A Complete Guide to Fix Delayed Notifications on Android

Ideally, your smartphone should notify you immediately when new app notifications or updates are available. If you notice a delay of a few seconds or minutes in notification delivery on your Android device, there is a problem somewhere. The lag should not occur frequently except for temporary glitch in mobile data or Wi-Fi connection. Fortunately, there are several ways to fix lagging notifications on your Android.

Many times your device hides or delays notifications to save battery or reduce data usage. Certain system settings may interfere with the normal functioning of application notifications.

In this guide, we list a few effective fixes that will help your Android device back to receiving app notifications instantly.

1. Re-Enable Wi-Fi or Mobile Data

Poor or intermittent network quality is one of the main causes of notification lag on Android and devices running other operating systems. If you are connected to the Internet via Wi-Fi, turn off your device’s Wi-Fi and reconnect to the network. Go to Settings > Network & Internet and turn off the Wi-Fi connection. Turn it back on after a few seconds.

For mobile data, go to Settings > Network & Internet > Mobile Data and turn off Mobile data. Turn it back on and check if your notifications are delivered as soon as they arrive.

You can also disable both Wi-Fi and mobile data from your phone’s notification panel/drawer. To turn it off, swipe down from the top of your screen and tap Wi-Fi or Mobile data. Tap them again to re-enable either of them.

2. Fix Using Airplane Mode

Turning Airplane Mode off and back on can also fix network connectivity issues that are lagging app notifications. Swipe down from the top of your screen to reveal the notification panel and tap the airplane icon. This will enable Airplane Mode.

Tap the airplane icon again to turn Airplane Mode off. If the lag in notifications persists or you do not receive them at all, continue to the next troubleshooting method.

3. Remove Background Restriction

To help save battery life, Android sometimes restricts certain apps from using your device’s battery in the background. Although this will greatly save battery life, restricted app(s) may not work properly and delay its notification.

If you notice that a particular app’s notifications are not being delivered on time, make sure the app isn’t restricted from using your phone’s battery in the background.

Stage 1: Launch the Android Settings menu and tap ‘App & Notifications’.

Step 2: Tap ‘See All Apps’ to see all apps installed on your device.

Stage 3: Tap the affected app with delayed notifications.

Step 4: Tap on the Advanced dropdown and click on Battery.

Step 5: Tap Background restriction.

Step 6: Tap Uninstall at the prompt to disable Background restriction for the app.

This should no longer delay notifications for the app.

4. Disable Battery Saver / Battery Saver Mode

Enabling Battery Saver Mode on your device limits and restricts some device operations such as push notification delivery. Try disabling Battery Saver or Battery Saver Mode on your device to avoid notification lag.

To do this, swipe down from the notification panel and tap on Battery Saver to disable the feature. Alternatively, you can go to Settings > Battery > Battery Saver and tap the ‘Turn Off Now’ button.

5. Disable Adaptive Battery

Adaptive Battery is another feature of the Android operating system (Android 9 Pie and newer) that sometimes causes notification lag. The Adaptive Battery feature limits the battery to apps that you don’t use often, thus causing delayed notifications in order to extend your device’s battery life.

To disable Adaptive Battery go to Settings > Battery > Adaptive Battery and disable ‘Use Adaptive Battery’.

6. Disable Data Saver

Like Background Restriction (see method #3 above), Data Saver also blocks some apps from sending and receiving data in the background. This may cause some app notifications to arrive on your device later than usual. To fix this, disable Data Saver (or Data Saver Mode) on your device and check if app notifications are delivered immediately.

Go to Settings > Network & Internet > Data Saver and turn off ‘Use Data Saver’.

If you don’t want to disable Data Saver for all apps, you can instruct your device to grant unlimited data access to certain apps. Apps with unlimited data access do not delay their notifications when Data Saver is enabled. Tap Unrestricted data and open the apps you want to give unlimited data access.

7. Clear App Cache

If the delayed notification issue is specific to a particular app, clearing the app’s cache may help resolve the issue. Follow the steps below to clear an app’s cache.

Stage 1: Open Settings and select “Apps & notifications”.

Step 2: Tap on ‘See All Apps’.

Stage 3: Select the affected application.

Step 4: Next, select the ‘Storage and cache’ option.

Step 5: Tap the ‘Clear Cache’ icon to clear the app’s cache.

8. Disable Do Not Disturb

If you have a “Do Not Disturb” program on your device, all calls, text messages, and app notifications are muted and temporarily suspended. To resolve this, you can disable “Do Not Disturb” or configure an app to override your device’s “Do Not Disturb” settings.

Go to Settings > Apps & notifications > Notifications > Advanced > Do Not Disturb and tap ‘Turn Off Now’, disable ‘Do Not Disturb’.

As mentioned earlier, you can also configure an app to override the notification delay caused by ‘Do Not Disturb’. To do this, follow the steps below.

Stage 1: Open your device’s Settings menu and select “Apps & notifications”.

Step 2: Then select the app you want to configure in the ‘Recently opened apps’ section or tap ‘See All Apps’ to choose another app.

Stage 3: Select Notifications.

Step 4: Select a notification category for which you want to override the ‘Do Not Disturb’ option.

Step 5: Select Advanced and turn on ‘Override Do Not Disturb’.

This ensures that the app’s notifications are not delayed even when “Do Not Disturb” is enabled.

Get Quick Notifications

With the fixes mentioned above, you can restart your device or reset network settings. In the rare case where your notifications are still lagging after all available options (above) have been exhausted, you should either update your device’s operating system or restore your device to factory settings.

Next: Notifications often interrupt the music playing on your Android phone. Read the article linked below to learn how to automatically disable and stop Android notifications while playing music.