The most common reason Snapchat stops sending notifications
Snapchat notifications stop working most often because you've turned them off in your phone's settings without realizing it, or because Snapchat's permission to send notifications got revoked when you updated your phone. The second most common reason is that Snapchat itself has notifications disabled in the app settings. Both are quick to fix, but you need to check both places — fixing one won't help if the other is still off.
A third possibility is that your phone is in Do Not Disturb mode, which silences all notifications from all apps. If you've been troubleshooting for a while, this is easy to miss because the setting might be scheduled to turn on at a certain time each day.
Key Takeaways
- Check your phone's system settings first — go to Notifications and find Snapchat, then make sure notifications are turned on there.
- Open Snapchat itself and go to Settings, then Notifications, and turn on the types of messages you want to receive.
- If your phone is in Do Not Disturb mode, Snapchat notifications will be silenced even if everything else is set correctly.
- On iPhone, check that Snapchat has permission to send notifications in Settings > Snapchat > Notifications; on Android, go to Settings > Apps > Snapchat > Notifications.
How to turn notifications back on in your phone's settings
On iPhone: Open Settings, tap Notifications, scroll down and tap Snapchat. Make sure Allow Notifications is toggled on (it will be green). If it's off, tap it to turn it on. While you're there, check that the notification style is set to Banners or Alerts — if it's set to None, you won't see anything.
On Android: Open Settings, tap Apps or Application Manager, find and tap Snapchat, then tap Notifications. Make sure the toggle next to Notifications is on. If you see a toggle for each notification type (like Messages or Stories), turn on the ones you want to see.
After you've made these changes, close Settings completely and open Snapchat fresh. The notifications should start working within a few seconds of receiving a new message.
Turn notifications on inside the Snapchat app itself
Even if your phone allows Snapchat to send notifications, the app has its own notification settings that can override that. Open Snapchat and tap your profile icon in the top left corner. Tap the gear icon to open Settings, then tap Notifications.
You'll see toggles for different types of notifications — Messages, Stories, Snap Map, and others depending on your phone. Turn on the ones you want. If you only want notifications from friends and not from Stories or other features, you can turn off just those. The key is that at least one toggle needs to be on, or you won't get any notifications at all.
Check if Do Not Disturb is on
If notifications are on in both your phone settings and in Snapchat, but you're still not getting them, check whether Do Not Disturb mode is active. On iPhone, swipe down from the top right corner to open Control Center and look for a moon icon — if it's highlighted, Do Not Disturb is on. Tap it to turn it off. On Android, swipe down twice from the top to open Quick Settings and look for Do Not Disturb — if it's on, tap it to turn it off.
Do Not Disturb silences all notifications from all apps, so even if Snapchat is set to notify you, you won't see anything while it's active. Some phones schedule Do Not Disturb to turn on automatically at certain times — if you notice notifications disappear at the same time each day, check your Do Not Disturb schedule in Settings.
Make sure Snapchat has permission to send notifications after an update
When you update your phone's operating system or update Snapchat itself, permission settings sometimes reset. This is especially common on Android. Go back to your phone's Settings, find Snapchat in the Apps list, and tap Permissions. Look for Notifications and make sure it's allowed. If it's not, tap it and select Allow.
On iPhone, the same thing can happen. Go to Settings > Snapchat > Notifications and confirm that Allow Notifications is still on. If you recently updated either your phone or the Snapchat app and notifications stopped working around the same time, this is almost certainly the cause.
Restart Snapchat and your phone
Before you assume something is broken, close Snapchat completely and reopen it. On iPhone, swipe up from the bottom of the screen (or swipe down from the top right on newer models) to see open apps, find Snapchat, and swipe it up to close it. On Android, open your Recent Apps and swipe Snapchat away. Then tap the Snapchat icon to open it fresh.
If that doesn't work, restart your phone. Hold the power button until you see the power-off screen, then slide to power off. Wait 10 seconds, then turn it back on. Restarting clears out temporary glitches that can block notifications and usually takes less than a minute.
Check your notification settings for specific contacts
Snapchat lets you mute notifications from individual people. If you're not getting notifications from one specific friend but you are getting them from others, that person might be muted. Open a chat with that person, tap their name at the top, and look for a Mute option. If it's on, tap it to turn it off.
You can also check whether you've muted their Stories. Go to your Stories feed, find their name, and swipe left on it. If you see an Unmute option, tap it. These settings are separate from your main notification settings, so you can have notifications on overall but still be muted for one specific person.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why am I getting notifications but they're not showing up on my lock screen?
Go to your phone's notification settings for Snapchat and check the notification style. On iPhone, make sure it's set to Banners or Alerts, not Sounds Only. On Android, check that the notification priority is set to High or Urgent. Lock screen notifications are a separate setting from regular notifications.
I turned notifications back on but I'm still not getting them. What else could be wrong?
Make sure Snapchat has permission to send notifications in your phone's system settings, not just in the Snapchat app itself. Restart your phone completely. If notifications still don't work, uninstall Snapchat and reinstall it from the App Store or Google Play — this resets all permissions and settings to default.
Do I need to keep Snapchat open in the background to get notifications?
No. Notifications should come through whether Snapchat is open, closed, or running in the background. If you only get notifications when the app is open, something is blocking background notifications — check your phone's battery settings to see if Snapchat is restricted from running in the background.
Will turning notifications back on drain my battery?
Notifications use very little battery. The drain from notifications themselves is negligible. If you're worried about battery life, you can turn off notifications for features you don't care about (like Stories or Snap Map) while keeping Messages on.
What if I want notifications from some friends but not others?
Open a chat with someone you want to mute, tap their name at the top, and turn on Mute Notifications. You can mute individual people without turning off notifications for everyone. This is faster than turning off all notifications and then turning them back on for specific people.