Reduce alerts between your Pixel devices with notification sync

I remember being excited when I got a smartphone that could check email. I imagined a future life of high productivity, reviewing all my incoming messages while brushing my teeth or riding the bus. When I actually got to my desk, I thought I could do good work that wasn’t just sorting through emails.

Nowadays, of course, my feelings are a little different. We’re all constantly bombarded with notifications every day – from multiple email apps and all the rest – and today I appreciate a free time from the frequent pings and buzzes.

Google has introduced a small but useful adjustment Android 15 for Pixels helps reduce notification overload: it means that when you dismiss a notification on one Pixel phone or tablet, you won’t see it again on another Pixel phone or tablet.

Set the function

You can find the new feature in the notification settings.
Credit: Lifehacker

Assuming all your Pixel devices have been updated to the latest Android 15 version, you may see a notification on one or more of them asking if you want to enable the feature. If you dismissed the notification or it doesn’t appear at all, you can go to Settings and choose Notifications > Ignore notifications on Pixel devices to find it.

This is a quick adjustment and doesn’t require much installation. Switch the Close on this deviceconfirm that you give the feature permission to manage your notifications, and you’re done. If you use multiple Google accounts on the same phone or tablet, you can choose the account you want to sync notifications for.

You will then need to repeat this process for all the devices you want to keep synced. If you always want to receive notifications on a phone or tablet, no matter what you do on your other devices, leave this option turned off. If you prefer to go back to the standard approach, simply turn the toggle switch off again.

One important caveat to keep in mind: all your devices must be connected to Wi-Fi in order to universally dismiss the notifications. If you’re on the road with your phone on a mobile network, syncing won’t start until you connect to Wi-Fi at home or elsewhere.

Manage notification sync

You can retrieve your notification history anytime on any device.
Credit: Lifehacker

I tried this with two Pixel phones (because I’m a technology journalist with a lot of phones on hand), but it’ll be most useful if you have a Pixel phone and a Pixel tablet. You won’t dismiss notifications on one gadget and then have to go through them all over again on another device.

Because all your phones and tablets are signed up for the sync program, your notifications work as if you were only using one device: for example, an email alert might appear on both the phone and the tablet, but if you swipe it away or press it to dismiss the message read, the notification will disappear on your other devices.

If you think you’re worried, you probably missed something along the way: Pixel devices have a handy notification history feature that you can use as a safety net. Open Notifications via Settings and then choose Notification history. From here you can enable the feature (if not already) and view recently dismissed notifications.

It’s certainly reduced the number of distracting alerts I’ve heard in the background while trying to get my work done, and it’s something I’ll always keep turned on with multiple Pixels nearby. Hopefully it will be something that comes more widely to Android in the future, so all phones and tablets are included.