# Notifications aren't arriving

> If you're not getting check-in reminders or partner-ready alerts, the cause is usually phone-level permissions or one of the in-app toggles. Here's how to work through it.

Open Heart sends two kinds of notifications:

- **Reminders set by your phone** — work even without an internet connection. Examples: weekly check-in reminders, gentle daily journaling nudges, anniversary milestones, trial countdown.
- **Live alerts from us** — sent when something happens with your partner. Examples: "Sam marked ready for the reveal," "Your partner accepted your invite."

Different problems have different fixes.

## Step 1: check your phone's permission

**iPhone:**
Settings → Notifications → Open Heart → make sure **Allow Notifications** is on, with banners and lock screen as you'd like them.

**Android:**
Settings → Apps → Open Heart → Notifications → make sure they're enabled.

If your phone has notifications turned off for Open Heart, nothing arrives. Period.

## Step 2: check Open Heart's per-feature toggles

In the app: **Settings → Notifications**. Toggles:

- **Journaling nudge** — daily reminder at the time of day you usually journal
- **Check-in reminders** — morning and evening reminders on check-in day (couples only)
- **Partner updates** — partner ready, partner accepted invite, partner disconnected
- **Trial reminders** — at day 15, 23, 29, and 30 of your trial

All four are on by default the first time you grant permission. If one is off, that whole category won't fire.

## Step 3: did the trigger actually happen

- **Check-in reminders** only fire on your scheduled check-in day. Default is Sunday. If today isn't your check-in day, no reminder.
- **Trial reminders** only fire on the specific days. They don't repeat.
- **Anniversary milestones** only fire at exactly day 7, 30, 90, 180, 365 from your first entry. Day 8 isn't a milestone.
- **Partner ready** only fires when your partner taps the ready button. If they haven't, no alert.

## Step 4: rate limit

Reminders set by your phone are capped at **one per day** to prevent the app from getting spammy. If you've already received one today, a second one won't fire — even if it would otherwise.

This cap doesn't apply to live alerts from us about your partner. Those are time-sensitive and bypass the cap.

## Step 5: are you on a simulator

Live alerts don't work in iOS Simulator (a tool developers use). If you're testing in a simulator, you won't see live alerts. Reminders set by your phone do still work in simulator.

## Step 6: Android battery optimization

Android sometimes kills apps in the background to save battery. If Open Heart isn't running and a live alert arrives, your phone may delay or drop it.

**Fix**: Settings → Apps → Open Heart → Battery → set to **Unrestricted** (or "Don't optimize" depending on your Android version).

## Step 7: rare — the alert system didn't register

If your phone never finished registering with our alert system, we can't send live alerts to you. This is rare but happens if:

- You denied notification permission at first launch and never re-granted it
- The app crashed before registration completed
- Your network was offline during the registration step

**Fix**: close the app, re-open it, make sure notification permission is granted, give it 30 seconds. Registration retries every time the app starts.

## If nothing here helps

Email hello@myopenheart.co with your account ID (Settings → About → User ID) and we can check whether your phone is registered with our alert system.

## Related

- [Couples mode (pairing)](/docs/features/couples-mode)
- [Subscription not appearing](/docs/troubleshooting/subscription-not-appearing)