Smart Notifications (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 you can’t receive any notifications during training sessions.
- Make sure you have Android version 5.0 or newer on your phone.
- Make sure you have the latest firmware on your Polar device.
- To use the Smart Notifications feature you need to have the Polar Flow mobile app for Android, and your Polar device 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.
If notifications appear only when the phone is unlocked and/or stop appearing on your watch 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 watch. 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
Your Polar device needs to be paired with Flow app to receive alerts and notifications, and you also need to have the correct settings on your Polar device and phone.
Notifications are off by default. They can be set on/off on your Polar device or the Polar Flow app. When making changes to the settings, we recommend you always make them on your Polar device.
M400
Notifications are off by default. Set them on in Menu > Settings > General settings > Smart notifications.
- Notifications: Choose On to receive notifications, and have the contents of the notifications shown the display. Choose On (no preview) if you don’t want to see the contents of the notifications on the display. You’ll just be informed that you’ve received a notification.
- Sounds: Set the notification sound On or Off.
- Notif. do not disturb: If you want to disable notifications and call alerts for a certain period of time, choose Do not disturb on. Then set the time period when Do not disturb is on (default 10 pm - 7 am). When Do not disturb is on, you will not receive any notifications or call alerts during the time period you have set.
Sync your M400 with the mobile app by pressing and holding the BACK button of your M400.
M430
Notifications are off by default. Set them on in Menu > Settings > General settings > Smart notifications.
- Notifications: Choose On to receive notifications, and have the contents of the notifications shown the display. Choose On (no preview) if you don’t want to see the contents of the notifications on the display. You’ll just be informed that you’ve received a notification.
- Vibration feedback: Set the vibration feedback On or Off.
- Notif. do not disturb: If you want to disable notifications and call alerts for a certain period of time, choose Do not disturb on. Then set the time period when Do not disturb is on (default 10 pm - 7 am). When Do not disturb is on, you will not receive any notifications or call alerts during the time period you have set.
Sync your M430 with the mobile app by pressing and holding the BACK button of your M430.
M460
Notifications are off by default. Set them on in Menu > Settings > General settings > Smart notifications.
- Choose On to receive notifications, and have the contents of the notifications shown the display.
- Choose On (no preview) if you don’t want to see the contents of the notifications on the display. You’ll just be informed that you’ve received a notification.
Sync your M460 with the mobile app by pressing and holding the BACK button of your M460.
M200
Notifications are off by default. Set them on in Settings > Smart notificat.
- Notifications: Choose On to receive notifications, and have the contents of the notifications shown the display.
Sync your M200 with the mobile app by pressing and holding the LEFT button of your M200.
Flow App
Set the Smart Notifications feature on/off in the Polar Flow mobile app as follows.
- Open the Polar Flow mobile app.
- Sync your Polar device with the mobile app by pressing and holding the BACK button of your Polar device.
- Open the menu from the top left corner and choose Devices.
- Under Phone notifications choose On, On (no preview) or Off.
When you turn Phone 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 Polar device with the mobile app by pressing and holding the BACK button of your Polar device.
Whenever you change the notification settings on the Polar Flow mobile app, remember to sync your Polar device with the mobile app.
Phone
To be able to receive notifications from your phone on your Polar device, you first need to enable notifications on the mobile applications from which you want to receive them. You can do this either via the mobile application’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 (M430, M200) or with a sound (M400). A calendar event or message alert once, while incoming calls alert until you press the BACK button on your Polar device, answer the phone, or after alerting for 30 seconds.
The caller’s name is shown on the display if you have the caller on your mobile phonebook and the name only includes basic Latin characters and special characters of the following languages: French, Finnish, Swedish, German, Norwegian or Spanish.
Note: In some cases when receiving a call, the answer option is missing from the display. This is because some Android phones do not have a notification action for answering a call. Please be aware that in cases like this you may not be notified about an incoming call at all.
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 BACK button
- Timeout: The notification will disappear after 30 seconds if you do not dismiss it manually
Do Not Disturb (M430, M400)
If you want to disable notifications and call alerts for a certain period of time, set do not disturb on. When it is on, you will not receive any notifications or call alerts during the time period you have set.
Do not disturb is set on by default, and the time period is 10 pm – 7 am. You can change the time period from the General Settings on your Polar device.
When do not disturb is on, you’ll see an icon (a crescent moon) in the upper left corner of the display to indicate that you cannot receive notifications.
Do Not Disturb (M200)
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. Change the Do not disturb setting as follows:
- Open the Polar Flow app.
- Open the menu from the top left corner and choose Devices.
- Under Phone notifications you can set Do not disturb on or off, and set the start and end time for Do not disturb.
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 Polar device, the app will be listed under Block apps. To block an app, open the 
menu from the top left corner and choose Devices > Block apps.
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.
- On your watch, go to Settings > General settings > Smart notifications. Check that Smart notifications are ON.
- Bluetooth is enabled on your mobile device.
- Flight mode is not enabled on your watch (Settings > General settings > Flight mode).
- Check from your Polar device/Flow app that, the Do not disturb function doesn’t block the notifications.
- Your mobile device is within Bluetooth range from your watch.
- You haven't blocked notifications from certain apps in Block apps in Flow app.
- Syncing between the Polar Flow app and your watch works as expected.
If your watch 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 watch after every step:
- Set Flight mode ON and OFF from the watch: Settings > General settings > Flight mode.
- Restart your watch. With M400/M460 this can de be done by pressing and holding the UP, DOWN, BACK and LIGHT buttons simultaneously for five seconds until the Polar animation is shown on the display. With M200/M430 This can de be done from Settings > General settings > About your product and scroll down to Restart.
- Restart your phone.
- Open the Polar Flow app and make sure Phone notifications are enabled in the Devices menu.
- Sync your watch 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 watch:
- Uninstall Polar Flow app from your phone.
- Unpair your watch with the phone, and pair it again:
- On your phone, remove your watch from the list of paired Bluetooth devices as follows: Go to Settings > Bluetooth, choose your watch and Forget this Device.
- On your watch go to Settings > General settings > Pair and sync > Paired devices. Choose your phone. Remove pairing? is displayed. Confirm by pressing OK.
- Pair your watch again with the Flow app. NOTE: Do NOT use your phone’s Bluetooth menu to pair the watch.
How do I pair my Polar device with the Polar Flow app?
How do I pair my M430 with the Polar Flow app?
How do I pair my M200 with the Polar Flow app?
- Go to Devices menu in the Polar Flow app and turn Phone notifications on. Sync the changes to your watch and see if notifications now appear on your watch.
The last option is to perform a factory reset on your watch.
How do I reset my Polar M460/M400/?
How do I reset the M430?
How do I reset the M200?
On your phone, check the list of paired Bluetooth devices and remove your watch from the list if it's there. Then, set up your watch again.