Phone notifications on iPhone and Android

ExpressAgain can send notifications to your phone the way a text pops up, straight from the website. There is no app to download from an app store.

In a family circle, a notification arrives when someone posts on the family feed (or the friends feed, for friends) or comments on your post; when a Love Bucket note arrives (caregivers) and when your loved one writes back to your note; when the daily note is on the feed, or ready for you to post, and when a daily update goes out; and, for whoever runs the account and caregivers, when the care team posts on the care-team feed with Notify the team and the day before an appointment. Each one goes to the same people who get that email or text today, never more. When the patient taps Get Help Now, the people on the alert (whoever runs the account, caregivers, and the professional on shift) get a notification, and another when someone answers or it is closed. Medication reminders are new and have no email or text: when a set on the medication schedule is due, they go to the professional clocked in with the patient while someone is, and otherwise to whoever runs the account and caregivers, and to the circle's own care team; when a set still isn't logged once its on-time window closes, whoever runs the account and caregivers hear it, with who is on shift (The evening set isn't logged yet; Jewel is on shift). The same switch covers a prescription change: when someone records a dose change the doctor ordered (Prescriptions, or a physician or nurse on the Medications tab), whoever runs the account, caregivers and the circle's care team get A prescription change was recorded, with no name, no medicine and no amount on the lock screen, never the person who recorded it, and it waits out Quiet at night.

On a care-team or Home Team login, or in an organization: when there is a care alert (a new reading alert needs a look, following your own Alerts choice: every reading, only flagged ones, or none on Daily digest or Off; and, for an organization, a flagged alert that waited past the practice's escalation window), and when someone posts on the care-team feed with Notify the team or replies to your post there; and when a set on the medication schedule is due for someone you care for (while anyone is clocked in, only the professional on shift gets it), and, while you are clocked in, when a set still isn't logged once its window closes. A professional also has Take a minute for you: once a week, on Monday morning, a gentle reminder to check in on Wellbeing. It is the one switch that starts off; turn it on under What reaches this phone or on the Wellbeing page.

The daily moments: through the day, everyone in the circle gets a short reminder to reach out: say good morning, the feature of the day, share your lunch, send a few words of encouragement, a memory from the past, dinner and conversation, and goodnight. Phone notifications carry every one; email carries four by default (the morning hello, lunch, the words of encouragement and goodnight), and when a phone notification reaches you, the email for that moment is skipped, unless you picked your own email setting. The daily moments start once at least one family member or friend has joined the circle.

Drink-water reminders: on Health Tracking, the Water tab has a card, Water goal and reminders. Whoever runs the account, or one of the caregivers, turns the reminder on, chooses every 2 or every 3 hours between a start and an end time (every 2 hours from 8 AM to 8 PM to start, on the patient's clock) and picks who gets it: the patient's own device, the professional on shift (whoever is clocked in, or every Home Team login when nobody is), and the family members ticked on the list. At each time, if no water was logged in the last hour, those phones get Time for a glass of water for the patient's first name, and no more; tap it and the Water tab opens with the cup, glass and bottle buttons ready. A drink logged in the last hour skips that time. It is checked every 15 minutes, keeps Quiet at night and Pause for a week, and is one of the switches under What reaches this phone. A doctor or nurse on the care team sets the daily goal or limit on the Care targets tab; the family can too, on the same card.

On my way and running late: when a professional taps On my way before a shift, every family login in the home (whoever runs the account, caregivers and family members, not friends) gets Sam is on the way to Sample. About 20 minutes., and a Running late gets Sam is running late. About 10 more minutes. The minutes are the only number, picked by the professional from a short list; never a place or a distance. These come at night too and each one arrives on its own.

Partners (Oct 22): whoever runs the account and caregivers get Time to reach out? when a reach-out reminder they set on a partner on Care Team finds something that was logged (an ER visit, falls, a weight, a pain medication on the list, a skin or pressure area, a PT or OT note), Time to check in? when a referral to a partner is still Referred or Contacted 2 weeks after its last status change, and A new message from a partner, A partner booked a visit or A partner updated a referral when a partner writes, books or moves a referral forward from their partner page. No names and nothing that was logged are on the lock screen. The partner is never notified by the app: a message reaches them only when you tap Send. See Partners: hospice, equipment and others.

