How to Turn Notifications On: A Complete Guide for Every Device and App
Notifications are the heartbeat of modern digital life. Whether you're waiting on a message, tracking a delivery, or managing work alerts, knowing how to turn notifications on — and where to find those settings — is a foundational skill that varies more than most people expect. The steps differ depending on your operating system, the app involved, and sometimes even the version of software you're running.
Why Notification Settings Live in Two Places
This is the part that trips most people up. Notifications are controlled at two levels:
- The operating system (OS) level — your phone, tablet, or computer controls whether any app is allowed to send notifications at all.
- The app level — individual apps have their own internal settings that determine which types of notifications get sent.
Both layers have to be enabled for notifications to come through. An app can be screaming for your attention internally, but if your OS has it muted, you'll hear nothing. Understanding this two-layer system is the key to troubleshooting most notification problems.
Turning Notifications On: By Platform
📱 Android
On Android, the path varies slightly by manufacturer (Samsung, Google Pixel, OnePlus, etc.) and OS version, but the general approach is consistent:
- Go to Settings → Apps (sometimes labeled "Apps & Notifications" or "Application Manager")
- Select the app you want to enable
- Tap Notifications
- Toggle Allow Notifications to on
Alternatively, on Android 8.0 (Oreo) and later, you can long-press an app icon, tap the ⓘ info icon, and navigate directly to its notification settings. Android also introduced notification channels, which means apps can offer multiple notification categories (for example, "Direct Messages" vs. "Promotions") — each toggled independently.
🍎 iOS (iPhone and iPad)
Apple centralizes notification control in one place:
- Go to Settings → Notifications
- Scroll to find the app
- Tap it and toggle Allow Notifications to on
From here you can also configure how notifications appear — Lock Screen, Notification Center, or Banners — and whether they make a sound or show a badge count. On iOS 15 and later, Focus modes add another layer: even if an app has permission to notify you, a Focus profile (like Do Not Disturb or Sleep) can suppress it unless you whitelist specific contacts or apps.
💻 Windows (10 and 11)
- Open Settings → System → Notifications
- Toggle Notifications at the top to on
- Scroll down to find the specific app and enable it individually
Windows also has a Focus Assist (renamed Do Not Disturb in Windows 11) feature that can block notifications during certain hours or activities, even when per-app notifications are enabled.
🖥️ macOS
- Go to System Settings → Notifications (or System Preferences on older macOS versions)
- Select the app from the left panel
- Set Allow Notifications to on and choose your preferred alert style
macOS offers three alert styles: None, Banners (disappear automatically), and Alerts (stay until dismissed). The difference matters depending on how urgently you need to see certain information.
Inside the App Itself
Many apps — especially social platforms, email clients, and messaging apps — have their own notification preferences that work within the OS-level permission. For example, an email app might let you choose notifications for all emails, only primary inbox, or VIP contacts only. These are found in the app's own settings menu, typically under a section labeled Notifications, Alerts, or Privacy & Permissions.
Variables That Change the Outcome
Not every user will follow the same steps, and the result won't always be the same. Here are the factors that create meaningful differences:
| Variable | Why It Matters |
|---|---|
| OS version | Older OS versions may lack modern notification controls like channels or Focus filters |
| Device manufacturer | Android skins (Samsung One UI, MIUI, etc.) add custom battery optimization that can block notifications |
| App version | Outdated apps may not properly request notification permissions or honor OS settings |
| Battery/power settings | Aggressive battery saving modes — especially on Android — can delay or suppress notifications entirely |
| Network connectivity | Push notifications require an active internet connection; offline devices won't receive them in real time |
| Account permissions | Some apps require you to be logged in to a specific account before notifications are active |
When Notifications Are "On" But Still Not Arriving
This is a common frustration. If you've enabled notifications at both the OS and app level but still aren't receiving them:
- Check battery optimization settings — on Android especially, this is a frequent culprit. Some manufacturers aggressively kill background processes to save battery, which prevents apps from delivering notifications.
- Check Focus or Do Not Disturb modes — these can silently override individual app settings.
- Reinstall the app or re-grant permissions — sometimes permissions get corrupted during app updates.
- Check in-app notification preferences — the app may have its own toggles set to off by default.
- Verify your notification history — Android 11+ and iOS 16+ both allow you to review recently delivered (or missed) notifications to diagnose gaps.
The Spectrum of Notification Needs
Someone who uses their phone primarily for communication has very different needs than someone managing a business inbox across multiple apps. A light smartphone user might only need a handful of apps with sound-on notifications, while someone in a high-volume workflow might need fine-grained control — specific channels enabled, others silenced, and scheduled delivery windows.
The granularity available also differs. iOS and macOS tend to offer clean, unified controls with fewer manufacturer variations. Android offers more customization but with more surface area for things to go wrong, particularly across different device brands with custom OS layers on top.
How notifications should be configured — which apps, which alert types, which times of day — depends entirely on how you use your devices, what software you're running, and what trade-offs between attention and interruption make sense for your situation.