A method, comprising: obtaining a set of priorities that specifies, for each particular application among a plurality of applications installed on a user device and enabled for application alerting (108,110,112) a relative importance of that particular application among the plurality of applications; obtaining an alert target specifying a total number of application alerts that are authorized to be presented during a specified time period; determining a portion of the alert target that has been met for the specified time period; throttling application alerts presented by the user device for notifications generated by the plurality of applications based on the relative importance of each particular application as specified by the set of priorities and based on the portion of the alert target that has been met for the specified period by limiting presentation of application alerts to only those applications that are not assigned to a lowest tier of relative importance when the alert target has been met, said throttling including: determining that a first application having a higher level of relative importance than a second application has generated a first notification during the specified time period; determining that the second application has also generated a second notification during the specified time period; and generating, by the user device, an application alert for the first notification, but not the second notification, based on (i) the first application having a higher level of relative importance than the second application and (ii) the first notification and the second notification both being generated during the specified time period; and presenting, by the user device, the generated application alert for the first notification. obtaining a set of priorities that specifies, for each particular application among a plurality of applications installed on a user device and enabled for application alerting (108,110,112) a relative importance of that particular application among the plurality of applications; obtaining an alert target specifying a total number of application alerts that are authorized to be presented during a specified time period; determining a portion of the alert target that has been met for the specified time period; throttling application alerts presented by the user device for notifications generated by the plurality of applications based on the relative importance of each particular application as specified by the set of priorities and based on the portion of the alert target that has been met for the specified period by limiting presentation of application alerts to only those applications that are not assigned to a lowest tier of relative importance when the alert target has been met, said throttling including: determining that a first application having a higher level of relative importance than a second application has generated a first notification during the specified time period; determining that the second application has also generated a second notification during the specified time period; and generating, by the user device, an application alert for the first notification, but not the second notification, based on (i) the first application having a higher level of relative importance than the second application and (ii) the first notification and the second notification both being generated during the specified time period; and presenting, by the user device, the generated application alert for the first notification. determining that a first application having a higher level of relative importance than a second application has generated a first notification during the specified time period; determining that the second application has also generated a second notification during the specified time period; and generating, by the user device, an application alert for the first notification, but not the second notification, based on (i) the first application having a higher level of relative importance than the second application and (ii) the first notification and the second notification both being generated during the specified time period; and presenting, by the user device, the generated application alert for the first notification.