Visits booked: when a visit is booked, moved or cancelled on the patient's Schedule — through the family's booking link, by a clinician's login, or by the family on Appointments or the Schedule — whoever runs the account, caregivers and the circle's care logins get A visit was booked (or moved, or cancelled) with the professional's first name and nothing else, never the person who did it. The same switch carries the reminders for a professional's visit: A visit tomorrow, the evening before at 6 PM on the patient's clock, and A visit within the hour, an hour before it starts; the professional the visit is with gets the hour one too. Whoever runs the account also gets each reminder by email, with the name, the time and the place. The family's own doctor appointments keep their day-before email and notification (Appointment reminders). The same switch, on every family member's and friend's phone too, carries A family gathering is being planned when whoever runs the account or one of the caregivers plans one, and, for whoever runs the account and caregivers, Someone is coming to the gathering (or is not sure yet, or can't make it) when a guest answers; no name on the lock screen.

Notifications never include health details: never a reading, a medicine or a diagnosis, and never what someone wrote. They say that something happened and where to look; tap one and ExpressAgain opens on that page. The patient's first name appears only where the text or email for the same thing already carries it (the feed, the Love Bucket, the daily note); care alerts, the care-team feed, appointment reminders, visit reminders and medication reminders carry no name. A medication reminder says only which set is due (The evening set is due) or that it isn't logged yet (The evening set isn't logged yet, with the first name of who is on shift), never a medicine or a time. A dose logged as refused or skipped, a set marked as missed, a visit marked done or didn’t happen, and a trip or the routine added to the Schedule are not phone notifications.

Send a test notification: once notifications are on for a phone, the card has Send a test notification. It sends one notification, A test from ExpressAgain, to your own phones only, and you can send one a minute. If it doesn't arrive, check that notifications are allowed for the site in the phone's settings, then tap Turn off on this phone and turn it on again. The dose-due pop-up and banner also show Get these on your phone to anyone who logs doses and has not turned notifications on for that phone yet; it opens the same card.

What reaches this phone: under the card, one switch for each kind (Posts and comments, Love Bucket notes, The daily note and daily updates, Care-team feed, Appointment reminders, Visits booked, Medication reminders, Daily reminders, Drink-water reminders, On my way and running late, and Partners for whoever runs the account and caregivers), all on to start, and Quiet at night (on to start: nothing but care alerts, help alerts, medication reminders, including Not logged yet, and On my way from 9 PM to 8 AM — a night dose is the reason for the reminder, and a professional on the way at night is news now). Care alerts and urgent, and Get Help Now alerts, stay on for as long as notifications are on for that phone. Pause for a week under Phone notifications pauses everything but care alerts and help alerts. Several things of the same kind within five minutes become one notification (On my way and Running late each come on their own), and a newer one replaces the older one on the lock screen.

Where the switch is: open the menu and tap Settings (it may say Profile & Settings). If you set up the account, it is on the Family & Friends tab; family members and friends find it under Notifications & Alerts. Under Daily moments, look for the Notifications on this phone card. The Family & Friends feed may also show a Turn on notifications card once; it does the same thing. On a care-team or Home Team login, open Today, then Alerts on your dashboard: the card is under On this phone. In an organization, open Settings: Your phone notifications. An agency office login has no Alerts tab, so it cannot turn them on yet.

iPhone and iPad: Apple only shows notifications for a website that has been added to the Home Screen and opened from that icon, on iOS 16.4 or newer. In Safari itself the card shows the two steps instead of a button, because a button there could never work. Once ExpressAgain is on the Home Screen, sign in inside it (it keeps its own sign-in, separate from Safari).

Android: Chrome can turn notifications on right from the website. It also works on a computer, in Chrome, Edge or Firefox.

ExpressAgain itself can switch off a whole kind of message for everyone (for example the daily moments) if it ever needs to; everything is on unless it does. Get Help Now alerts and care alerts are never switched off.

Turning them off: in the same card, tap Turn off on this phone, or switch off any kind under What reaches this phone. Under Phone notifications you can also choose how many daily moments: Every moment, A few a day, Once a day, Pause for a week, or Off. Each phone or computer is turned on and off on its own. If you blocked notifications by mistake, allow them for ExpressAgain in the phone's settings, then come back and tap Turn on again.