Google may let you sync notifications across Android devices

One of the minor annoyances of having multiple Android devices is having to deal with duplicate notifications. Many Android apps can easily deliver notifications to each device you have them installed on, but the problem is that the statuses of those notifications don’t sync across devices. For example, if you swipe to dismiss a notification on your Android phone, the same notification will still appear on your Android tablet. Fortunately, Google may be working on a fix for this problem, as evidenced by code in the latest Android 15 beta.

While reviewing the latest Android 15 QPR1 Beta 2 update released last week, I discovered a cryptic reference to “sync across devices” in the Settings app. This new “sync across devices” option is expected to appear in Settings > Notifications between “sensitive notifications” and the new “notification wait time” option.

Although Google has not provided a detailed description of this feature, the fact that it will appear in Settings > Notifications suggests that what will be “synced” across devices will be your notifications. This is further supported by the location of the class that controls the “sync across devices” option. Specifically, SyncAcrossDevicesPreferenceController The class is located under com.android.settings.notification.syncacrossdevices path in the Settings app.

What is also interesting about the location of this class is that it suggests that this feature may not be exclusive to Pixels. Usually classes within com.android.settings namespace suggests that they will be part of the AOSP Settings application, while the classes within com.google.android.settings namespace can only be found in the Pixel-exclusive fork of the AOSP Settings app. We might be looking at something similar to the “Instant Hotspot” menu item that Google added to the “Wi-Fi hotspot” settings in the AOSP Settings app. Tapping “Instant Hotspot” opens the settings page for Android’s new Instant Hotspot feature, which is part of Google Play Services. Similarly, this new “cross-device sync” option could open a new page in the Google Play Services app dedicated to syncing notifications across Android devices.

While it would make sense for Google to make notification syncing available to all Android devices as part of its new “cross-device services” feature suite, we don’t know if it will actually do so, especially since there’s no evidence of the feature in the actual Google Play Services app. Google could very well make the feature exclusive to Pixel devices, though we hope that doesn’t happen.

Regardless, we’re glad to see Google working on a feature that solves a common problem for users who own multiple Android devices. This is the kind of feature that would be ideal for a new suite of cross-device services, so let’s hope Google doesn’t make it exclusive to the Pixel. Making Android devices work better together is a long-term goal for Google, as the company tries to create an ecosystem where it doesn’t matter what brand of Android phone or tablet you own, as long as it has access to the company’s apps and services.