You look forward to certain notifications on your phone. Like when you book flight tickets and expect some important updates. Every moment that passes by, you expect to hear your phone go off. You keep checking your phone out of anxiety to check if you just missed the notification. However, the notification still hasn’t come. Your phone is still silent. The situation grows frustrating by the minute. It is for scenarios like these that time sensitive notifications exist. They ensure you can hear the notifications that matter most and when you need them. When you turn them on, this whole situation can be avoided altogether.
Going ahead, we will cover what time sensitive notifications are, what time sensitive means, and what time sensitive notifications mean when it comes to your day-to-day life.
What Does “Time Sensitive” Mean?
Time sensitive is a way of suggesting that something hinges around a specific time or is important at a specific time. A simple example of a time sensitive action might be to turn off the microwave after x amount of time to make sure you don’t burn the food inside. In essence, time sensitive refers to anything that needs immediate urgency, either because it is urgent or can be spoiled with time.
When it comes to tech, a time sensitive notification refers to a category of notification alerts that are given higher priority so you don’t miss critical time bound information. Which means that when your phone is in silent mode or the DND, and if you get any urgent notifications, they will still make a sound and you will get alerted, as you should. So, no more missing important updates—you get the silence when it matters and alerts that matter.
Imagine missing your flight because your phone failed to notify you of the changes, all thanks to the silent mode you switched on to be more productive. Oops! That’s where time sensitive notifications could have saved you.
Defining Time Sensitive Notifications
Time sensitive notifications were introduced by Apple with iOS 15. They are a special category of notification alerts that are given the highest priority. Apps can apply the tag to certain messages like boarding passes, two-factor authentication codes, or something heartfelt like “just saw this” texts, which then become time sensitive notifications. So that way, even through all the silence, your most important notifications still get through to you when they matter the most.
How Do Time Sensitive Notifications Work?
1. App Permissions: Apps can’t access the feature unless you allow them to. To allow apps to send you time sensitive notifications, you can go to Settings and then to Notifications.
2. Focus Bypass: When you use any focus modes on your iPhone, like Work or Sleep, they filter out distractions. However, time sensitive notifications are different. They will still land on your lock screen or notification centre for up to an hour.
3. User Control: If iOS detects that an app has been overusing or abusing the feature, then it will also prompt you to revoke the permission from the app. That way, you can stay in charge.
Why Time Sensitive Notifications Matter
1. Peace of Mind: The constant anxiety of missing out on updates eats away at peace of mind. Now, because you have time sensitive notifications on, you can enjoy your phone’s silence like it should be.
2. Enhanced Productivity: As truly urgent notifications always get through, there is no need to check your phone to see if you missed out on something important. That way, you are productive when and where it matters.
3. Safety and Security: Important alerts like medical reminders or security alerts can already be considered lifesavers.
Examples of Time Sensitive Notifications
Here are different types of notifications that you might see coming through as time sensitive notifications:
1. Travel: These alerts can mean the difference between missed and on-time travel. E.g., flight delays, gate changes, or train departure reminders.
2. Security: These alerts can protect your device or other properties. Eg., one‑time passwords (OTPs), suspicious login attempts.
3. Health: Life can often get busy, but these alerts will ensure you don’t end up compromising on your health. Eg., appointment reminders, medication alerts.
4. Personal: Important time-bound messages from family, event invitations, or other emergencies that you can tend to quickly.
Implementing Them in Your Apps
If you’re reading this article as a developer, you can use Apple’s UNNotificationInterruptionLevel.timeSensitive API to tag truly urgent notifications. Make sure you only use it where it is required; otherwise, it will cause frustration for the user and revocation of privileges.
Best Practices for Users
1. Review Permissions Regularly: Go through the list of apps that are allowed to send time sensitive notifications and make sure they aren’t overusing the feature. You can do so through Settings and then Notifications.
2. Prioritise Carefully: Make sure you only allow apps that you trust will be needed during urgent moments to send time sensitive notifications.
3. Customise Focus Modes: Review your focus profiles and decide whether to toggle the time-sensitive notifications on or off to suit your current state.
Beyond Apple: Other Platforms
Most people refer to Apple’s implementation of time sensitive notifications when the topic is commonly discussed; however, the feature exists elsewhere as well:
1. Android: Many manufacturers give you the option to choose which apps can send you higher-priority “urgent” notifications in the settings.
2. Browsers & Web Apps: Some web notifications can be flagged as “persistent” to remind you before they disappear.
The name might be different, but the idea is mostly the same: to allow information you shouldn’t miss to pass through, whilst blocking less urgent information.
Conclusion
Your smartphone had a feature that made it even smarter. All you had to do was turn the time sensitive notifications on. That feature will make sure only important notifications get through and others are silenced so that you can be focused, productive, and present in your life. Now that you have taken the step to understand what time sensitive means and what time sensitive notifications are, it is the perfect time to switch them on and feel the difference! Stay productive.
