Reduce the Number of Alerts on Your Pixel Devices With Notification Sync
I remember being very excited when I had a smartphone that could check email. I imagined a future life full of productivity, where I sorted through all my incoming messages while brushing my teeth or sitting on the bus. When I finally got to my desk, I thought I’d do some normal work instead of just checking email.
Now, of course, my feelings are a little different. We’re all constantly bombarded with notifications every day – from multiple email apps, etc. – and today I appreciate the time away from the frequent calls and calls.
Google introduced a small but useful tweak in Android 15 for Pixels that helps reduce notification overload, meaning that when you dismiss an alert on one Pixel phone or tablet, you won’t see it again on another.
Setting the function
Assuming all your Pixel devices are updated to the latest version of Android 15, you may well see a notification on one or more of them asking if you want to enable the feature. If you’ve dismissed the notification or it’s not showing up at all, you can go to Settings and go to Notifications > Dismiss Notifications on Pixel Devices to find it.
It’s a quick setup and doesn’t require much setup. Turn on Close on This Device , confirm that you give this feature permission to manage notifications, and you’re good to go. If you use multiple Google accounts on the same phone or tablet, you can select the account you want to sync notifications for.
Then you need to repeat this process for all the devices you want to sync. If you have a phone or tablet that you want to always receive notifications on, no matter what you’re doing on other devices, leave this option turned off. If you’d rather go back to the standard approach, simply turn the toggle switch off again.
One important caveat to keep in mind is that all of your devices must be connected to Wi-Fi for notifications to be universally dismissed. If you’re using your phone on a cellular network, syncing won’t start until you’re connected to Wi-Fi at home or somewhere else.
Manage notification sync
I tried this using two Pixel phones (being a tech journalist with a lot of phones on hand), but it’s most useful when you have a Pixel phone and a Pixel tablet – that way you won’t brush off notifications on one gadget and then have to view them again on another.
Because all your phones and tablets are enrolled in the sync program, your notifications work as if you were just working on one device: for example, an email alert might appear on both your phone and tablet, but if you swipe or tap it at him. to read the message, the notification will disappear on your other devices.
If you think you’re worried you’ve missed something, Pixel devices have a handy notification history feature you can use as a safety net. Open Notifications in Settings, then select Notification History . From here, you can enable the feature (if it’s not already enabled) and view your recently dismissed notifications.
It certainly cut down on the number of distracting beeps I heard in the background while I was trying to get work done, and it’s something I’ll always turn on when there are a few pixels nearby. Hopefully this will be more widespread on Android in the future so all phones and tablets are included.