Baby monitor alerts silenced on iPhone? Fixed (2026)

Sleep Focus is the usual reason the alerts stop

Sleep Focus is the most common cause. It turns on by itself at bedtime and silences every app that is not on its allow list. Apple’s iPhone User Guide states it plainly: “When you set up a Sleep Focus, it follows the sleep schedule you set in the Health app” (Apple Support, 2026). So a monitor app that alerted you at four in the afternoon goes quiet at ten at night, with no change on your side.

The allow list starts empty. We checked this on iOS 26. Settings → Focus → Sleep opens a “Sleep Focus” screen with a section called “Allow Notifications”. It holds two tiles, People and Apps, and both read “None allowed” until you add something. The screen says, in one line: “Notifications from selected people and apps will be allowed; all others will be silenced.” A silenced alert is not lost. It goes to Notification Centre, where you find it in the morning, which is not when you needed it.

Two other causes look the same from the outside. Do Not Disturb has the same structure as Sleep Focus and is covered below. Scheduled Summary holds notifications back until a set time, so alerts arrive late rather than never. Check Focus first, then the other two.

Fix it in seven steps

Add your monitor app to the Sleep Focus allow list, then turn on Time Sensitive notifications. These are the labels on iOS 26. iOS 16 to 18 use the same path with small wording differences.

1. Open Settings and tap Focus.
2. Tap Sleep. The “Sleep Focus” screen opens.
3. Under “Allow Notifications”, tap the Apps tile. It reads “None allowed” if you have never changed it.
4. Check that Allow Notifications From is selected at the top of the “Notifications” screen. It is the default. The other mode, Silence Notifications From, does the opposite, so leave it alone.
5. Tap Add (the plus button), pick your monitor app, and confirm.
6. On the same screen, turn on Time Sensitive Notifications. It is off by default.
7. Go back to the Focus list and repeat steps 2 to 6 for Do Not Disturb if you use it at night.

Apple’s guide describes the same route: open Settings, tap Focus, choose a Focus such as Sleep, tap Apps, then tap Allow Notifications From and select the apps (Apple Support, 2026). The screen you land on in step 4 says what it will do: “When Sleep Focus is on, notifications from apps you select will be allowed. All others will be silenced and sent to Notification Centre.”

Test it before you rely on it. Turn Sleep Focus on by hand from Control Centre, trigger an alert from the app, and watch for the banner. Many monitor apps have a test button; if not, play a short clip of a baby crying near the device that listens. If the banner appears with Sleep Focus on, the night setup is done.

What the Time Sensitive switch does

The Time Sensitive Notifications switch is a second door. Step 5 lets the app through because it is on the list. Step 6 lets through any alert that an app marks as time-sensitive, even from apps that are not on the list. The text under the switch says so: “Allow apps not in your allowed list to send notifications marked as Time Sensitive immediately.” Apple’s guide matches: “You can also turn on Time Sensitive Notifications, which allows all apps to send time-sensitive notifications immediately” (Apple Support, 2026).

Why do both? Because you rarely know which kind of notification your monitor app sends. If it sends its cry alert as a Time Sensitive notification, the switch alone is enough. If it sends a standard notification, only the allow list helps. Doing both costs nothing and covers either case.

Apple keeps the Time Sensitive level for things that matter right now. Its developer guidelines ask that the alert be about “an event that’s happening now or will happen within an hour”, and they forbid using it for marketing (Apple Developer, 2026). A baby crying qualifies. The level also lights up the screen, which helps when the phone lies face up on a bedside table.

Standard, Time Sensitive and Critical: what each can do

iOS has three notification levels that matter here, and only the rarest one can make a sound on a silenced phone. Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines list what each level can override (Apple Developer, 2026). The table below is that list in plain words.

Level	Breaks through Focus	Overrides Scheduled Summary	Plays sound on silent	Who can send it
Standard	No	No	No	Any app
Time Sensitive	Yes, when you allow it	Yes	No	Any app, with your permission
Critical Alerts	Yes	Yes	Yes	Only apps with an entitlement from Apple

Apple explains the gate: “Because a Critical notification can override the Ring/Silent switch and break through scheduled delivery and Focus, you must get an entitlement to send one” (Apple Developer, 2026). The same page calls such notifications “extremely rare” and says they typically come from public agencies or health apps. A consumer monitor app is unlikely to hold the entitlement, so when an app page promises alerts that “always get through”, check which level it means. For a Time Sensitive app, the steps above are the whole fix. For a standard-level app, only the allow list helps, and Scheduled Summary can still delay it.

