Notifications, Push & Installing the App

What NiveshBuddy tells you

A lot of what happens in NiveshBuddy happens while you are away. A backtest takes a while to finish, and a simulation moves forward with the market whether or not you are looking. Notifications exist so you don't have to keep checking. They tell you when something is ready, and they tell you when something needs your attention.

They come from four places.

Each of these can reach you by email, by push notification, or both. NiveshBuddy decides which channel each one uses. What you decide is which channels you are willing to receive. That is the next section.

Choosing your channels

Your settings live under Account → Notifications, in a section called Notification Preferences. Its Channels group has three switches. Email Notifications and Nightly Digest are on when you first sign up. Push Notifications is off: push reaches a device only after you register that device and turn push on yourself, as described below.

• Email Notifications: "Receive backtest, simulation and account updates by email."
• Push Notifications: "Get alerts when your backtests complete, simulations encounter issues, or an action needs your attention."
• Nightly Digest: "A nightly summary across both channels, without muting anything else."

Nothing changes until you press Save Preferences. If you flip a switch and leave the page, the old setting still applies.

Some emails are sent whatever the switches say. The settings page lists them: "Failed backtests, failed portfolio edits, simulations that fail to start and simulations paused for want of Simulation credits." Each of these means work you started has stopped. So turning off Email Notifications quietens the routine messages, but it does not silence these.

Turning on push

A push notification is a short alert that appears on your phone or computer even when NiveshBuddy isn't open. Push is off by default for every new account. Nothing is pushed to a device until you register that device and enable push on it. It needs a little more setup than email, because your browser has to agree to it, and the steps depend on the device.

In Settings, the order matters. Ticking Push Notifications is what makes your browser ask for permission. NiveshBuddy only ever asks from that tap, never by itself in the background. Once you allow it, NiveshBuddy registers this device and says so: "This device is registered. Save your changes to turn push notifications on." Then press Save Preferences.

Push is set up per device. Turning it on with your phone registers your phone. Your laptop is a separate device, so it needs the same steps.

On a phone or tablet, there is a shorter route. The Dashboard may show a banner offering Enable notifications. Tapping it asks for permission and turns push on straight away, with no Save needed.

On iPhone and iPad, there is one step first. Apple only lets push work for a site that has been added to the Home Screen. So in Safari, tap Share, choose Add to Home Screen, and then open NiveshBuddy from the new icon. Turn on push from there, not from a Safari tab.

Two things hold on every device. Email still arrives either way, so push is an extra channel, never a replacement. And push messages carry no amounts or names. A notification on your lock screen tells you something is ready or needs a look. The details stay inside NiveshBuddy, where you sign in to see them.

Installing the app

NiveshBuddy runs in your browser, but on a phone or tablet you can also put it on your Home Screen so it opens like an app.

The same Dashboard banner handles this. It appears only on touch devices (phones and tablets) while you are signed in, and at most once per session. Depending on your device, it offers Enable notifications, Install app, or both. Install app puts NiveshBuddy on your Home Screen. On an iPhone, Safari doesn't allow a site to do that by itself, so the banner shows the Add to Home Screen steps instead for you to follow.

If you don't want it yet, tap Not now (or Done). The banner then stays out of the way for 30 days. It is also hidden if notifications are blocked for the site.

There is no in-app install button on a computer. On a laptop or desktop, NiveshBuddy is simply the website, and you turn on push from Settings as described above.

When push stops working

If push notifications stop arriving, the settings page on that device is where to check.

Links in emails, and unsubscribing

Every link in a notification opens the page it is about. A finished backtest opens its Strategy Results, and a simulation opens its Simulation Results. An experiment opens that experiment, and the Nightly Digest opens the Action Center. Payment messages open the payment, Billing or Pricing. If you are signed out, the link takes you through sign-in first and then on to the page.

Every email also carries a one-click unsubscribe link. It works without signing in, which is the point: you can stop the emails from any inbox, even one you rarely use. It turns off Email Notifications for your account — the few emails that are always sent, listed above, still arrive. The page it opens confirms "You won't get NiveshBuddy emails any more" and offers a Manage notification settings button. Use that button if you'd rather switch off some channels than all of them.

An unsubscribe link that has already been used, or has expired, says so: "This link is no longer valid… Nothing has been changed." Your settings are exactly as they were. To change them, go to Account → Notifications.

Common questions

Key takeaways