Notifications and the app icon count

The staff app can tell you the moment a customer asks for a booking, and keep a number on its icon showing how many requests are waiting for a yes or a no. It is the same list as the “bookings waiting for an answer” bar on the home screen, so the two always agree.

Turning it on

Open More → Notifications and tap Turn on notifications. Your phone asks once; say Allow. Each phone is turned on separately, and it follows whoever is signed in — signing out takes that phone off the list, so a shared phone is not told about somebody else’s requests.

iPhone and iPad: add the app to your home screen first (Share → Add to Home Screen) and open it from there. Apple only allows notifications and icon numbers for apps on the home screen, not for a website in Safari.

What you will see

One notification per request, with the customer, the pet and the time. Tap it and the app opens on that request, ready to confirm or decline. The number on the icon is the count still waiting.

• iPhone, iPad, Mac and Windows/desktop Chrome: a number on the icon.
• Android: the phone makes the badge from the notifications themselves — Samsung and most others show a number, Google Pixel shows a dot.

Why the number sometimes looks high

A request answered on another phone, or in the office, cannot lower your icon until you next open the app — phones do not allow a silent update. Open the app and it corrects itself within a second or two. Swiping a notification away on Android lowers the dot or number there, but the request is still waiting in the app.

If it is not working

The Notifications screen lists everything that has to be true: installed as an app, permission allowed, this phone signed up. The one that says No is the problem, and the screen says what to do about it. Send me a test sends a real notification to every phone you have turned on.

Example

A customer sends a booking request for Saturday at nine in the evening. The owner’s phone buzzes with the pet’s name and the time, the icon shows 1, and she confirms it from the notification before the customer has closed the booking page.

FAQ

I said Block by mistake. How do I undo it?
Only the phone can undo it: open its Settings, find the app (or this website in your browser’s site settings), and allow notifications. Then open More → Notifications and turn them on.

Does everyone in the team get them?
Everyone who uses the staff app and has turned notifications on for their phone. Nobody gets them until they choose to.

Do I need to pay for a push service?
No. Your own website sends them, through the push service your phone already uses (Apple, Google or Mozilla). Nothing to sign up for.