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# TechGuide
This is how you can activate light alerts on your phone
Should you need a different way to keep yourself alerted to new updates.
ALL SMARTPHONES ALERT you to new updates. Generally, they’ll brighten up your screen to let you know or pop down when you’re using it, but there are other ways to alert you to a new message or email.
On Android, some phones like the Nexus and Moto range include an option to receive pulse notifications. That is a coloured light will flash every now and again alerting you to a new notification.
If your phone supports it, you can turn it on by going into Settings > Sound and Notification and scrolling down to Notification. You should see an option for Pulse Notification Light.
Turn it on and the next time you receive a notification, a light will flash at the bottom of your phone, the colour will depend on the notification received (e.g. green for WhatsApp, blue for Facebook, etc.).
The only option you have here is to turn it on or off. If you want to change the colour of certain notifications like SMS or missed calls, you have to download a third-party app like Light Flow.
The other option is less subtle but just as effective. On certain models, you go into Settings > Accessibility and find an option to turn on LED flash alerts. Alternatively, you can download the likes of Call Flash which allows the same thing.
You can do a similar thing on your iPhone. Go into Settings > General > Accessibility and scroll down to hearing. One of the options here will be LED flash for alerts which you can turn on.
Regardless of the type of phone you’re using, the next time you get a notification, your camera flash will light up twice. It will do this quickly but since it’s the flash that’s being used, everyone is going to notice it. Just keep that in mind.
