You might have experienced delayed notifications on your Android phone. We all know how frustrating this can be, especially when you are waiting for an urgent reply from your friends. Here we show you how to fix the Android delayed notifications issue.
The Reasons for Delayed Notifications
This delayed notifications issue most likely stems from how the recent version of Android works. In an effort to better manage your battery life, the system tends to force what it considers “low priority” apps to go to sleep. If your Android sees a certain app that way, it will hibernate the app and its notifications.
Provided you have a phone running Android 8.0 Oreo or above, the following methods should fix the delayed notifications issue on your Android phone.
Also read: Slack Notifications Not Working? Here Are the Fixes
We’ve used a OnePlus phone for the purpose of this tutorial; however, based on your phone model, steps and options may vary, as you will find.
1. Configure Battery Optimization Based on Your Needs
1. Open the Settings app on your device.
2. Go to “Apps & notifications.”
3. Select “Special app access” (last option at the bottom).
4. Tap on “Battery optimization.”
5. Select the app that’s suffering from delayed notifications from the list of apps.
Here you’ll notice you have three options, including “Intelligent Control,” “Optimize” and “Don’t Optimize.” Your app is probably set on Intelligent Control, which automatically adjusts the background power strategy according to the app’s characteristics and your usage. To prevent this from happening, select the “Don’t Optimize” option instead. A prompt will show up warning you that doing so may affect battery performance. You can safely ignore that if you want to get your notifications on time.
These options will look a bit differently if you are on a Huawei phone, in which case you have to follow a slightly different route to find them.
1. Go to Settings on your device.
2. Find Apps in the menu.
3. Select Apps again.
4. Tap on the three-dot menu in the upper-right corner.
5. Select “Special access.”
6. Tap on “Battery Optimization.”
Once there, select the app with the notification issue and tap it. A small pop-up menu will show up from the bottom of the screen revealing two options. You can either “Allow” or “Don’t allow” the app to take advantage of the battery optimization system in place. Select “Don’t allow,” but keep in mind that it may drain your battery more quickly.
Samsung phones have an additional layer of battery optimization, so remember to make sure you check this as well to confirm that the apps that matter to you won’t go to sleep. Follow this route to find the options: “Settings -> Device care -> Battery -> App power management.”
From here, you can check out the list of Sleeping apps to see which apps are affected by restrictions. You can also tap on Apps that won’t be put to sleep and add the ones you don’t want to be limited.
2. Turn Off Adaptive Battery on Your Device
Still not getting your notifications on time? Any Android phone running Android 9 Pie or above should have the Adaptive Battery feature. This feature helps to extend your phone’s life cycle but may also cause the delayed notifications issues. It may be a good idea to turn this feature off and see if it fixes things for you. You can do so by following these steps:
1. Go to the Settings app.
2. Select Battery.
3. Select Battery optimization.
4. Tap on the three-dot menu in the upper-right corner.
5. Select “Advanced optimization.”
6. If the Adaptive Battery toggle is on, then toggle it off.
Also read: Fix Google Play Services Battery Drain on Android
3. Disable Data Saver
Data saver is another useful feature, but it can sometimes prevent apps from sending or receiving data in the background. This may be another cause for your notifications to arrive late on your device. In order to fix that, turn Data Saver off. Simply open your Settings app and search for “Data Saver” and turn it off. Depending on your model, the setting may be under Network.
On OnePlus devices, Data Saver even has a quick toggle setting which you can easily add to your Quick Settings. Swipe the notifications bar, then tap on the little pencil icon to see all the quick toggles and find the one for Data Saver.
Also read: 8 Ways to Fix Mobile Data Not Working on Android
4. Clear App Cache
If you are experiencing delayed notifications for a particular app, then you should try to clear out the cache data of that specific app and check whether that fixes the issue. Here are the steps to do so:
1. Open the Settings app and head to “Apps & notifications.”
2. Tap on “See All Apps.”
3. Select the particular app.
4. Click on the “Storage & cache” option.
5. Tap on the “Clear Cache” icon to clear all of the unwanted cache data.
5. Disable Do Not Disturb Mode
Several smartphones come with a mode called “Do Not Disturb,” which mutes all the message, call, and app notifications. If you have enabled it, this is probably why you are not receiving notifications.
Navigate to “Settings -> Apps & notifications -> Notifications -> Advanced -> Do Not Disturb.” Finally, you need to toggle off the “Do Not Disturb” option.
How to Fix Delayed Notifications on Android
To recap, here are our recommendations to improve notification delivery on your Android device.
- Configure your device’s battery optimization setting to “Don’t optimized” or similar to prevent applications from hibernating.
- Disable Adaptive Battery.
- Disable Data Saver.
- If a particular app’s notifications aren’t coming through, try clearing its cache.
- Turn off Do Not Disturb
Once you have fixed the Android delayed notifications issue, you can improve your mobile notification experience. Read how you can see your Android notifications in Windows 10 and how to customize Gmail notifications on your phone.
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