Smart Notifications feature on Polar A370 (Polar Flow app Android)
The smart notifications feature allows you to get alerts about incoming calls, messages and notifications from apps onto your Polar device. You’ll get the same notifications on your Polar device that you get on your phone screen. Please note that when heart rate training with your A370, you can’t receive any notifications.
- Make sure you have Android version 5.0 or newer on your phone.
- To use the Smart Notifications feature you need to have the Polar Flow mobile app for Android, and your A370 needs to be paired with the app.
- For the Smart Notifications feature to work, Polar Flow app must be running on your phone.
- Please note that when the Smart Notifications feature is on, the battery of your Polar device and phone will run out faster because Bluetooth is continuously on.
Setting the Smart Notifications on/off
On the Polar Flow mobile app, the Smart Notifications feature is set off by default.
Set the Smart Notifications feature on/off in the Polar Flow mobile app as follows.
- Open the Polar Flow mobile app.
- Sync your A370 with the mobile app by pressing and holding the side button of your A370.
- Go to Devices and if you have more than one, choose your A370 by swiping the screen to the left.
- Under Phone notifications choose On (no preview) or Off.
When you turn Smart notifications on, you will be guided to enable the notifications on your phone (i.e. give Polar Flow app an access to your phone notifications), if you haven’t enabled them. Enable notifications? is shown. Tap Enable. Then choose Polar Flow and tap OK. - Sync your A370 with the mobile app by pressing and holding the side button of your A370.
- Smart notifications on or Smart notifications off is shown on your A370 display.
Whenever you change the notification settings on the Polar Flow mobile app, remember to sync your A370 with the mobile app.
Do not disturb setting disables the display from turning on from your wrist movement, and lets you rest better in dark conditions, like in the bedroom for example.
Do not disturb setting in Polar Flow app
If you want to disable notification alerts for certain hours of the day, set Do not disturb on in the Polar Flow mobile app. When it's on, you won't receive any notification alerts during the time period you've set. Do not disturb is set on by default, and the time period is 10 pm – 7 am.
Do not disturb setting on your A370
You can disable the notification alerts on your A370 as follows:
- Tap Settings on the main menu.
- Tap the Do not disturb icon:.
- Do not disturb is on is shown on the display and the display turns to time view. The crescent moon icon is shown in the time view while the feature is on.
To enable the notifications alerts, repeat the steps.
Block apps
In Polar Flow app you can block notifications from certain apps. As soon as you’ve received the first notification from an app to your A370, the app will be listed in Devices > Block apps and you can block it if you wish.
To be able to receive notifications from your phone on your A370, you first need to enable notifications on the mobile apps from which you want to receive them. You can do this either via the mobile app’s settings or via your Android phone’s App notifications settings. See the user manual of your phone for further information on App notifications settings.
Then Polar Flow app has to have permission to read the notifications from your phone. You have to give Polar Flow app access to your phone notifications (i.e. enable notifications in the Polar Flow app). Polar Flow app guides you to give access when needed.
When getting an alert, your Polar device will discreetly notify you by vibrating. When receiving a call, you can choose to answer, silence or decline it. Silencing just silences your Polar device, it won’t silence your phone. If a notification arrives during a call alert, it will not be shown.
You will not receive any notifications during training sessions.
Dismiss Notifications
Notifications can be dismissed manually or by timeout. Manually dismissing the notification also dismisses it from your phone screen, but timeout just removes it from your Polar device, and it will still be visible on your phone.
To dismiss notifications from the display:
- Manually: Press the side button
- Timeout: The notification will disappear after 30 seconds if you do not dismiss it manually
After enabling Phone notifications and syncing your Polar A370, all notifications shown on your Android mobile device’s lock screen will appear on your A370.
If you are having trouble getting Smart notifications to work, try the steps below. Check that:
- Smart notifications are enabled: Open the Polar Flow app, go to the Devices menu and make sure Phone notifications are ON.
