Lock screen notifications rearrange themselves for seemingly no reason

Question

Ok, I'm going to try and describe this and I hope it makes sense.

When I turn on my screen (while my phone is locked), I see all my notifications. For example, I will have some gmail notifications, some text message notifications, some calendar notifications.

While I'm looking at these notifications, or about to swipe them away, they rearrange themselves. It's not because I get a new email/text message. It's seemingly for no reason. While I'm looking at an email notification which is originally below my calendar notification, or about to swipe it away, maybe it'll shift locations to be above the calendar notification. And then it'll switch back. This behavior is especially prevalent when I "expand" a notification such as an email so that I can read part of the message from the lock screen. It happens seemingly randomly, and can cause me to swipe away a message that I don't mean to because it swaps locations when I'm not expecting. It's also terribly annoying to be reading a message and have other notifications going above and below it intermittently.

1. Does anyone know how to keep notifications from rotating positions on the lock screen? (when no new notifications are even appearing)
2. Is this a bug or is this the desired behavior? If it is the desired behavior, what purpose would this be for?

Does anyone else notice this happening to them? I wish I could capture a gif of this behavior to make it explicitly clear what I'm talking about.

I'm using Android 7.1.1 on a Pixel.

Answer 1

1. It does not appear to be possible to keep notifications from rotating positions on the lock screen in Android 7 Nougat. See explanation below, and the way to disable this action in Android Lollipop.

2. This appears to be desired behavior. See explanation below.

Priority notifications rise to the top. See http://www.greenbot.com/article/2854634/master-notifications-in-android-lollipop-with-notification-priority-and-downtime.html and use ctrl+f ('Search on Webpage', for Desktop) to search for "Priority Notifications" (tried to find a better Source, welcome an edit) .

To change priority notifications in Android Lollipop (setting does not appear to be present in Android Nougat):

Swipe down Notification Bar, tap Settings Cog, hit "Sound and Notifications", hit "App notifications" (near bottom) - choose an APP to control individual APP's ability to rearrange itself.

Individual apps may decide for themselves to rise to the top by rerequesting to be first, like an "Arms-Race" or butting into line, such behavior is usually impolite and unwanted; it's use is discouraged, but what to do.

The Priority of individual Programs can be altered in rooted Android Devices (Phone or Tablet), that would result in obsessive Programs running slower and last; but ultimately running and performing the unwanted 'Notification Area spamming' eventually. Complaining about and/or boycotting such Programs is another avenue open to the User.

Here's a Programming example with a discussion about implementing this correctly (and politely): https://stackoverflow.com/questions/6189817/pin-notification-to-top-of-notification-area .

Android 'O' has better control over the Notifications (Dev version available) and there are APPs that allow more control. This Video provides a Demo of one claiming the same features as Android O: https://youtu.be/_Aj61Quj1Uo .