Notifications and alerts on your phone
Optional notifications for shelter beds, housing openings, emergencies, and more. Everything is off until you turn it on.
What this does
LaneHelp can send notifications to your phone or browser for the things you choose — and only those. Every category starts switched off.
When to use it
Turn them on when waiting for something specific: a shelter bed pattern, a housing waitlist opening, or emergency alerts for your area.
What you need
A device that allows notifications. Housing update notifications tied to saved searches also need an account — see Accounts.
In this guide
The real notification categories, as a practice panel. Read what each one sends before you decide — nothing here changes your actual settings.
What each category sends
- Shelter bed updates — meaningful availability changes: new beds, big swings, emergency weather shelters opening. Not a ping for every count change.
- Housing categories — affordable housing openings, shared housing, recovery housing, rent assistance, and temporary housing each have their own switch, so you only hear about the kind you need.
- Emergency & community alerts — wildfire, severe weather, closures, and major service disruptions in Lane County.
- Random Resource Daily — one useful resource a day, for learning what exists.
- LaneHelp changelog — a note when LaneHelp itself gains something new.
- Paddle Addle — an occasional short, strange thought from Paddle. Entirely optional, occasionally almost profound.
Turning notifications on
Open notification settings
In account settings, or from the notification prompt on the alerts and housing pages.
Switch on the categories you want
The first switch triggers your device’s permission prompt — allow it, or nothing can arrive.
Change your mind any time
Every category switches off independently, and turning them all off unregisters the device.
Common questions
Why am I not getting alerts?
Three usual causes: the device blocked notifications (check phone settings for your browser or the LaneHelp app), the category is off in LaneHelp settings, or nothing notification-worthy has happened. See Troubleshooting for the checklist.
Do notifications work without an account?
Device-level topics like emergency alerts work signed out. Notifications tied to your saved items — housing update matches — need an account so LaneHelp knows what you saved.
Will LaneHelp spam me?
No. Everything is opt-in per category, frequencies are deliberately low, and one tap turns any category back off.
If something goes wrong
Enabled a category but the permission prompt never appeared.
Your browser may have notifications blocked globally for the site. Look for the notification setting behind the lock icon in the address bar, allow it, then toggle the category again.
Getting alerts on my old phone after switching.
Notification registrations are per device. On the old device, open settings and turn categories off — or just clear the site data there.
Related guides
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