Setting my notifications

The principle

By default, Fenzly tells you about no arrival and no departure. You decide, in each circle, whom and which places you want to follow. Nothing is set “for everyone”: your choice concerns your phone only, and the other members make theirs.

1. Arrivals and departures, circle by circle

1. Open the circle, then Places & notifications (or the Sharing tab depending on the screen).
2. For each shared place, choose the members whose passages you want to follow, and for each one Arrival, Departure, or both. “All members” sets everyone at once.

Only places shared in the circle can be triggers, and only members who share their passages appear there. A member who set their sharing to “Off” or “Latest position” emits no passage: there is nothing to notify.

2. Messages

In a conversation, the menu offers Mute: no more notifications for that conversation, messages keep arriving. Turn notifications back on undoes it. The setting applies per conversation, 1-to-1 or circle.

3. What cannot be turned off

• SOS: a member’s alert rings loudly, repeats, and cannot be muted. The only ways to stop it are an adult of the circle taking charge, or the sender cancelling.
• Invitations and join requests, and the notifications about your account, a new device signed in or a backup requested: they are rare, and you need to see them.

4. On the phone

Everything goes through the system’s notifications: if they are refused for Fenzly, nothing shows, whatever your settings in the app. Also check:

• Android: the battery-optimisation exemption, otherwise the phone may not wake Fenzly. The permanent “Fenzly active, watching your shared places” notification is normal; minimise it in the channel settings if it bothers you, without disabling it.
• iPhone: location set to “Always”, and alerts allowed for Fenzly in Settings → Notifications.

If a person’s notifications still do not arrive, the question I do not get arrival or departure notifications lists the checks in order.

What the server knows about your notifications

The text you read, “Emma arrived at School”, is composed on your phone from the encrypted data. The server only sends a wake-up signal; at most it learns that you want to be woken for a given place, never for whom, nor when that person is there.