Managing notifications
Notification Settings
To access your notification settings, tap the three horizontal lines on the top left of the main app screen to open the sidebar and then tap “Notification Settings”. This will open your notification settings where you can adjust which notifications you get and how often you get them.
I'm not receiving ANY notifications
Go to your notification settings and make sure you have allowed Push notifications
How often can I receive notifications for new listings?
By default, notifications are set to be sent ‘daily’ (8.30pm for food listings, 7pm for anything else), but you can change this to receive updates ’hourly’, for free. This means you’ll get notified within an hour of when a new listing is added near you.
For example:
- If a listing is added at 12:05, and you’ve set notifications to “hourly,” you’ll receive it in the 13:00 batch.
- If a listing is added at 12:45, it will also be included in the 13:00 batch.
This helps prevent people from getting overwhelmed by too many real-time notifications, while still keeping them up to date.
Is there a way to get faster notifications?
Yes! If you’d like to get alerted more quickly, you can unlock our ‘Frequent’ notification setting, which notifies you within 15 minutes of when a new listing is added near you.
To access this faster notification option, you’ll need to become an Olio Supporter. Supporters help keep Olio running and receive additional benefits, including faster notifications, as a thank-you for their contribution.
The easiest way to become a Supporter is to open the menu in the top right corner of the Olio app and then select ‘Support Olio’ at the top!
Faster notifications reduce the chances of missing out, especially for popular items that go quickly!
Why are frequent notifications available only for Supporters?
To keep Olio free and accessible for everyone, while continuing to grow and fulfil our mission, we moved frequent notifications into the Supporter tier in June 2025.
We understand that faster alerts can make a big difference when it comes to claiming items quickly, and this wasn’t a decision we made lightly. By limiting them to Supporters, we can lower costs and avoid expensive infrastructure upgrades, helping Olio stay sustainable without introducing paywalls for core features.
Moreover, sending millions of these notifications every day puts a significant strain on our systems.
✅ Without becoming a Supporter, you’ll still be able to:
See all listings instantly (there's no delay in when they appear on the app)
Get, for free, notifications within an hour of when a new listing is added on the app
- Collect food and non-food items just like before
Notification sounds
- If you don't hear a sound when an Olio notification pops up, this is due to your phone settings. For Android, check here. For iPhone, check here.
- Finally, if you're using Android, here is a detailed list of possible reasons for notifications issues: https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/android-notification-fixes/
- If none of the above applies to you, it’s possible that we’re having issues sending notifications to your phone. Please use the "need help" button to get in touch.