Summary: Is your lock screen staying silent when updates or direct messages come in? This checklist is for mobile app users who are not receiving push notifications. Work through it from top to bottom to get your alerts back.
For a full overview of how notifications work in Speakap, see Notifications: Overview and Settings.
1. Check for active suppression and Smart Routing
Before changing any permissions, check whether your alerts are being held back by an active session elsewhere or by a quiet mode.
The Smart Routing rule (desktop vs. mobile): Speakap uses intelligent server routing to protect you from duplicate alert sounds. If you currently have Speakap open and active on a desktop computer, the server suppresses push notifications to your phone. Close your desktop browser tabs or lock your computer screen to resume mobile push delivery.
Quiet modes on your phone:
- iOS / Apple Focus modes: open your Control Center and make sure Do Not Disturb, Driving and other custom Focus filters are turned off.
- Android sound profiles: open your quick settings tray, make sure Do Not Disturb is off and your sound profile is set to ring or vibrate.
2. Check your operating system permissions
If you skipped the notification prompt when you first installed the app, your phone's operating system blocks the app from showing alerts until you grant access manually.
Android: notification categories
Android lets you choose exactly which type of content may interrupt you:
- Find the Speakap app icon on your home screen or in your app drawer.
- Long press (tap and hold) the icon until the context menu appears, then select App info (or tap the information icon).
- Select Notifications.
- Tap Notification Categories.
- Review each content channel to adjust your preferences or enable Show as pop-up.
Tip: you can mix and match. Want a quiet lock screen but never miss a chat? Toggle General Notifications to OFF and keep Private Messages (Chat) toggled ON.
3. Check your settings inside the Speakap app
If your phone's permissions are fine, your Speakap settings may be paused or out of sync.
Refresh your notification settings
- Open the app, open the slide-out menu and tap Settings.
- Tap Notifications.
- Review your push notification settings.
- Troubleshooting trick: if everything looks enabled but alerts still do not arrive, toggle them all off, wait 5 seconds, and toggle them back on. This forces the app to re-register its unique device token with our servers.
Check Speakap's own Do Not Disturb
Speakap has its own internal Do Not Disturb mode that works on top of your device settings. In the app Settings, open the Do Not Disturb page and check that no permanent or scheduled quiet window is currently active.
Note: notifications blocked during an active Speakap Do Not Disturb window are suppressed on the server and cannot be retrieved or delivered later once the window closes.
4. Advanced steps
If everything above checks out and alerts still fail, try these:
- Update the app: open the Google Play Store or Apple App Store, look up Speakap and make sure you are on the latest version. Older versions can suffer from expired notification handshakes.
- Run Push Notifications Diagnostics: the app has a built-in check that finds delivery problems for you. The steps are in Using Push Notifications Diagnostics on Mobile Apps.
- Do a clean reinstall: delete the app from your phone, restart the phone to clear the cache, download a fresh copy from your app store, and tap "Allow Notifications" on the first startup prompt. This is also the fastest fix after a major operating system update, which can reset background permissions and refresh notification tokens.
- Want a backup channel? If you would like updates by email when your phone is off or unreachable, turn on your preferred email notifications. See Customizing Email Notifications.
Frequently asked questions
Why do I get chat alerts but never alerts for News items?
You probably have granular notifications set at the operating system level. On Android, check Notification Categories in your device's App info menu and make sure Private Messages and General or Feed updates are both set the way you want.
If my phone is turned off, will missed push notifications forward to my email?
Only if you have set that up yourself. Enable your preferred triggers under the Email notification settings, on desktop or in the mobile app, to create a backup communication path. See Customizing Email Notifications.
Why did my notifications stop right after I upgraded my phone's operating system?
Major operating system updates often reset background permissions or refresh notification tokens for security reasons. A complete uninstall and clean reinstall of Speakap is the fastest way to re-register your device with our servers.
Still stuck?
If you have worked through this whole checklist and notifications are still broken, or several people on your team have the same problem at the same time (which can point to a wider network issue), email us at support@speakap.com with:
- Confirmation that you checked your phone's Do Not Disturb, your in-app settings and your desktop status.
- Your exact phone model (for example iPhone 15 Pro or Samsung Galaxy S24).
- Your operating system version (for example iOS 19.4 or Android 16).
- The Speakap app version installed on your phone (you will find it at the bottom of the app's Settings screen).
We'll help you out.