Notifications

How rules work

You don't set a reminder on each event. You write a rule once, such as "every Work event, 10 minutes before", and NextUp reminds you about every event the rule covers, including the ones you add next month. Reminders need no widget on your home screen.

• One switch rules them all. Send reminders turns every rule on or off at once. It is off when you install NextUp.
• Rules are checked top to bottom, and the first match wins. An event gets its reminders from one rule only: the highest one in the list that covers it.
• An event no rule covers gets no reminder.
• A rule only takes what it reminds about. A rule set up for all-day events alone lets timed events pass to the rules under it.

So a narrow rule belongs above a broad one. The order is yours to set: see Reading the rule list.

The Notifications tab

Notifications is the dashboard's second tab, beside Widgets. Tap its name or swipe across. Everything about reminders is on this one screen, and each rule opens a screen of its own.

The beside a setting explains it in a sentence or two.

Turning reminders on

Turn on Send reminders. This is the moment Android asks whether NextUp may send notifications; it is never asked when the app starts.

• If you allow it, the switch goes on and your rules start working.
• If you refuse, the switch stays off and a dialog titled Notifications are off says why. Once Android has stopped asking, that dialog offers Open settings, where you allow notifications for NextUp by hand.
• Turning on a rule's own switch while Send reminders is off turns both on, with the same question from Android.
• Turning it off sends nothing and keeps every rule as you set it. Each rule's row then reads Paused: reminders are off.

A new install comes with one rule, named Default: every calendar, 10 minutes before each timed event, nothing for all-day events or tasks. Turning the switch on is enough to start with.

The card at the top

The switch shows what you chose, not what Android allows. If something NextUp needs is missing, the switch stays on and one card says what is wrong. Only one shows at a time, in this order, and each goes away by itself once its cause is fixed.

If a permission is taken away later, nothing in your rules changes. Reminders come back by themselves when you give it back.

General

Two settings apply to every rule.

Skip duplicate reminders

Your calendar app already rings for the events that carry a reminder of their own. With this switch on (the default), NextUp stays quiet for an event only when that reminder is set for exactly the same time before as your rule's, so you are not told the same thing twice.

• The rule still covers the event. If the two times differ, both ring: a calendar reminder at 10 minutes and a rule at 1 hour give you two reminders, an hour and ten minutes before.
• NextUp can't tell whether your calendar app's notifications are switched on. If they are off, turn Skip duplicate reminders off, or the events it skips will ring nowhere.

Snooze duration

Every reminder NextUp sends has a Snooze button. This stepper sets how long a snoozed reminder waits before it comes back: 10 minutes by default, anything from 1 to 240. A snooze already running keeps the time it was given.

Building a rule

Tap a rule to open it, or Add rule for a new one. There are no kinds of rule to choose from. One rule can send up to three kinds of reminder, each with its own switch: for timed events, for all-day events, and a daily digest of tasks.

The screen is two cards, Event Reminders and Task Reminders. Each row is a group: it says what it is set to, and a tap unfolds it in place.

The name

The card at the top reads Rule: Default, or whatever you called it. The pencil turns the name into a field. The name matters outside the app too: each rule notifies under its own name, so Android can give it its own sound, or silence it, without touching the others.

Calendars

A switch for each calendar on your phone, in its colour. All are on at first. Switch off the ones this rule should leave alone; another rule can pick them up, or none.

Timed events

Notify timed events is on by default, with one time: 10 minutes before. Each How long before row is one reminder.

• Tap a row to set its time in a sheet (below).
• Add another time adds a row, up to four per rule: for instance a day before and 10 minutes before. The bin beside a row removes it; the first row stays.
• The list keeps itself in order, the furthest from the event first.
• Switch Notify timed events off for a rule meant for all-day events or tasks only. Timed events then pass to the rules under it.

The sheet, top to bottom:

• The result, as the rule will say it: 10 min before, 1 h before, A day before, or At start when everything is 0.
• Four common times, one tap each.
• Days (0 to 7), Hours and Minutes. Tap an arrow, hold it to run, or tap the number to type it. The longest time is one week.
• Cancel leaves the time as it was. Done saves it.

Two rows can't hold the same time: the sheet says This rule already has this time. and Done waits until you change it.

All-day events

An all-day event has no start to count back from, so it gets one notification at a fixed time of day. Notify all-day events is off by default.

• Days before: 0 to 7, 1 by default. 0 means the day itself.
• At: the time of day, 18:00 by default. Together the defaults read A day before at 18:00: the evening before.
• An event that lasts several days is announced for its first day only.

Filters PRO

Filters decide which events of the chosen calendars the rule covers. They are the reason to write a second rule: one for meetings, another for everything else.

