How to fix the problems with notifications on smartwatch and activity bracelets

To you Smart watch or activity bracelet not receiving phone notifications? No problem: we help you step by step to achieve that all the notices reach your wrist, including WhatsApp messages and phone calls.

One of the biggest advantages of using a type accessory wearable or ‘wearable’ is that it allows you to see what is happening on the phone without removing it from your pocket. Read the latest WhatsApp message, find out if an email is important by the notification that reaches the wrist or discover who is calling: mirroring notifications to your watch or fitness tracker saves time and distractions. As long as the notifications arrive, of course, there are times when the notifications do not finish working.

The smartwatch app needs access to notifications

It does not matter the brand of the device, that it is a Samsung Galaxy Watch, a Huawei watch or a Xiaomi Mi Band: all applications that manage these devices need to have access to mobile notifications. This is essential to reflect them on the wrist: if the app does not have permission to read the notifications, they will never reach your watch or bracelet.

The application that manages the ‘wearable’ usually asks for access to notifications when you configure the device for the first time. In the event that you did not give permission to the application, or if you do not know if you granted it, do the following:

• Access your Android settings.
• Go to ‘Applications’.
• Click on the three menu items and select ‘Special access’.
• Look for the ‘Access to notifications’ menu: once you click, you will see all the apps that have requested that permission.

• The application of your smart watch or activity bracelet is in the list of ‘Access to notifications’. In the event that you do not have the permission, give it to them.

This is the first step in troubleshooting notifications. Did you already have the permission configured? Let’s keep going.

Ignore battery optimizations

Android has a battery optimization system that limit background apps to save mAh. Since the apps that manage the watches have to always keep running, it is very common that notifications stop reaching your wrist just because the system has loaded the active service. So this is the second required step to troubleshoot watch prompts.

To ignore the battery optimization in the application of your ‘wearable’ do the following:

• Go to your Android settings, enter ‘Applications’ and look for the app of your device (Gear S Watch, Mi band, Fitbit Versa …).
• Access the app options and locate the ” menuOptimize battery usage‘(or’ Battery optimization ‘).
• Select the app from the list so that the system does not optimize it.

Adding the application of the smartwatch or bracelet to the list of non-optimized applications the system will not close it when it is running in the background and needs to free up memory. Although it is likely that, even so, the app of your watch will close: everything will depend on the size of the RAM memory of your device and the applications that you open in the foreground.

Did you prevent the system from optimizing the battery of your wearable app and notifications still do not reach your wrist? Let’s continue.

Activate the notifications that interest you

You may have activated the notifications for your accessory’s app and it may no longer be optimized for battery consumption, but notifications will not reach you for this: it is very common for the applications that interest you are not authorized yet. You can check it from the application of your ‘wearable’:

• Open the application that manages your ‘wearable’ device. It can be Xiaomi Mi Fit, the Fitbit app, Galaxy Wearable, Zepp, Huawei Health or any other: all have a similar function.
• Enter the device settings and look for the notification management: a list of apps should appear with a marker to activate each one separately.
• Make sure that the apps that interest you are active in sending notifications. For example, it is common that you do not have active WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter and any other social network or messaging application from which you need constant alerts: this is one of the common reasons why important notices are not received.

With the three previous steps you should receive any notification on your wrist as it reaches the mobile. Yes indeed, the phone must receive it before: if you do not have coverage, you do not have data or the connection does not work correctly, you will not receive any notification, neither to the smartphone nor to the smartwatch or bracelet.

Other ways to troubleshoot notifications

With the three previous steps you should have solved any problem with the notifications on your smartwatch or activity bracelet. Even so, other situations can occur that also prevent notifications, let’s see how to fix them in large part.

• Restart the mobile and also your ‘wearable’.
• Make sure your bracelet or watch is well connected to the phone via Bluetooth.
• Turn Bluetooth off and on again and make sure the device connects.
• Do not remove the notification that appears on the phone while the app is running in the background.

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The news

How to fix the problems with notifications on smartwatch and activity bracelets

was originally published in

Engadget Android

by Iván Linares.