The silent switch still wins

No app alert plays a sound while the phone is in Silent mode, unless the app has Critical Alerts. Apple’s guide is clear: “When Silent mode is on, iPhone doesn’t ring or play alerts or other sound effects (but iPhone may still vibrate)” (Apple Support, 2026). The exceptions it lists are Clock alarms, audio apps such as Music, and many games. A notification from a monitor app is not on that list.

So the night routine is: Sleep Focus on, ring switch on, volume up. Sleep Focus already keeps every other app quiet, so you lose nothing by leaving the switch on ring. On iPhones with an Action button instead of a switch, press and hold the button until Silent mode is off (Apple Support, 2026). If you must keep the phone silent, you still get the banner, the lit screen and a vibration, which works for a phone on a bedside table and not for one in a drawer.

This is one place a dedicated monitor differs: its parent unit has its own speaker, and no phone switch governs it. A phone-based monitor that keeps streaming live audio sidesteps the problem in a different way, because a live audio feed is not a notification and keeps playing while the app is open.

Do Not Disturb works the same way

Do Not Disturb is a Focus mode with the same structure as Sleep, so it needs the same two changes. Open Settings → Focus → Do Not Disturb → Apps, add your monitor app under Allow Notifications From, and turn on Time Sensitive Notifications. We checked the screens on iOS 26 and they match Sleep Focus tile for tile.

The same applies to any Focus you have scheduled for the evening, such as Personal or a custom one. Each Focus keeps its own People and Apps lists, so an app allowed in Sleep is still silenced in Do Not Disturb until you add it there too. If a partner needs to reach you while a Focus is on, the People tile has an option to allow repeated calls, which Apple defines as two or more calls from the same person within 3 minutes (Apple Support, 2026).

Alerts arriving late? Check Scheduled Summary

If the alerts do arrive but in a bundle hours later, Scheduled Summary is holding them. Apple describes it as a way to “schedule a notification summary that includes notifications for several apps at once”, set under Settings → Notifications → Scheduled Summary (Apple Support, 2026). Any app you added to the summary waits for the next delivery time.

Two fixes. Turn Scheduled Summary off, or keep it and exclude your monitor app: open Settings → Notifications, tap the app, and under Notification Delivery choose Immediate Delivery (Apple Support, 2026). A Time Sensitive alert overrides the summary on its own, as the table above shows, so this matters most for apps that send standard notifications.

Check the app’s own notification page

The last place to look is the app’s own page under Settings → Notifications. Everything above assumes the app is allowed to notify you at all. Open Settings → Notifications, scroll to your monitor app, and check four things.

• Allow Notifications is on. If it is off, nothing else on this page matters.
• Time Sensitive Notifications is on. Apple’s guide: “If the app supports it, turn on Time Sensitive Notifications” (Apple Support, 2026). This is also where the switch lands if you once tapped Turn Off on the first-time prompt iOS shows for Time Sensitive alerts.
• Under Alerts, Lock Screen and Banners are ticked, so the alert shows while the phone is locked.
• Under Sounds, a sound is chosen, not None.

If every switch is right and the alerts still fail, check the basics: both devices need an internet connection, and many monitor apps need to stay open on the device you watch from. An app that was swiped away in the app switcher cannot listen.

Where Nanuka fits

Nanuka’s cry alerts are Time Sensitive notifications, so the steps above apply to it exactly. They are delivered promptly and can be allowed to break through a Focus mode you have set up. They do not override the ring or silent switch. Keep Nanuka open on the Monitoring Station while you are monitoring, and allow notifications for it when the app asks.

The cry itself is recognised on the Baby Station by an on-device machine-learning sound classifier built for baby cries, and only a small “cry detected” signal travels to the Monitoring Station.

You need two devices: a Baby Station near the crib, which can be an older iPhone or iPad, and a Monitoring Station you keep with you. Both run iOS 16 or later and both need an internet connection. Pairing is by QR code or a short code, with no account.