How to Fix Notifications Not Working on
Google Pixel Phones [2025] 💥
Your Google Pixel isn't showing notifications? Missing calls, texts, emails? Yeah, I know how annoying that is. Spent way too much time figuring this out on my Pixel 7 and now I'm gonna save you the hassle.
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These fixes work on any recent Pixel phone running Android 15 or newer. Let's fix this shit right now!
Turn On Notifications For Your Apps
Look, I know this seems basic but hear me out. Sometimes apps get their notifications disabled and you don't even realize it.
Jump into Settings and find Notifications. Hit App notifications and scroll to whatever app is giving you trouble. WhatsApp, Gmail, doesn't matter. Tap it open.
See that toggle for All [app name] notifications? Make sure that's ON. When you enable it a bunch of other options show up underneath. The important ones are Allow full screen notifications (for calls popping up) and Allow notification dots (that little badge on the icon). Turn those on too.
Easy enough? Cool, but that's just step one...
Battery Settings Are Killing Your Notifications
Here's the real problem. Google thinks they're doing you a favor by "optimizing" battery usage. What they're actually doing is preventing your apps from running in the background. No background = no notifications. Simple as that.
Time to fix it. Open Settings and go to Apps. Tap See all apps and find the one you need notifictions from. Tap on it, then look for App battery usage.
Tap that and you'll see Allow battery usage. Click it. Two choices pop up, Optimized or Unrestricted. Pick Unrestricted every damn time.
What this does is tell Google "stop putting this app to sleep you idiots, I actually want it to work." Now it can run in the background and send you alerts like it's supposed to.
Do this for every app that matters. Messaging, email, banking, whatever. Yeah your battery might drop 1% faster but who cares if you're actually getting your messages?
Makes sense right?
Check If Do Not Disturb Is Active
Quick thing to verify. Maybe you've got Do Not Disturb turned on and forgot about it. That'll block everything.
Go to Settings, tap that search box up top, type "disturb" and tap Do not disturb when it appears. If it's ON and you don't want it to be, turn it OFF!
If you use Do Not Disturb on purpose make sure your critical apps are allowed through it. Otherwise what's the point of having them installed?
Apps Need Background Data To Work
Another thing Google does is restrict background data. Your apps literally can't check for new stuff when you're not looking at them. Genius move Google :(
Back to Settings, then Apps again. Find your app, tap it. Now look for Mobile data and Wi-Fi or something like Data usage. Different Pixels word it differently but you'll find it.
Make damn sure Background data is enabled. Also turn on Unrestricted data usage if you see that option. Without these your apps are basically offline when you're not actively using them.
I'm not going to lie to you, this is stupid that we have to manually enable this stuff. But that's Android for you...
Why Google Does This
Google's entire philosophy is "battery life above everything else." They want your Pixel to last all day so they aggressively shut down anything running in the background. Sounds good in theory but in practice it means your phone stops being useful.
The fixes I showed you basically tell Google to chill out and let your important apps actually function. It's a trade-off but honestly modern Pixels have solid battery life anyway. Letting a few apps run won't destroy it.
Repeat For Every Important App
Don't just fix one app and call it done. Go through every app where missing a notification would suck. Your messaging apps, email clients, work apps, banking apps, delivery apps, whatever you rely on.
Takes maybe 30 seconds per app once you know what you're doing. Way better than constantly missing stuff and wondering what's wrong with your phone!
How about that :)
Still Having Issues?
Tried everything and still no notifications? Restart your Pixel. Sometimes it just needs a fresh boot to apply all the changes properly.
Also double check the app itself doesn't have its own notification settings buried in there. Some apps are weird and have notification toggles inside the app separate from Android's system settings.
Make sure Airplane mode isn't on. Check that Data Saver isn't active. Update the app if there's a new version available.
What You Need To Know
Bottom line? Google Pixel notification problems come from overly aggressive power management. Google wants to save battery so bad they break basic phone functionality.
The solution is going through these settings and manually telling Google which apps you actually want to work. It's annoying but it works.
Follow what I showed you and you'll get your notifications back. No more missing important stuff, no more frustrated googling trying to figure out what's wrong.
Trust me on this one...
Tested on Pixel 7 with Android 15. Works on Pixel 6, 7, 8, 9 and newer models. Takes 5 to 10 minutes to configure all your apps. Basic difficulty, just menu navigation.
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