Family life has a lot of moving parts. The notification bell in the top bar gathers the things that need you into one calm place, with warm orange ring-lines beside it when there's something unread. Tap it to open your notifications.
What the bell shows
- Tasks coming due — a to-do that's yours, with a due date: in the morning for all-day tasks, or about 30 minutes before for tasks with a time. If it slips past due, it's gently flagged as overdue.
- Tasks assigned to you — when a family member gives you something to do (and for your own no-deadline reminders, so they’re never lost).
- Events coming up — activities you're part of — whether you're going, dropping off, or picking up — around their reminder time.
- What's new — each beanies.family update now lives in the bell instead of popping up over your screen.
- Today's tip — one small tip a day from the beanies, with a 💡 icon. Tap to read the full tip and try the feature it points to.
Reading, clearing, and re-opening
Tap the bell to see your list, grouped by day.
Tap any notification to open its details — that marks it read.
From the details, tap Open to jump straight to the task or event, or Mark unread if you want to come back to it.
Tap Mark all read to clear everything at once — the dot disappears everywhere.
Reminders before things start
On the beanies app (iOS and Android), you can get a notification before something starts — a drop-off, a flight, a timed to-do — so you leave and prepare on time, even when the app is closed. Reminders arrive ahead of the event, not the moment it begins.
Open Settings → Reminders and turn on Reminders on this device.
The first time, your phone asks permission to send notifications — tap Allow.
Under How much notice?, choose how far ahead each kind arrives.
- Activities use the reminder time set on each activity, so you can give an important one more notice.
- Travel reminds you before each departure — flights and cruises two hours ahead by default, trains and ferries one hour, all adjustable.
- Timed to-dos (ones with a time) remind you a set amount before they’re due.
Reminders are per-device: turning them off on your phone doesn’t affect your tablet or your partner’s phone. Each device sends its own, from the same family plan.
If notifications are switched off for beanies in your phone’s settings, reminders can’t be sent — but nothing is lost: the bell and your daily briefing still show everything the moment you open the app. Turn them back on any time in your device’s notification settings.
A daily tip from the beanies
Once a day, the beanies drop a small tip in the bell: a feature you might've missed, a habit that helps, a corner of the app worth exploring. Each tip has a 💡 icon and a try it → link to the spot it talks about.
Tips stay in the bell after you've read them, so you can always scroll back to one you liked. If you'd rather not see new ones, turn them off in Settings → Appearance → Daily Tips. The tips already in your bell stay there; only future ones stop appearing.
Tips are per-device: you may see a different tip on your phone than on your laptop. That keeps them light, just a small daily nudge wherever you happen to open the app.
Reading a notification on one device clears the dot on your others — your read-state travels with your family file. (Your family already shares the underlying tasks and events; only which ones you've read is added.)
The bell and your daily briefing work everywhere — phone, tablet and the web app. The timed reminders described above are delivered by the iOS and Android apps; on the web the same items still appear in your briefing when you open beanies.