CalBurndown sends reminders through three channels:
- Email — works for anyone signed in with an email address
- In-app banners — shown at the top of the dashboard when you next open the app
- Push notifications — Web Push to installed PWA users (works on Android Chrome and iOS 16.4+ when added to Home Screen)
You can mix channels per reminder type. Each category has independent toggles.
What reminders are available
| Reminder | When it fires |
|---|---|
| Weigh-in | Every N days (default 7), only if you've logged at least one weight |
| Meal log | At specific hours you configure (e.g. 9, 13, 19), only if you haven't already logged in that hour |
| Exercise log | Once per day at a configured hour, only if no activity was logged |
| Daily summary | Once per day at a configured hour |
| Weekly recap | Sunday 9 a.m. local |
All reminders are throttled by an audit log so they never fire twice in the same local day, even if our cron retries.
Setting them up
Open Settings → Reminders. For each category, toggle the channels you want:
- Email — uses the address on your account
- In-app — adds a banner you'll see when you open the dashboard
- Push — requires the device to be subscribed (see below)
Setting up push notifications
Push works in any modern browser, but iOS requires you to install the app first. Once installed:
- Open CalBurndown from the Home Screen icon (iPhone) or app drawer (Android).
- Tap Settings → Reminders.
- Tap Enable push on this device.
- Allow the permission prompt.
- Tap Send test — you should get a notification within a few seconds.
If you see "iOS push requires installing to Home Screen first," follow install on iPhone and come back.
If you see "Push permission is blocked," go to iOS Settings → CalBurndown → Notifications (or Android Settings → Apps → CalBurndown → Notifications) and re-enable, then reload.
Per-device push state
Each device that subscribes to push gets its own row in our database. So:
- You can be subscribed on your phone but not your laptop
- Unsubscribing on one device doesn't affect others
- Categories (weigh-in/meal/exercise/etc.) are per-user, not per-device
That last point matters: if you turn on "Meal push" in Settings, you'll get meal pushes on every subscribed device. If you only want pushes on your phone, disable push subscriptions on your laptop rather than toggling category-level switches.
Hour selection
Meal-reminder hours use 24-hour format. Common patterns:
- Three meals:
9, 13, 19 - Two meals + snack:
10, 14, 19 - OMAD:
18(single dinner reminder) - Shift worker on nights:
21, 1, 5
The reminder only fires if you haven't logged a meal in that hour already, so it won't bug you on days when you log on time.
Quiet hours
There's no global quiet-hour setting yet. Don't set a meal reminder for 3 a.m. and you'll be fine. (A "do not disturb" window is on the roadmap.)
Where to go next
- Install on iPhone — required for iOS push
- Install on Android
- Privacy and data — what notification activity we log server-side