

The story of an epic day is told through Python programs that represent real-life situations. There is a high level description of the situation above each program and a code explanation underneath it. A full-page illustration next to each program shows the situation being described in code.

In this way, the book presents Python code examples in a fun and colorful manner. It also makes code examples relatable to everyday life.

This book will be in the same format as my first book, A Day in Code, which is written in the C programming language and is now available on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08LG7DW4C

A picture book written in C code

Shari Eskenas — Tue, 09 Jun 2020 15:48:28 +0000

Hey everyone, I’m writing a unique coding book- it’s a picture book written in C code! The code consists of simple full C programs that represent situations in the story. The illustrations next to the code show the situations. Also, the code is explained below each program. It's called A Day in Code and I recently launched it on Kickstarter:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/914595512/a-day-in-code

My aim for the book is to help the reader learn basic programming concepts and logical thinking with real code that describes events in everyday life. I chose C because it’s a foundational language and the most popular language in embedded systems/microcontrollers.

This is a sample code page:

This is the accompanying illustration:

I'd love to hear your feedback!
-Shari