Tracker alerts reach you in three different places. Knowing which is which makes it much easier to find an alert you half-remember seeing.
The three places you'll see an alert
- The notification on your phone. A short title and message on your lock screen or in your notification shade.
- The full-screen alert. Tap the notification and the app opens a full-screen version with the detail spelled out, plus View tracker and Dismiss buttons.
- The in-app Notifications inbox. Tracker alerts collect here too, marked with an orange circle and a bell icon, so you can look back at what you missed.
Please note: The inbox shows a specific set of things — QR tag scans, family invitations, tracker alerts, tracker firmware updates and firmware availability, event reminders and dangers reported nearby. It isn't a full history of everything in the app.
Allowing notifications
You'll be asked for permission after you log in.
- On iPhone and iPad, your phone shows its standard notification permission dialog. If you tapped "Don't Allow", you can turn notifications back on for the Ask A Vet app in your device settings.
- On Android 13 and newer, notification permission is asked for separately. Grant it or tracker alerts will be silently dropped.
The Tracker Alarms channel (Android)
On Android, tracker alerts arrive on their own high-importance channel called Tracker Alarms, described as "Safety, fence, and battery alarms from your GPS tracker".
Important: That one channel controls both the alerts sent to you over the internet and the alerts your phone picks up directly from the collar over Bluetooth. Switching it off in your Android settings silences both.
Notification channels are an Android feature — there's nothing equivalent to switch on iPhone.
Why alerts don't repeat endlessly
Each type of alert has its own repeat limit, so a long-running situation doesn't bury you in notifications:
| Alert | Repeat limit |
|---|---|
| Barking, charging and battery alerts | At most one every 5 minutes |
| Powered on and powered off | At most one a minute |
| Separation Anxiety Monitor at the same level | At most one every 30 minutes, but a step up to a higher level always alerts immediately |
| Cold and hot-warning temperature alerts | At most once an hour |
| Dangerously hot temperature alerts | At most once every 30 minutes |
Temperature alerts are also shown once per occurrence, so reopening your pet's screen won't pop the same one again.
Family sharing
Separation Anxiety Monitor alerts, and alerts your phone relays from the collar over Bluetooth, are sent to you and to family members who have permission to track your pet's location. Temperature, battery, power and barking alerts go to the tracker's owner only.
Related articles - Every tracker alert Ask A Vet can send you - What happens to alerts when my tracker has no mobile signal?