- Bluetooth is enabled on your mobile device.
- Flight mode is not enabled on your A370.
- Your mobile device is within Bluetooth range from your A370.
- Syncing between the Polar Flow app and your A370 works as expected.
If you’re having trouble syncing with A370 see Having problems syncing your A370 with the Flow app?
If your A370 does not show any notifications from your mobile device
Try the following steps one at a time to fix the problem with Smart notifications. See if new notifications appear on your A370 after every step:
- Set Flight mode ON and OFF from the A370: Go to Settings in the main menu. Tap the airplane icon to set FLIGHT MODE ON and then tap the icon again to set FLIGHT MODE OFF.
- Restart your A370.You can restart your A370 from the Settings menu. Touch the power icon to turn the A370 off. Press the side button to restart it.
- Restart your phone.
- Open the Polar Flow app and make sure Phone notifications are enabled in the Devices menu.
- Sync your A370 with the app to establish a connection with the phone.
If notifications still do not appear, check that the Notification access for the Polar Flow app is still valid. The path might differ between Android devices but usually this can be checked with these steps.
- On the mobile device, go to Settings > Apps & notifications > Advanced (settings) > Special app access > Notification access:
- If Polar Flow is disabled, enable it and see if notifications work.
- If Polar Flow is enabled already, disable it for a moment and enable it again. See if notifications work after that.
Unpair the devices and connect them again, if notifications still do not appear on your A370:
- Uninstall Polar Flow app from your phone.
- Unpair your A370 with the phone, and pair it again:
- On your phone, remove your A370 from the list of paired Bluetooth devices as follows: Go to Settings > Bluetooth, tap the “i” icon to the right of your A370 and choose Forget this Device.
- On your A370 go to Settings in the main menu. Tap the Bluetooth icon to reset current Bluetooth connections.
- Pair your A370 again with the Flow app. For pairing instructions, see How do I pair my A370 with the Flow app? NOTE: Do NOT use your phone’s Bluetooth menu to pair the A370.
- Go to Devices menu in the Polar Flow app and turn Phone notifications on. Sync the changes to your A370 and see if notifications now appear on it.
The last option is to perform a factory reset on your A370. For factory reset instructions, see How do I reset my Polar A370?
On your phone, check the list of paired Bluetooth devices and remove your A370 from the list if it's there. Then, set up your A370 again. For instructions on setting up Polar A370 see How should I start using my A370?
If notifications stop appearing on your A370
If notifications appear only when the phone is unlocked and/or stop appearing on your A370 after a while, please disable all power saving and optimizing features on your phone. If the Polar Flow app is terminated in the background, this might cause the notifications to stop appearing on your A370.
For instructions on disabling power saving features see How to disable power saving and optimizing features for the Polar Flow and Polar Beat Android apps
Persistent "Phone notifications are ON" notification in the status bar of an Android device
Once you’ve enabled Phone notifications in the Polar Flow app and synced your Polar device, you might see a persistent notification on your phone’s status bar indicating that Phone notifications are on. This notification cannot be swiped away or closed like a normal notification as its purpose is to keep the Polar Flow app alive in the background even if power saving features are enabled on the phone.
Some phones might even show an unread notification badge on top of the Polar Flow app icon when Phone notifications are on.
If you’re using a phone with Android 8 or newer, you can disable the Phone notifications are on notification and the app icon badge with these steps:
- On the phone, go to Settings > Apps & notifications > All apps > Polar Flow > App notifications
- Disable App icon badge or Allow notification dot
- Disable Phone notifications. This will disable the persistent notifications from the status bar.
If you’re using Android version 7 or older, you should be able to disable the Polar Flow app notifications altogether at Settings > Apps / Application manager > Polar Flow > Notifications.
These steps shouldn’t stop Smart notifications appearing on your A370 but disabling all power saving and optimizing features for the Polar Flow app might still be necessary.