WhatsApp notifications not working on Android: what to check

WhatsApp notifications stop working on Android for one of three reasons: the phone itself is holding them back, one chat is muted or archived, or the notification’s importance is too low for it to pop up. Each is fixed in a different place, so it pays to work out which one you have.

WhatsApp’s help suggests watching what happens when a message arrives while the app is closed. Nothing appears at all: look at the phone’s settings. An alert appears but is silent: look at sound. Individual chats alert you but a group does not: look at the group. Everything below follows those help pages. Labels on your phone may be worded slightly differently from the help text, so look for them by meaning.

Why WhatsApp notifications are not working: the phone first

If nothing arrives at all, or you only see new messages after opening WhatsApp, the cause is in the phone’s settings. According to the help page, push notifications depend on three things: your notification permissions, background data and battery settings. It also says in as many words: “Your phone’s settings override WhatsApp settings.” If notifications are off in Android, no tick box inside the app will bring them back.

Notification permission. Since Android 13 an app needs separate permission to post notifications. The path from the help page: Settings → Apps → WhatsApp → Notifications, then turn on “Allow notifications”.

Background data. On the same app screen: Mobile data usage → Background data. The help page suggests turning it off and on again.

Do Not Disturb. The help page has a separate item asking you to make sure it is off: Settings → Modes → Do Not Disturb → Turn off.

Battery. A phone may restrict apps from running in the background to save battery, and then notifications do not get through. WhatsApp’s help gives paths for several brands:

• Samsung: Battery and device care → Battery → Background usage limits → Never sleeping apps → add WhatsApp.
• Xiaomi and Redmi: Battery & performance → App battery saver → WhatsApp → No restrictions.
• Huawei and Honor: Battery → App launch → WhatsApp → Manage manually, with every toggle on.
• OnePlus: Battery → Battery optimization → WhatsApp → Don’t optimize.
• OPPO and realme: Battery → More battery settings → Optimize battery use → WhatsApp → Don’t optimize.
• Everyone else: Settings → Battery → Battery optimization → WhatsApp → Don’t optimize.

Menus move around between firmware versions, so current steps for your brand, including autostart and locking the app in recents, are in the notification settings checker.

The notification arrives, but silently

If you can see the alert but hear nothing, delivery is working and the problem is sound. The help page names three causes: the notification tone in WhatsApp is set to Silent, the phone’s own sound settings, or Do Not Disturb.

Inside WhatsApp it is ⋮ → Settings → Notifications → Notification tone. If it is set to Silent, there is no sound even with system sound on. Chats and groups have separate settings, so check both.

The second place is Android. If a chat has custom notifications turned on in WhatsApp, the help page warns that a new notification category appears in your device settings. That category has its own sound and importance, so if one chat is quiet, that is the category to look at rather than WhatsApp’s general settings.

Pop-up notifications not appearing

A notification stops popping up over the screen when its Android category has an importance below Urgent or High. WhatsApp’s help explains it like this: starting with Android 10, pop-up notifications may no longer appear, and that is a change in Android’s notification system, not a WhatsApp setting.

The check is Settings → Notifications → WhatsApp: the category needs Urgent or High importance. Manufacturers call the pop-up itself by different names: Pop on screen, Brief or Detailed pop-up, Floating notifications.

Inside WhatsApp there is “Use high priority notifications” in the chat and group sections. According to the help page, it shows previews of notifications at the top of the screen.

One chat or one group is silent

When every other chat alerts you and one does not, the cause is that chat: it is muted, archived, or the group is set to Highlights.

The chat is muted. You can mute for 8 hours, a week or always. The help page is precise about it: you still receive messages, but the phone does not vibrate or make a sound. You undo it where you set it: open the chat, tap its name, then Notifications, and turn off Mute.

The group is set to Highlights. A group’s notification settings have “Notify for” with All and Highlights. With Highlights you only hear about mentions, replies to you and messages from your contacts. The same screen has “Mute @all mentions”.

The chat is archived. The quietest cause of all. According to the help page, archived chats send no notifications unless you are mentioned or replied to, and you cannot change that. With “Keep chats archived” on, a chat stays in the archive even when a new message arrives. If one person has suddenly gone silent, look in the archive.

A second phone, a tablet and the computer

Linked devices receive notifications independently, without the primary phone being online: that is how the help page puts it. The same rules apply to them: notification permission, battery without optimisation, background data. One more thing: if the primary phone goes unused for more than 14 days, linked devices may be logged out.

You will often read that the phone stays quiet while WhatsApp Web is open on the computer. The current WhatsApp help makes no such claim. What it does say about the web version is different: you will not get WhatsApp Web notifications while WhatsApp on the computer stays closed.

If nothing helped

Then reset WhatsApp’s notification settings: ⋮ → Settings → Notifications → ⋮ → Reset notification settings. That puts them back to their defaults and clears forgotten changes you would never find by hand. The last items on the help page are the plain ones: update WhatsApp from the Google Play Store and restart the phone.

If only a custom notification sound is missing, check the file format: the help page lists MP3, OGG, WAV and M4A.

And if it is not just WhatsApp but every messenger going quiet, WhatsApp is not the problem. Head to the general breakdown of how Android and the skins put apps to sleep; Telegram has its own article.