• Ignore events containing: the rule skips events with any of these words.
• Notify only events containing: the rule covers only events with one of these words.
• Separate words with commas. The pills under each box say where to look: Title (the default), Notes or Both. Capitals and accents make no difference.
• Time slots: the rule covers only timed events that take place, at least in part, inside the hours you add, optionally with Only on weekdays. The default is Any time. All-day events are not affected.

An event the filters leave out is not lost: it passes to the next rule in the list.

Task accounts and Task digest PRO

Tasks have a day and no time, and they pile up, so NextUp never sends a notification per task. A rule sends one digest a day that lists them.

• Task accounts appears once a Google account is connected, with a switch per account.
• Task digest: the group's switch, off by default.
• Days ahead: which day's tasks to list, 0 to 7. 0, the default, is today; 1 is tomorrow, for a digest the evening before.
• At: when the digest arrives, 08:00 by default.
• Include overdue tasks: on by default.

With no account connected, the group only says Connect an account on the dashboard. That is done under Google Tasks.

Deleting a rule

The red Delete rule button at the bottom asks first (Delete this rule?). Its reminders stop straight away and there is no undo. Deleting your last rule turns Send reminders off too.

A rule you add and leave exactly as it came is removed when you leave it.

Times of day in rules and in notifications follow your phone's 12 or 24-hour setting.

Reading the rule list

Back on the Notifications tab, each rule's row tells you what it does without opening it.

• The first line is what the rule sends, joined by dots: its times for timed events, then All-day events and Task digest if those are on. For instance 10 min before · All-day events · Task digest.
• The second line is what it covers: 12 events in the next 7 days · 9 already have reminders. The second half appears when some of those events carry a calendar reminder at the same time, which Skip duplicate reminders leaves to your calendar app. A rule that is switched off, or sends only the digest, has no count.
• Another rule overlaps this one, so it sends nothing. means a rule higher up takes every event this one covers. Move it up, or narrow the rule above it.
• Paused: reminders are off means the rule is on but Send reminders is not.

Order PRO

With two rules or more, each row has an up and a down arrow beside its switch. A new rule goes to the top of the list, which is where a narrower rule belongs.

Losing some events to a rule above is how the order is meant to work, and is not flagged. The overlap line appears only when a rule is left with nothing.

What arrives

Two notifications, one for an event and one for tasks. Both carry Snooze.

The event reminder

• An event today reads Starts at 10:00. One on another day adds the day, as in "Starts Mon 24 Aug at 10:00". An all-day event shows its day alone.

The task digest

• Overdue tasks come first, under a count such as 1 overdue, then the day's tasks under 2 due today or 2 due tomorrow, each with the tasks' names.
• A group with more tasks than fit ends with a count of the rest.

Sound, silence and Do Not Disturb

NextUp has no sound picker, because Android already has one per rule. Each rule is its own notification category in Android's settings, named after the rule, and there as soon as the rule exists.

• From a notification: long-press one of the rule's reminders and open its settings. You land on that rule alone.
• From Android's settings: open NextUp's notification settings. You see one entry per rule, by name.
• There you choose its sound and vibration, make it silent, or turn it off, without changing the other rules. The exact words differ from phone to phone.
• Rename a rule in NextUp and its entry in Android is renamed with it.

Do Not Disturb is Android's too. NextUp marks an event's reminder as an event and the task digest as a reminder, so if your Do Not Disturb lets events or reminders through, these are the ones it means. Whether one rule may break through is set on that rule's entry, where your phone offers it.

The same list holds two entries that are not rules, Sales and offers and Announcements: see Free and Pro.

Recipes

Free and Pro

Reminders work without Pro. Pro adds more rules and finer ones.

Without Pro, only the first rule in the list is in force. Any others are kept, greyed and marked PRO, and send nothing.

Sales on Pro

Free users see a second card, Sales and offers, with one switch: Sales on Pro, on by default. It sends a notification when Pro goes on sale, and nothing else, whatever Send reminders is set to. With Pro the card is gone. Announcements have no switch in the app: Android's settings list Sales and offers and Announcements beside your rules, and each can be turned off there.

When nothing rings

Check these in order. The first two cover most cases.

If the tab shows no dot and no card, look at the rule:

• Is the rule's own switch on? A rule that is off has no count line.
• Does it cover the event? Check its Calendars, and its Filters if you use them. For an all-day event, Notify all-day events has to be on, and it is off by default.
• Is another rule taking its events? The row then reads Another rule overlaps this one, so it sends nothing. Move it up.
• Is it a duplicate? If the count line ends in "already have reminders", your calendar app is expected to ring for those events at the same moment. If its notifications are off, turn Skip duplicate reminders off.
• Is the rule silenced in Android? Check its entry in Android's notification settings, and Do Not Disturb.
• No task digest? It needs Pro, a connected Google account, and the group's own Task digest switch.