Getting Lantern's notifications on a phone or computer

Lantern can send notifications to a phone, tablet, or computer: reward requests and their answers, reminders before events, and reminders for chores at their due times. Each device is turned on by the person using it, and nothing is sent until someone does. Wall displays don’t get notifications.

Lantern must be served over HTTPS, since browsers offer notifications only to secure sites.

Turning them on

1. In the Lantern app, open More, then Notifications.
2. Tap Turn on, and allow notifications when the browser asks.
3. Tap Send a test notification. It should arrive within a few seconds; if the app is open, it may only show in the notification centre.

Notifications belong to the device and the person signed in on it. Signing out turns them off on that device, so the next person to sign in doesn’t get yours.

iPhone and iPad

iOS and iPadOS deliver web notifications only to a web app added to the Home Screen, from iOS 16.4:

1. Open Lantern in Safari.
2. Tap Share, then Add to Home Screen.
3. Open Lantern from its Home Screen icon, sign in, and turn notifications on as above.

In a Safari tab, More → Notifications says to add Lantern to the Home Screen first. Notifications then show like any app’s, and can be managed in Settings → Notifications → Lantern.

Android and computers

Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Safari on a Mac all offer web notifications in an ordinary tab, and installing Lantern as an app isn’t needed. On Android, notifications show while the browser isn’t running too.

When a notification doesn’t arrive

• More → Notifications says notifications are blocked: the browser was told no. Allow notifications for Lantern in the browser’s site settings (or, on an iPhone, in Settings → Notifications → Lantern), then come back.
• The phone is on Do Not Disturb or a Focus, which holds notifications back.
• The test arrives but a reminder doesn’t: each kind of notification is turned on on its own, on each device.
• Lantern’s server can’t reach the internet: the notification goes through the browser maker’s push service (Google’s, Mozilla’s, or Apple’s), so the server must be able to reach it. An installation whose outbound traffic is limited allows *.push.apple.com, fcm.googleapis.com, and updates.push.services.mozilla.com.

What a notification says passes through that push service, encrypted so it can’t read it, and Lantern keeps it short: by default it says what kind of notification it is, not what it’s about (docs/integrations/web-push.md).