Push notifications on phone
Habitia can send push notifications directly to your phone or laptop when something important happens — a rent payment received, a lease expiring soon, a tenant submitting an urgent maintenance request. You don’t have to be in the app to know.
How it works (high level)
- The first time you sign into Habitia on a device, the browser asks “Habitia wants to send notifications — Allow / Block?”
- If you Allow, Habitia registers your device with Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) and starts sending notifications to it.
- Notifications arrive even when your browser is closed, as long as your device is on and connected.
- If you Block, Habitia stops asking. To turn notifications on later, you’ll need to re-enable them in your browser settings (not from inside Habitia).
Note: Habitia never asks more than once. If you accidentally blocked the prompt, see “If you blocked notifications” below.
What you get pushed
Not every alert becomes a push. The system is intentionally conservative — push notifications are reserved for things that are time-sensitive:
- Critical Smart alerts — rent overdue, payment failed, subscription past due.
- Tenant-submitted maintenance requests flagged as High or Urgent.
- Lease signing complete — when the last signer signs a lease and it moves to Pending review.
- Application received — a new tenant application landed in your queue.
The full Smart alerts feed (medium and low severity stuff) doesn’t push — that would be too noisy. Check the Alerts page or the Dashboard’s Needs attention card for everything else.
Browser support
| Platform | Works? |
|---|---|
| Chrome / Edge / Brave on Mac, Windows, Linux | ✓ |
| Firefox on Mac, Windows, Linux | ✓ |
| Safari on macOS | ✓ |
| Safari on iOS (16.4+) | ✓ (must add Habitia to home screen first) |
| Chrome / other browsers on iOS | ✗ (Apple restricts web push) |
| Chrome on Android | ✓ |
Tip: For iPhones, open Habitia in Safari, tap the share icon, and choose Add to Home Screen. The home-screen launcher version can receive push. The regular Safari tab can’t on iOS until you do that.
Turning notifications on
Most users see the permission prompt automatically on their first sign-in. If you didn’t, or you missed it:
- Open Habitia in your browser.
- Click the lock icon to the left of the URL bar (Chrome / Edge / Firefox) or the AA icon in the address bar (Safari).
- Find Notifications in the dropdown and switch it to Allow.
- Reload the page. Habitia will re-register your device.
If you blocked notifications
In Chrome / Edge / Brave:
- Click the lock icon → Site settings → Notifications → switch to Allow.
- Reload Habitia.
In Firefox: lock icon → Permissions → Send Notifications → Allow (and uncheck “Block”).
In Safari: Safari menu → Settings → Websites → Notifications → find Habitia, switch to Allow.
Logging out
When you log out, Habitia automatically deregisters your device’s notification token. You’ll stop receiving pushes until you sign in again.
Multiple devices
You can have notifications enabled on as many devices as you want — work laptop, home laptop, phone. Each one registers a separate token. When a notification fires, all your devices get it.
What’s next
- What alerts Habitia raises — the source of most pushes.
- The dashboard — the always-on view that doesn’t need notifications enabled.