The iPhone app tells you about four moments, whether or not the app is open: a discussion finished, a discussion running on your Mac is waiting for an answer, background work came back to a discussion, and something arrived in your inbox. The banners are sent by our server through Apple's push service, so a phone that is asleep, or an app that iOS has closed, still hears them.
Turning them on
The app asks for permission the first time a notification would be useful, never when it opens. It asks for quiet delivery first: banners arrive in Notification Centre without a sound until you choose Keep or Deliver Prominently on one. Once allowed, the phone registers itself with the server. If you refused, iPhone Settings → LetThemChat → Notifications turns them back on, and the app's Notifications screen offers a button there.
Where to find it. iPhone: Settings → Notifications → Discussions.
| Switch | Default | What it sends |
|---|---|---|
| When a Discussion Finishes | On | The room agreed or stopped, and background work picked a discussion up or was held |
| When Your Mac Needs an Answer | On | A Mac run waits for you to allow a command, a write or the project's instruction files |
| Inbox (Assignments, Mentions, Replies) | On | A ticket assigned to you, a mention, a reply in a thread you are in, a comment |
The switches belong to this phone. The server keeps a copy for each phone, so a second iPhone on the same account can have its own.
What a banner says
A banner names the moment and the discussion's title, with email addresses, phone and card numbers masked. It never carries what was said in the discussion, the command your Mac wants to run, or a file path. With App Lock on (Settings → Privacy & Lock), the title is replaced on the phone before it is shown: "Open the app to answer." or "A discussion finished."
Tapping a banner opens its discussion. An approval banner has one action, Open: commands are answered inside the app, never from the lock screen. Once the question is answered anywhere, on the Mac, the web or this phone, the banner is taken down.
Who gets one
- A discussion's banner goes to whoever started the run, or to the discussion's owner when a schedule, Slack or another app started it.
- On a team discussion, that person is asked again at the moment of sending: someone taken off the team, or off the discussion, gets nothing more about it.
- The phone that started something is not told about it, and a banner about the discussion on screen is not shown over it.
- A run set not to announce itself, a run refused before it began, and the pause before an agreed plan is carried out send nothing.
- At most one banner per discussion and kind every 30 seconds, and 30 an hour per account.
Signing out
Signing out on the phone removes it from the server first. Ending the phone's sign-in from another device, Sign out everywhere else, or Log out of all devices removes it too. A phone not seen for 60 days is forgotten. A phone that signs in to a different account moves to that account.
When not to rely on it. For a run that must not wait overnight for an answer, set a ceiling under Spending → Brakes and an approval wait on the Mac rather than counting on a banner being seen.