How to turn on push no­ti­fic­a­tions

Push no­ti­fic­a­tions are useful to stay up to date with apps and websites. No­ti­fic­a­tions alert users to incoming chat messages or updated data from a weather app, for example. We’ll show you how to enable push no­ti­fic­a­tions on smart­phone apps and browsers.

A quick guide on how to turn on push no­ti­fic­a­tions

In a browser

1. Search for ‘no­ti­fic­a­tions’ or ‘push no­ti­fic­a­tions’ in the browser settings
2. Add the websites allowed to send push no­ti­fic­a­tions

In Android apps

1. Click ‘Apps’ in Settings
2. Select the desired app and manage no­ti­fic­a­tions

In iOS apps

1. Tap the ‘No­ti­fic­a­tions’ menu item in Settings
2. Select desired app and manage no­ti­fic­a­tions

What are push no­ti­fic­a­tions?

A push message is used, alongside an audio signal or vibration, to alert a user to an app update. This can take the form of a simple text alert such as ‘New message from XYZ’ or include more complex in­form­a­tion, for example ‘Your train is delayed by 20 minutes’.

Why are push no­ti­fic­a­tions useful?

Push no­ti­fic­a­tions are a bit like a news ticker alerting users to in-app or website news. These messages are prom­in­ently displayed in a des­ig­nated area on a smart­phone or PC, on the lock screen, for example.

Once you activate push messages, you’ll be kept up to date on traffic reports, weather data, grocery offers, etc. App providers use push messages for a wide variety of purposes.

However, too many incoming push messages can have the opposite effect and quickly result in in­form­a­tion overload. You can resolve this by checking which apps are enabled for push no­ti­fic­a­tions and turn off push no­ti­fic­a­tions you don’t wish to receive.

How to turn on push no­ti­fic­a­tions in a browser

When you visit a website for the first time using a browser such as Chrome or Firefox, a pop-up window usually appears re­quest­ing to send push no­ti­fic­a­tions. This is par­tic­u­larly common among news websites. This is made possible, among other things, by enabling cookies in the browser.

You can agree to push no­ti­fic­a­tions via a simple click which gives a page per­mis­sion to send updates via push no­ti­fic­a­tion. You can manage web pages you wish to receive push no­ti­fic­a­tions for manually.

1. Launch the browser Settings, such as Chrome, Firefox or Edge.
2. In Chrome, for example, select the menu item ‘Privacy and security’.
3. Launch ‘Site Settings’.

4. You can manage all no­ti­fic­a­tions via the cor­res­pond­ing subitem and activate push no­ti­fic­a­tions from here.

5. Websites must be added to the no­ti­fic­a­tion list by including them in ‘Sites can ask to send no­ti­fic­a­tions’ using the ap­pro­pri­ate URL.

To receive push messages, you must enable JavaS­cript. You can enable JavaS­cript from the browser’s website settings.

How to enable push no­ti­fic­a­tions in apps

How to enable push no­ti­fic­a­tions on Android

You can just as easily display push no­ti­fic­a­tions for the apps you use on Android. Here’s how:

1. Launch Settings on your smart­phone.
2. Select the ‘Apps’ menu.
3. From the list of apps, open the app you want to activate push no­ti­fic­a­tions for.
4. Navigate to the app’s settings.
5. Select ‘No­ti­fic­a­tions’ in the app settings.
6. At the top, you’ll find a slider to activate push no­ti­fic­a­tions. The slider must be moved to the right.
7. In the ‘No­ti­fic­a­tion cat­egor­ies’ you can activate different types of no­ti­fic­a­tions.

How to enable push no­ti­fic­a­tions on iPhone

No­ti­fic­a­tions from in­di­vidu­al apps are easily activated on iPhones. Here’s how to proceed:

1. Launch your iPhone settings.
2. Select ‘No­ti­fic­a­tions’.
3. In ‘No­ti­fic­a­tions’, search for the app you want to enable push messages for.
4. In the ‘No­ti­fic­a­tion settings’ of the app, you can activate push no­ti­fic­a­tions by moving the slider to ‘Allow No­ti­fic­a­tions’ (right).

Via the ‘No­ti­fic­a­tion settings’ menu of the re­spect­ive app, you can specify different display styles and locations. For example, you can specify that an app should always be displayed on the home screen.

Data pro­tec­tion and privacy

In some cases, apps access private user data to send push no­ti­fic­a­tions, such as the location of a smart­phone or a browser’s cookie settings. Your stored data is sim­ul­tan­eously processed by the re­spect­ive provider. eCommerce data pro­tec­tion reg­u­la­tions are, however, governed by re­spect­ive laws. Online retailers should therefore ensure that they’re aware of the reg­u­la­tions and implement them ac­cord­ingly.

To protect your privacy, pay attention to per­mis­sions given to an app or website and, if necessary, peri­od­ic­ally delete stored browser cookies. You can take ad­di­tion­al security pre­cau­tions, es­pe­cially when browsing on a PC, by in­stalling add-ons for more privacy.