WhatsApp: How To Fix Delayed Notifications On iPhone

WhatsApp might be one of the biggest messaging services across the globe, but it does have its share of problems. One of them is delayed notifications. Here's how to fix that.

Various users have been complaining about delays in WhatsApp's notifications for some time now. Some of them started complaining about it years ago, while others experienced the issue more recently. Regardless of timing or date, one thing is for sure: users have been experiencing delays in the app's notifications, leading to messages not being read at the right time.

Some iPhone users have complained about the delays as well. In response, WhatsApp has acknowledged the problem and has published a support document to provide some help to users having trouble with the delays.

The social media company, however, said in the document that the “delivery of notifications” in iPhones “is controlled entirely by Apple's Push Notification Service (APNS), and WhatsApp has no way to resolve issues with this service.” It then suggested restoring the iPhone to factory settings to solve the problem.

Restoring an iPhone to factory settings, however, is troublesome and could lead to loss of data. Thankfully, there are some things that iPhone users can do to fix the issue without having to resort to resetting their device.

Set Background App Refresh on

Apple's own support community suggested that users should make sure to enable Background App Refresh. This is done by going to Settings > General > Background App Refresh. This will let WhatsApp run in the background to receive messages.

Check WhatsApp's notification settings

Users should also check WhatsApp's notification settings to make sure that it is enabled. This is done by opening WhatsApp, going to the Settings tab, heading to Notifications and making sure that toggles for Message Notifications and Group Notifications are switched on.

Force close WhatsApp

Users who aren't receiving notifications despite having enabled Background App Refresh should force close WhatsApp then open it again. This is done by bringing up the App Switcher then swiping up on the WhatsApp card to close it. After this, users should relaunch the app.

Check the connection

WhatsApp said the app might not be able to show notifications if there's an issue with the connection. Users should switch from mobile data to wi-fi (depending on what's available) to see if the issue will be fixed.

Restart iPhone

Lastly, users should restart their iPhones to see if it fixes the problem.