Notifications: push alerts, email digests & setup

Our Caring Circle keeps you in the loop three ways: the notification bell inside the app, email digests you read on your own time, and push notifications that reach your lock screen. The first two work everywhere. Push depends on how you use Our Caring Circle on each device — so that's where to start.

Which devices get push notifications

Push notifications come from the web version of Our Caring Circle, not from the store apps. The Google Play and App Store apps can't receive push notifications yet. Here's what works where:

What sends a push notification today

Push notifications currently cover what's happening in your circle:

• When you claim a task — a confirmation that you're helping with it.
• When a task you were helping with is completed — a thank-you.
• When the main helper steps back and you were the backup (Circle Essentials) — a heads-up that your help is needed.
• When someone joins your circle — everyone else in the circle hears about it.

Settings shows three switches — Activity, Reminders, and Urgency. Everything above is Activity; nothing is sent under Reminders or Urgency yet, so turning Activity off stops all push notifications. The switches apply to your account on every device.

Quiet hours: nothing is sent between 10 PM and 7 AM. A push that would land in quiet hours is skipped, not saved for later — you'll still see it in the notification bell, and your email digest covers it.

Tip: quiet hours and both email digests follow the time zone in your profile settings, and use UTC if none is saved. Set your time zone in Settings so they follow your clock.

Turning on push notifications

Push is turned on per device. Enabling it on your laptop does nothing for your phone, so repeat these steps wherever you want alerts.

iPhone (iOS 16.4 or later)

1. Open Safari — not Chrome, and not the App Store app — and go to app.ourcaringcircle.com.
2. Tap the Share button, then Add to Home Screen, then Add. If the sheet shows an Open as Web App switch, leave it on.
3. Open Our Caring Circle from the new Home Screen icon.
4. Sign in again. The Home Screen web app doesn't share Safari's sign-in.
5. Go to Settings → Push notifications → Enable push notifications, then tap Allow.

Already have the App Store app? Keep it. You'll now have two icons with the same name — that's expected. Put them side by side, or make the web one your main app if alerts matter most. The full walkthrough is in the iPhone install guide.

Android

1. Open Chrome, go to app.ourcaringcircle.com, and sign in. Installing it to your home screen is optional for push, but nicer — see the Android install guide.
2. Go to Settings → Push notifications → Enable push notifications, then tap Allow.
3. On Android 13 or later, if no prompt appears, Chrome itself may not have notification permission: open Android Settings → Apps → Chrome → Notifications.

The Google Play app can't do this step. It shows a note that push notifications arrive on the devices where you enabled them in your browser.

Computer

In Chrome, Edge, Firefox, or Safari on a Mac (Safari 16 or later — a regular tab works, no need to add it to the Dock), sign in, then go to Settings → Push notifications → Enable push notifications and allow it when your browser asks. The desktop install guide covers giving it its own window.

Email digests

Find these under Settings → Email Preferences. Both are on by default, each has its own switch, and every digest has a one-click unsubscribe link.

Daily activity summary — 8 PM your time

A recap of the new tasks and appointments added across your circles that day. It only sends on days when something new was added — a quiet day means no email.

Weekly digest — 8 AM Sunday your time

The daily summary looks back; the Sunday digest looks forward. It lists the open items that need help in the next 14 days, so the week starts with everyone knowing what's coming. It always sends.

Push and email are separate: push tells you the moment something happens, and the digests are a calm recap. You may see the same event in both.

The notification bell

The bell at the top of the app lists your notifications on every device, including the Google Play and App Store apps. Notifications stay there for 90 days.

Troubleshooting

There's no Push notifications card in Settings. You're in a store app and haven't turned on push anywhere else. Follow the steps above in a browser.

"Push notifications can't be turned on from the app." You're in a store app and push is already on for another device. That's expected — the category switches still apply.

"Push notifications aren't supported on this browser." On iPhone, this almost always means you're in a Safari tab instead of the Home Screen icon, or iOS is older than 16.4. Add it to your Home Screen and open it from the icon.

"Notifications are blocked." You tapped Don't Allow earlier. On iPhone, open Settings → Notifications → Our Caring Circle. On Android, open the site settings in Chrome. On a computer, click the lock icon in the address bar.

It's turned on, but nothing arrives. Check three things: quiet hours (and the time zone in your profile settings), that the Activity switch is on, and whether anything that sends a push has actually happened — see the list above.

My laptop gets alerts but my phone doesn't. Push is turned on per device. Repeat the steps on your phone.

Your privacy

Notifications and digests include task titles and circle names, so you know what they're about at a glance. That also means anything in a task title can show up on a lock screen — keep medical details out of task titles. Push notification payloads are encrypted using the standard Web Push protocol.