Help Center

Alerts

Each saved view can set an alert lead time: how long before a matching event Sift sends a local alert. Alert lead time is a Sift Plus feature.

Setting alert lead time

Open a view → Alerts (the label matches the in-app picker). Choose a lead time:

  • Off
  • 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 30 minutes before
  • 1 hour, 2 hours before
  • 1 day, 2 days, 1 week before

When enabled, Sift schedules one alert per matching event through Apple’s UNUserNotificationCenter. iOS delivers it, nothing transits a server.

The alert shows the event title and the view name.

All-day events fire at 9 AM

For all-day events, Sift schedules the alert at 9:00 AM on the day of the event (in your local time zone), minus the lead time you picked. For example, 1 day before for an all-day event on Friday fires Thursday at 9 AM.

Timed events use the event’s actual start time minus the lead time.

How tapping an alert works

Tap the alert to open Sift directly to that event in its view. If the event was deleted or no longer matches, Sift shows the view’s current list instead.

Permissions

The first time you enable alert lead time, iOS asks for notification permission. If you denied it:

  1. Open Settings → Sift → Notifications.
  2. Allow Notifications.

Sift cannot deliver alerts without this permission.

Tips

  • Alerts respect the view’s calendars, keywords, and rules, only matching events get scheduled.
  • Changing a view’s rules reschedules future alerts automatically.
  • Hiding an event (Hidden events) removes it from all views, so it won’t trigger alerts either.