Why is my device not receiving push notifications on Android?

Several issues may prevent your device or the device of someone in your team from receiving notifications on Android.

If you are not receiving any of the notifications sent from Batch, here are some suggestions to find the issue.

Keep in mind that the issue may happen:

1. At your campaign level

2. At the integration level

3. At the device level

1. Send a test notification

Try sending a test notification to your device from the debug tool:

You may notice different issues from the profile or debug tool:

a) I cannot find my install

Make sure you have opened the app once and the version you installed includes Batch's SDK.

b) No token found

The token field may be empty. Make sure the installation date you see in the debug tool makes sense. If the installation date is not correct, try opening the app after installing it.

If the installation date is correct, the SDK may have trouble indexing your token, please look for errors in the logcat of your app.

c) "not_registered" error

The token you are targeting is not valid anymore, probably because you have recently reinstalled the app. You will need to update it from the debug tool by clicking the "save as a test device" button.

d) "gcm_mismatch_sender_id" error

On Android, tokens are linked to a specific sender ID. GCM/FCM will systematically send this error when a token is pushed with the wrong sender ID.

Go to (Settings → Channels → Push → Google FCM) and ensure you are using the same Sender ID you were using with your old push provider. You can also add another server key if you are using different Firebase projects between the development and the production environment (see more here).

e) "This push token was registered with a Sender ID that doesn't match this authorization key" error

On Android, tokens are linked to a specific project ID. FCM will systematically send this error when a token is pushed with the wrong project ID.

Go to Settings → Channels → Push → Google FCM and ensure you are using the same project ID as you were using with your old push provider, and that it is configured in your google-services.json file in your application.

2. Energy-saving features

Some energy-saving features included by your phone manufacturer (e.g. Asus, Huawei, Xiaomi, ZTE, Samsung, etc) or utilities installed by your users (e.g. ram booster, etc) may prevent notifications from being displayed. They usually kill the app when it runs in the background, not allowing it to display notifications (see more here).

You may need to whitelist your app from your phone settings or disable these custom energy-saving features to fix the issue.

You can also go to your phone Settings → Apps to see if your app is force closed.

3. Network issues

Connect your device to a mobile network or try disconnecting and reconnecting your Wi-Fi.

4. Integration issue

Starting with Android 8.0, all apps targeting API 26 or higher must use notification channels. Your Batch SDK version or custom receiver might not support it. See here to know more about the Notification Channels.

5. Campaign Targeting

If notifications are enabled and your device can receive test push notifications, double-check the targeting of your campaign:

Ensure it matches the information you see from the profile view (Profiles → Search profiles).

In case you are using Batch's Transactional API with raw tokens, ensure you are targeting the right environment (e.g., {"sandbox": true}).

6. Campaign Scheduling

See if you scheduled your campaign based on local time or global time (UTC).

The Local Time option allows you to send a push notification that will be received at the same hour in every country, according to the user's respective local timezone. For example, if your push campaign is scheduled to be sent on Friday, July 19th at 6 PM, your Canadian, Italian, and Chinese users will each receive it on Friday, July 19th when it is 6 PM in their respective local timezones.

The Global Time (UTC) option allows you to send a push notification to your users at a specific UTC time regardless of their location. If your push campaign is scheduled to be sent on Friday, July 19th at 6 PM global time (UTC), your users will receive it:

• At 2 PM in Canada (UTC -4)

• At 8 PM in Italy (UTC +2)

• At 2 AM on July 20th in China (UTC +8)