Smartphone notifications are meant to give you a quick reminder or alert of messages, events, social media updates and more.
Sometimes you don’t want notifications to show up, like when you’re sleeping or in a work meeting. Tap or click here to turn off your lock screen notifications.
Notifications are made to last a few seconds by default. If you’re busy doing other things on your device, you can swipe them away without realizing it. Or you’re too busy to look at your phone. Luckily, you can change the notification settings on your iPhone and Android phone to make sure you don’t miss them.
Don’t miss notifications on your iPhone
You don’t have to rely on sound alerts or quickly disappearing banners to receive iPhone notifications. There are a few alternatives to try:
LED flash alerts
The LED flash next to your iPhone’s camera lens may flash when your device is locked and you receive a notification. Here’s how to set it up:
- Open the Settings the app and go to Accessibility > Audio/Visual.
- To light up LED flash for alerts.
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Siri
You can ask Siri to announce your notifications if you’re wearing the following compatible AirPods or Beats headphones:
- AirPods Max
- AirPods (2nd generation) or later
- AirPods Pro
- Beats Fit Pro
- power beats
- Powerbeat Pro
- Beats Solo Pro
You’ll also need to be running iOS 15 or later. With all that ready, here’s how to set things up:
- Open the Settings application.
- Faucet Notice > Announce notifications.
- To light up Announce notifications.
- Faucet posts to choose which notifications Siri reads.
Persistent notifications
You may not see important messages if you frequently clear notifications from your home screen. Here’s how to make sure they stay until you tap or swipe them:
- Open the Settings application.
- Faucet Noticescroll down and tap the app you want to set this up for.
- Enable Allow notifications.
- Faucet Banner Stylethen Persistent.
Don’t miss notifications on your Android phone
You can configure your Android to alert you to notifications in different ways. Here are a few you can set up right now:
Flashlight notifications
You can set your phone’s camera flashlight/flash to sync with notifications so you can spot it around the room or in the dark. Here’s how to set it up:
- Open the Settings application.
- Depending on your phone, go to Accessibility > Hearing > Flash notification Where Accessibility > Advanced Settings > Flash Notification Where Accessibility > Flash Notification.
- Enable camera light Where Camera flash notification.
Google Assistant
Connect headphones to your Android phone and Google Assistant can notify you when you have an upcoming message, email, or calendar event. It can also read your messages. Here’s how to set it up:
- Say “Ok Google, open Assistant settings”.
- Faucet Devices.
- Below Personaltouch your listenersthen Voice notifications.
- Enable Voice notifications.
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