disableSuppression

Introduction

disableSuppression restores normal toast notification behavior on Windows. When the toast listener's suppression mode is active, the system notification center hides incoming toasts from the user — calling this function turns that off so notifications appear again. It returns a boolean indicating whether the state actually changed.

Signature

function disableSuppression(): boolean

Usage

Call disableSuppression when you want to end the suppressed-notification state that was previously activated via enableSuppression. This is typically part of a toggle pattern: suppress during a focused session, then restore when the session ends.

Checking before toggling

Use isSuppressionEnabled first to avoid redundant calls. While disableSuppression is safe to call when suppression is already off, checking the state beforehand makes your intent clearer and avoids unnecessary native calls.

Return value semantics

The function returns true only when the suppression state actually changed (was enabled, now disabled). If suppression was already disabled, it returns false. Use this return value to update UI state or skip downstream logic.

Return Value

Type	Description
boolean	true if suppression was successfully disabled; false if suppression was already disabled

State verification

A false return does not indicate an error — it simply means suppression was already off. If you need to confirm the current state after calling this function, follow up with isSuppressionEnabled.

Example

TypeScript

import {
  disableSuppression,
  isSuppressionEnabled,
  enableSuppression,
  getNotifications,
} from '@eisland/windows-toast-listener';

// Check if suppression is currently active
if (isSuppressionEnabled()) {
  // Disable suppression so notifications appear normally again
  const changed = disableSuppression();
  console.log(`Suppression disabled: ${changed}`); // true — state changed
}

// Suppression is now off; notifications will be visible
const notifs = getNotifications();
console.log(`Visible notifications: ${notifs.length}`);

JavaScript

const {
  disableSuppression,
  isSuppressionEnabled,
  enableSuppression,
  getNotifications,
} = require('@eisland/windows-toast-listener');

// Check if suppression is currently active
if (isSuppressionEnabled()) {
  // Disable suppression so notifications appear normally again
  const changed = disableSuppression();
  console.log(`Suppression disabled: ${changed}`); // true — state changed
}

// Suppression is now off; notifications will be visible
const notifs = getNotifications();
console.log(`Visible notifications: ${notifs.length}`);

Notes

Relationship to enableSuppression

disableSuppression is the direct counterpart of enableSuppression. Together they form a toggle pair. The suppression state persists across calls to startListening / stopListening — stopping the listener does not automatically restore suppression.

Combining with listener lifecycle

A common pattern is to suppress notifications while your listener is active (to avoid duplicate display) and disable suppression before stopping. This ensures the user sees their notifications once your app no longer handles them.

Native side-effect

This function makes a native IPC call to the Windows toast notification subsystem. While the call is fast, avoid calling it in tight loops or high-frequency timers.

Danger Avoidance

Do not forget to disable suppression

If you call enableSuppression but never call disableSuppression, the user will not see any toast notifications until the system is rebooted or your process exits. Always pair enable/disable calls — consider using a try/finally block to guarantee cleanup.

Suppression affects the entire system

Toast suppression is a system-wide setting for the notification listener. It is not scoped to your application. While suppression is active, all toast notifications handled by this listener are hidden. Ensure this is the intended behavior before enabling it, and disable it promptly when no longer needed.