Notifications appear while on DND, Alta/Nexus 6

[1steve]

Sorry for yet another 'notifications dont work' thread, I have read several others on here and many of the FitBit documentation pages.

I just got the FitBit Alta, after having the Garmin Vivosmart for a long time. On the Garmin notifications worked perfectly:

- I put the phone in Silent Mode while at work ('Do Not Disturb')

- notifications for calls, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and SMS all vibrate & appear on the fitness tracker

I thought this was simple, basic functionality. But it looks like the Alta does not work like this? I am having a hard time understanding if this is really the case or if I am missing something.

I just want to be able to put my phone on Silent and get all my notifications on the Alta. Is this.... not possible? So far, the only time I get notifications is when the phone is not on Silent, which defeats the purpose of getting them on the Alta. And I can only get ONE messaging app to show up on the Alta; I have different friends that use different apps, and use different apps for different purposes. I still want ALL the notifications.

Are these things really not possible with the Alta? When I bought it, it was advertised that you could get notifications on the device. There was no mention of these silly caveats that render the notification-receiving useless. When I had the Garmin, I never missed a call or message. Now, I am missing them constantly with the Alta. I've checked all the settings, everything seems to be set up and connected correctly. When I am in the app menu, I can even 'Send a test notification' and it comes up on the device, even with 'Do Not Disturb' mode enabled.

I am on a Nexus 6, running Android 6

Moderator edit: edited title for clarity

[HeydyF]

Hi @1steve, welcome to the Community! Ok let me explain something, if you are missing some notifications or they are delayed, the Bluetooth connection between your tracker and your mobile device may be unstable. To help improve the delivery, go to Notifications and make sure Enable Notification Widget is on. Also, when you have the "Do Not Disturb" setting on your mobile device turned off, this prevents the device from sending notifications to your tracker.

I hope that answers your question!

[lazarb]

The phone should not dictate the watch's state. If I am in a class, at the office, movies, library, or in a quiet environment and I put my phone on silent (as in vibrations and all sounds off), the watch should still notify me. Add a switch (software switch) or a shortcut (long press of a button, for instance) to put the watch in silent, meaning no vibrations but still display the notifications. If the user does not wish to receive any notifications on the watch, he already has the "synchronization" toggle at hand, no need to completely silence the watch too.

 PS. I have noticed that having the phone on silent but vibration ON, the watch receives and displays notifications. But turning off all sounds and vibration, the notifications are no longer displayed.

[HeydyF]

Hey hey hey @lazarb, welcome aboard! 🙂 Yes, if you don't want to receive notifications on your Charge 2, there is already an option to turn them OFF on the tracker itself; you don't have to disable them from your phone, and by turning them OFF, you won't receive neither text, call, calendar or reminders to move. Even if your phone is on silent or vibration, but the notifications are ON on the tracker, you'll receive them. I hope this is what you are looking for. 😉 

Keep me posted if you have further questions or comments! 

[lazarb]

Let me tell you the way I've tested this yesterday, 4th April 2017, with a Fitbit Blaze, latest Fitbit app, "Notifications active" setting in Fitbit app and a Oneplus 3T with Android 7.1.1. I've sent each time a notification from: sms, email, Whatsapp, Facebook Messenger:

- phone on ring + vibrate, Fitbit Blaze notifies

- phone on silent + vibrate, Fitbit Blaze notifies

- phone on silent + no vibrate, Fitbit Blaze does not receive any notifications (when checked, the watch says "all caught up", even though there is an unread notification on the phone).

That's it, no changes on the watch or Fitbit app.

So: when the phone is silent, the watch does not receive any notification from the phone (although the notifications are enabled on both watch and Fitbit app). Not a desired behavior, since the watch has notifications active.